Coffee porter

[kevinlassen]

On my fifth bew I'm making a coffee porter. It's in the primary fermentation right now, Saturday or Sunday ill rack it over. Ok adding my coffee beans to it then. My question is, should I crush them or leave them whole and should I soak them in some sort of alcohol to "sterilize" them.

 

[Otterella]

You'll get far more surface area from grinding the beans, and consequently a lot more flavor. I did 3 oz of freshly ground coffee in my mocha stout, and it was intense. It was my first time adding anything at secondary and I didn't think to sterilize it, but I had no problem with it.

 

[kevinlassen]

Thanks. How long did you let it sit in the secondary?

 

[gregfreemyer]

On my fifth bew I'm making a coffee porter. It's in the primary fermentation right now, Saturday or Sunday ill rack it over. Ok adding my coffee beans to it then. My question is, should I crush them or leave them whole and should I soak them in some sort of alcohol to "sterilize" them.

I'm a newbie too, but I did a vanilla bean and cinnamon stick in the secondary on my last brew. The lhbs told me sanitize it by holding it in the steam above a pot of boiling water for a couple minutes. I'd do that before you grind the beans if you can.

 

[yeastforbrains]

I bottled 5 gallons coffee&whiskey stout 2 weeks ago, I milled 200 g. coffee grains coarsely, added to french press, added 5 dl. of 90°C hot water and let it steep until room temp. I then added 2 dl whiskey to the mix and added to bottling bucket. Now, 2 weeks later, the beer is an explosion of coffee, but I get next to no whiskey aroma or flavour. I love the stout, but unfortunately, I'm a coffee freak, and I find the coffee flavour is slightly too dirty and bitter, I extracted too much tannins using this method. I decided next time I would try to sanitize and extract cold instead of hot, by steeping crushed coffee beans in 4 dl whiskey during 24 hours, then add to bottling bucket, to get more of the whiskey/oak flavors and a purer coffee taste from it. I have read input from others praising cold extraction and I believe this will give you the cleanest coffee flavour. Let us know what you end up doing and what results you get.

 

[masskrug]

From what I've read, cold-steeping the coffee for 24 hours will give the "cleanest" results. I'm fermenting a oatmeal coffee stout now and I plan to pour the cold, filtered coffee into the bottling bucket. Since this is my first time, I will add coffee to the second half of the bucket to compare the results.

 

[chungking]

This is definitely something I want to make next, however, when is the best time to add the coffee? Primary, secondary, bottling time? Does it matter? Also, what is "cold-steeping"?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I cold steeped 1 cup of ground coffee in 4 cups of water and let sit in the fridge for a few days I then poured it through a filter into my bottling bucket. Added my priming solution, racked the beer on top and GENTLY stirred NO Splashing. Do not aerate the beer. Then I bottled and it was a good coffee flavor that stood out nicely.

 

[RIC0]

Made a coffee porter in Oct and did this....

2 oz ground coffee added to 30oz of water.

cold seeped in fridge for 2 days

Added cold coffee water without grounds to wort when I pulled it off the flame.

This was a great porter with good coffee flavor up front and loved by all those that tried it.

 

[yeastforbrains]

This is definitely something I want to make next, however, when is the best time to add the coffee? Primary, secondary, bottling time? Does it matter? Also, what is "cold-steeping"?

Cold-steeping means you let the roasted beans (crushed or not) marinate in a cold liquid. Normally sterilized and chilled water, but could also be done in some alcohol to ensure a bug-free result. Steeping is done over several hours of time, the cold liquid will eventually end up being coffee-flavoured. Any aroma or flavour you add to your beer is freshest the moment when you add it, and fades away with time. Add coffee flavour at bottling or kegging stage to "lock" the aroma and flavour in your bottle/keg, and start drinking the beer when carbonation is done to get the freshest coffee aroma and flavour out of it. But by all means, think of coffee like Tasty mcDole thinks of hops and introduce it at every possible moment throughout your brewing process; first wort/mash, boil, primary, secondary and bottling, for the full fledged, seriously complex coffee beer.

 

[RIC0]

Make sure you use some good coffee.

I used star bucks sumatra.

 

[strambo]

For my first try, it was a 2.5 gal batch. I coarse ground 2 oz beans and cold steeped in the French Press in about 2 cups water. I added it at secondary...and had zero detectable coffee flavor.

For the coffee porter I just kegged: 5 gal batch-I ground (a bit finer than last time) 8 oz by weight of beans and cold steeped them in a little over a Qt of water for 3 days, then added when I kegged the beer. It tastes great, good coffee aroma and flavor. For sanitizing I boiled the water I used first and put it in a container that got star-san first.