Founders Oatmeal Chocolate/coffee stout..

Williams 728
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I had one of mine last night and I must say it is outstanding! If this even approaches the original, I see why so many people love it. BYO is right, the coffee flavor is much more toned down than last time i tasted it. I am thrilled and will brew it again regardless of the difficulty.

Regards,
Alan
 
I brewed this on 3-22-09. I plan to primary 4 weeks, transfer to secondary for 2 weeks (add Kona).

My dilema, Keg it and serve it with the stout tap on my kegorator (non nitro).
Or bottle it and let it bottle condition?
 
mine has een in the bottle for 6 weeks and its not ready to drink. If you have a keg you can let sit around for a few months keg it.
 
I brewed this on 3/7/09. Transferred to secondary last night with the Kona coffee. I cold brewed the coffee, then added the cold brewed concentrate, rather than dumping coffee grounds in to the secondary. I had an OG of 1.080, and the gravity has been at 1.025 for the past week. I'm going to bottle condition it for a couple reasons. It would take up a 5 gallon corny for ages (not a session beer)... and I only have a single regulator, so all of my kegs get the same co2 pressure. I think that would overcarb this beer. Tastes really nice now (I also added the first coffee at flameout via cold brew).
 
Placed an order to Northern Brewer for my next 4 brews, including what I need for this one. This will be the next up. Thanks for the thread, some good tips. I'm planning on bottling it, boxing them up and leaving it alone until the fall.
 
I bottled this last night. I filled 48 12oz bottles, and 2 22oz bottles. I poured the last 10oz or so in to a glass and drank it flat.

This is a really yummy beer. I think it is a perfect balance of chocolate/coffee/bitter. I'm really looking forward to trying it from the bottle in a few weeks (with carbonation! w00t!). I highly recommend the cold-brewed coffee additions, though I don't have the real deal to compare it to.
 
For people that used the cocoa nibs as called for (these are just slightly crushed, roasted cocoa beans), did you leave them behind in the kettle after moving to your primary, or did you transfer them? I'm almost wondering if it would be better to save them for secondary with the coffee.
 
A little bit of googlin' says that you may be onto something. A few recipes and respectable sites say you get a rounder, fuller chocolate flavor by using in the secondary. Something about the alcohol extracting the flavor compounds.

Those of you who used cold pressed coffee, did you use the same amount of beans? How much water did you soak them in?
 
I used the nibs. I added them at flameout in the BK with the chocolate, then filtered them out in to the fermenter. The stout (tasted at bottling time) has a really pleasant chocolate/coffee flavor. I was wondering if the high temp at flameout helped extract flavor from the nibs... I fought the urge to add them early, and decided to trust the recipe.

I cold brewed the same amount of coffee grounds and cold brewed them in a french press. I ground them at the grocery store on the coarse setting, intended for french presses. For the cold brewing, I had the grounds in with the water for about 5 hours before pressing them out, and pouring out the concentrate. I'm not sure the exact amount of water I used, but it shouldn't really matter. I would guess about 2-3 cups of water each time I cold brewed. If you don't have a french press you could probably get away with putting the grounds with cold water in a bowl, then pour it through a cone-type coffee filter... I've also heard of people just hot brewing it in the coffee maker, though you might need to use a little more coffee grounds since you'll extract a little less flavor.

My 2 cents.
 
Mad_Milo said:
A little bit of googlin' says that you may be onto something. A few recipes and respectable sites say you get a rounder, fuller chocolate flavor by using in the secondary. Something about the alcohol extracting the flavor compounds.

Those of you who used cold pressed coffee, did you use the same amount of beans? How much water did you soak them in?
Click to expand...

I found similar comments. One person recommended that you soak the nibs in a small amount of vodka overnight, as the higher alcohol content extracts more of the flavorful oils from the cocoa beans. He said he then pours the vodka and nibs into the secondary. Interesting.
 
I'm brewing this tomorrow. I'm still a little unsure about how I'm going to do the coffe addition at the end of the boil. If I just put the loose grounds right into the wort, should I then strain them out on the way to the fermenter? I'm going to ferment this in a bucket so that it's easier to clean and I usually filter out the hops by pouring the cooled wort through a large sanitized nylon pain strainer bag into the bucket. Think it'll be alright to strain the coffee out at that point, or do I want the coffee in the primary?

