After reading several forum posts about coffee flavored brews, it appears the best is to add cold brewed coffee. It seems to me adding crushed coffee beans to the secondary would do exactly that. I was thinking of putting crushed or coarsely ground coffee beans in a muslin bag into the secondary fermenter. First of all, how does that sound to others that have made coffee flavored beers, and then how much crushed/coarsely ground beans and how long should I let them soak in the secondary?
Coffee Stout, Adding Crushed/Ground Coffee to Secondary
- Thread starter pavinrb
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I add 12oz of medium-coarse grind in a bag (with a few marbles for weight) for 24 hours before kegging/bottling on my coffee stout.
BlueHouseBrewhaus
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Not positive but I vaguely recall a discussion about possibly extracting tannins and astringency if you put the grounds directly in. I always just do cold brew.
TravelingLight
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Well, I guess if I'm splitting hairs, that's not really "cold brewed" unless you were, I dunno, cold crashing at the same time.
However, your method is basically what I typically do. My last coffee stout I coarsely crushed beans and added them to secondary in a muslin bag. I just put them in a plastic baggie and smashed them until I was happy. IIRC I did about 1.25 oz. of beans per gallon. I let them age for about 19 days and the coffee was where I wanted so I bottled after that.
My friend and I did a coffee porter last weekend on his setup, we put the coarse ground coffee in the hopback. Was a b***h to clean afterward, but the coffee aroma and flavor we got was incredible.
Summers
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The last coffee brunch stout I made I added the crushed beans at flame out for 10 min in a muslin bag, coffee flavor was nice an strong it was perfect for the flavor I was shooting for.
Indian_villager
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It works great. I have had good success with the practice and I currently have a great coffee stout on nitro!
inhousebrew
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I think any of these options listed above will work and you can find which works best for you through trial and error. Whenever I do this I make cold press coffee because I have the equipment to properly make cold press coffee (which I do all summer and it's amazing). That said, a muslin bag should work just fine for you assuming you have a nice coarse crush.
chikincoop
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I always put coffee beans in a muslin bag and smack them with a meat mallet a few times, just enough to break them up. Throw the bag in fermenter for a week or so depending on the flavor I want. No harshness or tanin taste a very easy to do. You do have to use slightly more beans than using ground coffee.
TheMerkle
Well-Known Member
My most recent coffee stout was made using about a half gallon of finished cold brewed coffee in place of the same about of intended sparge water. Sounded crazy when it was suggested to me, but I'll never do coffee another way.
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