black malt, coffee, irish moss: Questions

[bottweiser]

I'm planning a partial-mash based on Tim's Irish stout recipe. It calls for 1 pound roasted barley, 1 pound crystal malt, and 1/2 pound black malt. I picked up a pound of each and I don't really want to store the extra half pound of black patent. If I just use the whole pound, how will that affect my beer?

I also like the idea of a coffee stout and I'm thinking of adding half a pound of coffee too. Is it okay to do this in addition to all those grains or should I get rid of something?

Finally, how important is Irish Moss?

 

[Walker]

I would not put a full pound of patent into any batch of beer. it'll have a pretty nasty acrid/ashen taste.

patent is generally used just to add color to a beer, but it does have a relatively unpleasant taste when used in large quantities. I personally have never used more than 1/4 lb in a batch, and even that makes me nervous.

I've made a coffee stout before and liked it a lot. If you are going to add coffee, you might want to consider backing off on the chocolate a little. As stated above, I think there is a WHOLE LOT of patent in the recipe to begin with, so I'd back that off even if I wasn't adding the coffee!

Irish moss is important for clarity, but that's not very critical for dark beers because you likely won't be able to see through this at all.

 

[electric_beer]

Black patent actually has sort of a burnt coffee taste to it. If you used the pound, you probably wouldn't even need the coffee.

 

[bottweiser]

Awesome thanks for the great info. I think I will do the coffee, drop the patent down to a quarter pound or less, and skip the Irish moss. I have some really nice coffee..I just need to do some research into how to boil it. My instinct is to use it like hops: some for the whole boil for flavor, some at the end for aroma.

 

[frazier]

Have you ever tasted boiled coffee? It's awful.

Either add it at flameout, or dryhop with it.

 

[dedhedjed]

Definitely do not boil coffee...it will be way too bitter. I've made a coffee stout with my father's homeroasted beans. You want to crack the beans, but do not fully grind like you would for normal coffee. I used the coffee like dry-hops and it turned out wonderfully.

 

[Walker]

+1 on the 'not boiling' thing.

When I made my coffee stout, I added 16oz of fresh brewed espresso to it.


edit: I wasn't clear on how I added it here. I actually used the espresso as the liquid for my priming sugar solution at bottling time.

 

[Atl300zx]

read up on cold brewing and just add that to ur wort.

 

[bottweiser]

Well I certainly don't want my beer to taste awful. I think I will cold-brew it and add it to the wort after boiling.

 

[JediJoel]

I french pressed some cold brew coffee and added it after the boil. I did 16oz and got a big coffee taste which is what I wanted. I depends on how much coffee taste you are looking for but anywhere from 8-20oz of cold brew coffee is what I have read.