cold brew vs whole beans vs hot brew

I'm planning on making an imperial brown with coffee in the secondary and am trying to decide between methods of coffee addition. In the past I've steeped whole beans and had a good amount of success. This time I'm making a much larger batch and logistically whole beans don't make much sense.

Is anyone here familiar with the difference in taste between cold-brewed and a traditionally (hot) brewed coffee? My concern with cold brew is sanitation, and a hot brew seems to be the answer to that. On the other hand, it seems like all of the recipes out there use either cold brew or whole/crushed beans, which makes me think that there is a specific reason why traditionally brewed coffee isn't used. I assume the risk is scorching the beans, but I have a pretty reliable temperature control so am not too worried about that.

Any input is welcome! Cheers.

I've used a cold brew for my coffee beers. Someone told me once that hot brew extracts a different bitterness that isn't favorable in beer.

Hot brewed coffee extracts tannins and astringent flavors that cold brew/steep doesn't. You need to decide if it will make much impact to the flavor of the beer.

Cold brew should not present any infection risk. The beans have been roasted, and have no nutrients for any bacteria to survive. You can pre-boil the water if you are worried about that.

My only experience is using whole beans added to the beer - works fine for me.

My favorite coffee beers have been made using one of these to setup the coffee

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040ZR0VS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Super smooth flavor, add it right to the fermenter.