Extracting coffee for stout

[Trail]

I was going to go with the vodka extraction method but the dude at the beverage warehouse sold me on using grain alcohol instead. The closer I get to bottling day though the more unsure I am, so: has anyone used grain alcohol to extract coffee for a breakfast stout? How did it work out? Any regrets?

 

[Leithoa]

When you say 'grain alcohol' do you mean something like everclear or another ~95% alcohol? Unless you buy a designer brand chances are most vodkas are made from grains. Grain alcohol is ethanol and only used to differentiate from wood alcohol, methanol.

I can't see any difference between flavor extractions for 40% vs 95% ethanol. The volume of coffee extract added to a beer won't add any appreciable increase in ABV so it shouldn't matter which you use.

 

[Trail]

It's generic everclear, yeah. Got an "XXX" on the bottle to make sure I know it's rotgut. The state of Vermont made me fill out a form just to handle it.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I don't think I'd use grain to extract the coffee flavor. I would just cold steep the coffee for a few day and filter then use that. I've done it that way for a coffee stout with good results. I think I used 1 cup ground coffee in a quart of water let steep in fridge for 3-4days then added at bottling/kegging time. I would be worried the grain alcohol would extract too much bitterness from the coffee. Just my .02.

 

[bd2xu]

I don't think I'd use grain to extract the coffee flavor. I would just cold steep the coffee for a few day and filter then use that. I've done it that way for a coffee stout with good results. I think I used 1 cup ground coffee in a quart of water let steep in fridge for 3-4days then added at bottling/kegging time. I would be worried the grain alcohol would extract too much bitterness from the coffee. Just my .02.

Same here, cold brewing is just letting Coffee grains steep at room temp for 24 hours and then filtering. A French press works great but anything really. http://www.chow.com/recipes/30487-basic-cold-brewed-coffee

Then just add a little at a time to bottling bucket or secondary until you like the taste.

 

[FRS]

Be sure to sanitize your French press and use boiled/cooled water if you go for the cold brewed coffee method. There are several reports of infections caused by shoddy sanitation at this step in the BYO founders breakfast stout clone thread.

 

[inthesound]

You can totally do coffee in your boil. Adding coffee at bottling seems like a huge potential risk. Throw the coffee in your boil, whenever is fine, but the brewery I work at likes to go with 30 minutes, to try and minimize the potential for anything in the coffee potentially spoiling bottles down the line. We use cold brewed coffee, filtered, then we just try not to pour in any of that sludge that sits on the bottom.

 

[fearwig]

Optimum (hot) coffee extraction is supposed to happen around the four-minute mark. Longer than that (over-extraction) and you're going to get increasingly undesirable flavors that to me taste more like grounds than coffee. I'm sure a lot of that will be lost in the mix of hops and grains, but if you want to get the most "good" and least "bad" that's a commonly agreed target.

Why not make an extra-strong pot and use it hot to dissolve your priming sugar in the bottling bucket? Maybe 2x strength to minimize dilution.

 

[eulipion2]

I did a coffee saison this past summer. I crushed about 1 oz coffee beans and threw them into the fermenter 1 day before bottling. It's months later and I still have a very nice coffee flavor and aroma.

That said, a) for a stout I'd use more coffee, and b) for the sake of racking I'd up the coffee a little and use whole beans.