coffee, Coffee, COFFEE!!!!

I want to make a silky Coffee Stout and am trying to piece together some recipes. I've heard suggestions of adding maltodextrin at the end of the boil for a silkier mouthfeel, is this a good idea?

I'm planning on using a sweet stout base, should I add lactose? If so, how much?

Also, I've heard of boiling and dissolving the grounds right into the wort, adding fresh brewed pots of coffee, adding espresso shots, etc...what is the best way to impart a distinct coffee flavor to a stout without over/underdoing it?

Thanks!
:rockin:
J

Kaazmar, great minds think alike, I just brewed a dark sweet stout this past weekend and am going to add some coffee to it soon. I'm a rookie to home brewing but after searching and reading a dozen or so coffe recipes it seems that cold steeping the grounds for 24 hours gives good results without as much bitterness that hot brewed coffee adds to the beer. I'm going to cold steep at room temp two cups of coffee for 24 hrs. and then add it to the secondary to condition for about a week or so. There are many ways to do it but this way seemed like it would deliver the cleanest coffee taste and that's what my LHBS guy recommended. I also added 2 ounces of semi sweet bakers chocolate to the wort with the malt, maltodextrin, and milk sugar that came with the kit. I'm attempting to make a mocha stout, we'll see what happens. Just remembered that a couple recipes mentioned that if coffee is added to the wort that it should be added during the last 10 minutes of the boil. This might be a safe bet also. Let me know what you end up doing and how things turn out. I'll do the same. Happy Brewing.

When do you add the maltodextrin? The last few minutes of the boil?
Also, when do you add the milk sugar/lactose?

I also want to add cardamom and go for a Turkish Coffee Stout, this is partially why I wanted to dissolve espresso-grade grounds into the wort like some recipes suggest to get that full, grounds-included Turkish quality! :cross:

My concern with that is that not much coffee flavor would actually be imparted, and it might just overboil the grounds and burn out the flavor. Maybe I'll try a combo and add a small amount of espresso-grade grounds near the end along with some coffee...cold brewed sounds like a good idea. I'm also really not sure how much actual coffee to add. I guess it's all about experimentation. As a new homebrewer, I'm learning that there aren't many rules in this hobby, everyone does everything differently!

I'll post my results on the forum when it's done. I've got a Pumpkin Spice Ale al bottled now, sampled one at 2 weeks, tastes pretty good, went for hoppy start w/sweet finish, seemed to turn out (Mt. Hood rules), so 2 more weeks in the bottle and I'll celebrate.


J

Haven't brewed one. Of the recipes I read the one that "sounded" best was adding ground up coffee beans at flameout and leaving the grounds behind on the floor of the primary in 3-5 days. OG was up over 1.100 IIRC.

best of luck.

Kazmaar, the sweet stout kit that I purchased from my LHBS instructed me to add the maltodextrin and milk sugar with the malt at the beginning of the boil. Your idea of adding cardoman sounds really good, I'm new to the game but I'd say start with a small amount of coffee and cardamon and then increase the amount next batch if needed. Most of the recipes I have seen suggest adding 2-4 cups of brewed (hot or cold) coffee. It's all up to you, if you want an espresso taste you may want to go for more coffee or just add some espresso to the secondary. Let us know how things turn out. I'm getting ready to bottle my first batch of Nut Brown Ale this weekend and will have a hard time waiting for the bottle conditioning.

You can add maltodextrin whenever you want. If you really want to make it "silky", you can add real chocolate. My chocolate-coffee stout had 8oz of unsweetened baker's chocolate added to the boil, plus 6oz of maltodextrin. I used a pound of roasted barley, and half a pound each of chocolate malt, brown sugar, crystal 10L and molassas.

I went a little short on my post-boil volume, then I brewed 12 cups of drip coffee and cooled it. I added this to the primary fermenter, then strained the wort on top of it. I made it a long time ago, but it's still one of my best recipes...and it was my last extract batch!

I highly, HIGHLY discourage adding grounds to the beer. If you've ever had Bell's Java Stout, you can see what happens. It gets a harshness, a sort of cardboardy, "old stale coffee grounds" kind of taste to it, which I really dislike. By adding brewed coffee or espresso instead (not to the boil---to the fermenter), you really get the right coffee flavor. I recently made a clone of Lagunitas' Cappuccino Stout, and the recipe had me adding 3 or 4 oz of brewed coffee to the secondary. I went with espresso, but yeah...it turned out well, I think.