Brewer's Best Coffee Porter

[TayHoho]

I'll be brewing the Coffee Porter kit from Brewer's Best this weekend. Haven't found a single review of it anywhere. Has anyone tried this kit?

 

[sd38-2]

I just picked up the BB coffee porter kit over the weekend. The owner at my local brew supply shop recommended it and said it's a good beer. I had the same problem as you and couldn't find any reviews online for the kit.

 

[TayHoho]

Glad to hear it came highly recommended. It's bubbling away in the fermenter now, and I'm excited to taste the finished project. Brew day went fairly well...had a boil-over in the last five minutes when I added the coffee grounds. Turned my back for a second to throw away the bag, and then I heard my wife casually say, "Wow, the water level is really high in there!"

 

[TayHoho]

Fermentation has leveled off around 1.014. I tasted the sample, and it's on its way to being a pretty good beer. The coffee flavor is pretty strong right now, but I bet a few weeks of bottle conditioning will mellow out the coffee and bring out more of the chocolate and roast flavors. I'll give it another week or so in the primary and then bottle it.

 

[TayHoho]

Had my first bottle this weekend. That makes 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in the bottle. Not too bad. The coffee flavor is pretty strong...definitely dominates the flavor. I'll be curious to see if it fades and lets the rest of the ingredients shine after a little more bottle conditioning.

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

Not having seen the recipe, how much coffee is present in the beer? I ask because a recipe I made recently used 3oz cold brewed coffee twice (6 oz total): 3 in boil (5 mins) and 3 in secondary. That turned out balanced yet not overbearing. YMMV.

 

[rwyant]

I made a mocha stout based off a Mr. Beer stout(feel free to make jokes, but some of them are decent as proof of concept.), anyway, I boiled 2cups grounds in 1 gal. Water for 20 minutes, the coffee flavor was strong, which is what I was after. I can report however that the coffee flavor never seamed to fade. So what you have will probably stay.

 

[BigFloyd]

If you desire a mellow, non-astringent coffee flavor in a porter, cold brewing and adding at bottling/kegging is the way to go.

If you're looking for a Starbucks-like (more burnt-tasting) acidic flavor, hot brewing or adding it near the end of the boil will work fine.

 

[ike8228]

I know this is old, but does anyone know what is in the ‘Spice Pack’, looking to recreate the recipe but not sure what that is.

 

[JDWebb]

I did this one, came out ok. Used my own selection of medium roast beans, cracked, 3 oz in fermenter, 3 oz in secondary for a week along with 3 oz roasted cocoa beans. Don't put them in the boil, thats where the bitterness comes from, for me it competes with any hops you might use.