When I rack to secondary I'll just add the Kona like I would a dryhop and then just rack through a strainer at bottling. So that's no issue.

Thanks for any info. I've never brewed with coffee, so just trying to make it the best I can as I really dig the commercial brew and I'm not the biggest Stout guy.
 
Thanks diatonic. I have a couple french presses - a typical 2-3 cup and a large 4-6 cup. I was just concerned with the OG dilution if one was adding 4 cups of cold-brewed coffee, twice.

I usually cold brew coffee in the summer, as it's nice on those balmy summer mornings when you don't want something hot.
 
jvh, the biggest thing to NOT do with coffee is boil it. That's when you get the nasty diner-flavor coffee. This is why it goes at flameout.

If they end up in the primary, worse case they will continue to flavor-up the beer. They'll probably end up in the yeast/trub in the bottom once things settle down.

Be careful racking through a strainer, as you may oxidize your beer :p The coffee grounds will settle to the bottom as they get waterlogged (beerlogged?) Just be gentle when racking for bottling so you don't disturb them too much. Even if a few get through, they will settle again in the bottling bucket.
 
No french press here, so I think I'm just going to throw them it loose at flameout. Thanks for the info Milo. Yeah, I'm pretty careful when using the big nylon bag or a strainer. I think it'll be alright. Well, I'm off to stop talking about this one and get to brewing it.
 
jvh261 said:
No french press here, so I think I'm just going to throw them it loose at flameout. Thanks for the info Milo. Yeah, I'm pretty careful when using the big nylon bag or a strainer. I think it'll be alright. Well, I'm off to stop talking about this one and get to brewing it.
Click to expand...

I placed the ground coffee beans in a 1 gallon nylon paint strainer and closed it with a zip tie - threw it in a flameout. Even with this I have about 3-4" trub after 3 weeks in Primary.
 
I missed the desired OG by a couple of points. Got 1.075 but was shooting for 1.078. Other than that it went really smoothly. I cut the chocolate up into small chunks for easier melting. Seemed to work fine. Filtered out the coffee and hops with a nylon paint strainer on the way to the fermenter. Seemed to do the job and whatever got through I'll catch on the way to secondary. Aggressively fermenting away as I type this.

Any thoughts on maybe dryhopping with a half an ounce of Willamette when I add the Kona during the final week of secondary?
 
I brewed mine on 3/07/09, and bottled a little over a week ago. I took 2 bottles of it to an Easter family thing yesterday and everyone loved it... it still needs about another week and a half to fully carb up, but it is darn tasty now.
 
gonzo brewer said:
I dryhop a lot of my beers, but this one I would not.
I think the key here is let it age. I'll try to save mine for the holiday season.
Click to expand...

I'm planning on maybe pulling out a few bottles to try them each a month or so apart, just to notice how it changes...but most of it I'm saving for the fall/winter.
 
Mine is very good but the chocolate flavor is very subtle and the coffee is toned way back. This will be a slow drinker but I'm working on it and I haven't given much of this one away:drunk:

I think you will be very pleasantly rewarded at 4 wks or so in the bottle.

Regards,
Alan
 
Well, I've given this away to a few friends who enjoy stouts, and the reviews are very positive. "That is a damn fine beer." "One of the best stouts I've ever had." "Tastes great! Very smooth. I'm impressed."

Plan to brew it again soon in a 10 gallon batch.
 
Diatonic,
If you brewed on 3-7-09, that makes it 6 weeks old. I bet this one tastes better as it ages. Whatsa matter - can't wait???
I have a stuck fermentation at 1.034. My OG was 1.081. I added some Notty and we'll see what happens. If nothing, I'll pitch onto a yeastcake. My first stuck fermentation in 58 batches.

On another thread - let me know how the hophenge turns out. I will brew this after i get some feedback from you.
 
Hey Gonzo,

I imagine it will get better with age, but it tastes fantastic now. I bottled 54 12 oz. bottles, and 10 have been given away or drank. Plenty of it will age. I'm planning to submit it in a contest in July. It is that good.

P.S. My OG was 1.080, and FG was 1.025. It took nearly 3 weeks for primary fermentation to complete.

Cheers!
 
No, Nothing going on with the Notty.

I will pitch onto a yeast cake of 05 after my Chronic finishes primary - maybe this weekend. I'm in no hurry.
 
Which maltster's Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt is everyone using? Munton's, Briess, etc?
 
Anyone thought of using instant coffee? That way you don't have to worry about the grounds. Otherwise I think I might just do the flame-out addition and not do any secondary addition.

I'll probably use chocolate powder as well, it is the cocoa solids from nibs instead of putting any of the oils in the brew.
 
dstar26t said:
Which maltster's Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt is everyone using? Munton's, Briess, etc?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure which I used, it was whatever my LHBS had in stock.

I would avoid instant coffee - just based on the flavor of instant coffee versus brewed coffee. If I had to do it without a french press, I would just put the course ground coffee gounds in a bowl with water for 4 hours or so, then filter it through a coffee filter to get the cold brewed coffee concentrate. Another option I would consider before using instant is to just brew the coffee in a coffee pot and add the coffee.

My 2 cents.
 
diatonic said:
I'm not sure which I used, it was whatever my LHBS had in stock.
Click to expand...

I ask because Muntons Roasted Barley and Chocolate malt are darker than the recipe is specifying (avg of 519°L & 387°L respectfully). Briess Chocolate Malt is dead on at 350°L but their Roasted Barley is only 300°L. I wonder what the author used?
 
dstar26t said:
I ask because Muntons Roasted Barley and Chocolate malt are darker than the recipe is specifying (avg of 519°L & 387°L respectfully). Briess Chocolate Malt is dead on at 350°L but their Roasted Barley is only 300°L. I wonder what the author used?
Click to expand...

Honestly, this beer is so damn dark that I doubt it matters. I could hold a glass of it up to the sun and not see any light through it.

The recipe came from Founders Brewing Company, and was published in BYO magazine.
 
Just ordered the grain to brew this again, but this time I'm bumping up the Pale malt to get closer to 1.095 OG. The first batch has been wildly popular, and I'm wanting to put it a little further in to RIS territory. Will post results when I have them - I'm leaving the rest of the recipe the same, just boosting the pale malt.
 
conpewter said:
Anyone thought of using instant coffee? That way you don't have to worry about the grounds. Otherwise I think I might just do the flame-out addition and not do any secondary addition.
Click to expand...
Not sure if you can find instant with high enough quality to make it worth it.
conpewter said:
I'll probably use chocolate powder as well, it is the cocoa solids from nibs instead of putting any of the oils in the brew.
Click to expand...
I didnt find the nibbs (choped them fine) to be an issue.


I brewed this over 3 months ago and im finding it to be just drinkable now :ban:
 
So I brewed this 2 weeks ago using the 8.3% ABV and 25 IBUs from their website. Changed the recipe in this thread by adding some base malt and reducing the hops. Well, I just checked their website again today and they've redesigned it and now it shows 60 IBUs.
check it
Oh well, it must have been a typo. I'll brew it next time differently.
 
I brewed off the recipe in BYO last weekend with extract. Only got the OG to 1.060, but that will have to do. Any thoughts on what i might have done wrong?
 
I brewed DubbelDach's adjusted recipe, with a few other tweaks courtesy of me screwing up a different recipe's grain bill 9 weeks ago. It went in the keg about 3 weeks ago.

It's f'ing fantastic! I've always loved the original and now I don't have to wait until Fall to get it each year.

I have noticed (and it could be my specific brew) that when cold from the keezer it's very "coffee forward" and it takes a bit of sloshing in the snifter to get it to warm up and show off it's chocolates and malt. But when it does, it's heaven!
 
jyda said:
Did you do a partial boil and perhaps it didn't dilute well?
Click to expand...


Yes, it was a partial boil. I followed the extract with grains recipe in BYO to the T, BUT my local homebrew store did convince me to substitute the dry extract with more Liquid. I might have been a bit short on the total extract but not enough to be off by that much I would think???

Either way its in the primary and the airlock has been bubbling for a solid 4 days. I am anxious to see what the FG will be.
 
Tried my first bottle last night and it's definitely all coffee forward right now. Been bottled a little over a month. Didn't really get to experience the complexity yet, just strong, strong coffee. Good though. If I have a complaint so far it's that the head dissipated really quickly. Hopefully that gets better. Definitely planning on letting the rest of the bottles sit and age a few months. Should be a nice one this fall/winter.
 

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