Critique/advice wanted for a Coffee IPA: "Wake and Hop Coffee IPA"

[Juno_Malone]

I had the pleasure of visiting Rogue Brewing's operation in Newport, OR a few months ago (if you are ever anywhere remotely near there, do yourself a favor and check it out - they have an awesome setup going there), and I fell in love with their Cold-Brew Coffee IPA.

They give a few hints as to the recipe on their webpage here. Malts: 2-row, "Rogue Farms Risk & Dare Malts", Crystal 40L, White Wheat, Rolled Oats, Kiln Coffee Malt. Hops: Rogue's proprietary "Liberty, Rebel, and Freedom hops", and Simcoe. Cold-brewed coffee, and Pacman yeast. 7.5% ABV, 82 IBU, 28L (although there was no way it was that dark when I poured it - looked more like a moderately amber IPA, maybe 8-10 SRM?).

I haven't been able to find much info about the proprietary Rogue malts/hops, so here's the recipe I've built so far. Any and all critiques/comments/advice welcome.

Wake and Hop Coffee IPA
Brew Method: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.4 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.2 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.056
Original Gravity: 1.073
Final Gravity: 1.017
ABV (standard): 7.32%
IBU (tinseth): 83.2
SRM (morey): 13.4

FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (76.2%)
1.5 lb - American - White Wheat (9.5%)
0.75 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.8%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Coffee Malt (3.2%)
0.5 lb - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (3.2%)
0.5 lb - Flaked Oats (3.2%)

HOPS:
1.5 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 65.87
1 oz - Northern Brewer, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.8, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 9.55
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 7.78
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Aroma for 0 min
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Aroma for 0 min
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Whirlpool for 15 min at 180 °F
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Whirlpool for 15 min at 180 °F
1.0 oz - Centennial, Type: Whole Leaf, AA: 10, use: Dry Hop for 7 days

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.5 tsp - Irish Moss, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
0.25 tsp - Fermax, Time: 10 min, Type: Other, Use: Boil
3 oz - Cold Press Coffee, Type: Flavor, Use: Bottling

YEAST:
Wyeast - Rogue Pacman 1764
Attenuation (avg): 75%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temp: 60 - 72 F
Fermentation Temp: 66 F

NOTES:
Mash at 152F for 60 minutes. Cold brew coffee night before bottling; add pressed coffee to bottling bucket along with priming sugar mixture before racking beer on top.

EDIT: Found out the other LHBS in my area has coffee malt, so I updated/tweaked the grains to include 0.5# of that.

 

[saltymirv]

I think you're onto something. I don't have much to add, but here's a great article on a blonde ale that was "dry beaned" with coffee beans: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/08/blonde-ale-on-coffee-beans-recipe.html

You might find some value in it

 

[Juno_Malone]

I think you're onto something. I don't have much to add, but here's a great article on a blonde ale that was "dry beaned" with coffee beans: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/08/blonde-ale-on-coffee-beans-recipe.html

You might find some value in it

Thanks, that was a really interesting read! I might try that method as it sounds like I'll still get a good bit of coffee flavor, without darkening the brew too much. I'm surprised he only left the beans in the beer for one day before kegging; do you think you risk off flavors if you leave coffee beans in beer longer than that?


EDIT: Found this in the comments:

"Brewed this recently with a 75% pils, 20% wheat and 5% golden naked oats grain bill and the same coffee you did. Have to say it was delicious and the keg went quick. Coffee aroma was strong, but coffee flavor was very mild. Next time I think I will give the coffee 2-3 days instead of 1. Thanks for sharing your recipes!"

I'll probably end up doing the same.

 

[Juno_Malone]

I lowered the Coffee Malt from 0.75# to 0.5# in order to lighten the beer's color, as I think the coffee beans will darken it up a bit and I don't want this to get too far in to the amber range. Should I maybe dial it back even further to 0.25#? I'm not sure if I'll be really getting much of anything from it at that amount though.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Update: I ended up brewing this a few weeks ago according to the recipe in the original post. Added the dry hops ~4 days ago, and I just added 2oz of whole bean coffee. Planning to bottle on Sunday.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Bottled this today. The gravity sample tasted fantastic, and really similar to the Rogue coffee IPA. Same color too. Really excited to try one of these when they're carbed up.

 

[saltymirv]

Keep us posted!

 

[shotputman]

So how did this turn out? I've attached a picture of my brew that we did today with your inspiration!

We are going to add 4oz of cold roast coffee at kegging

 

[jwm1485]

How did it turn out?

 

[christyle]

Interested in the outcome as well. I'm slightly surprised at the late hops and dry-hops. I'd think they'd be excessive in this beer. It seems like the beer is just a good initial bittering and then coffee as the finish as far as flavor goes. It's been awhile, but that was my thoughts having this. I really like the Mocha IPA from Stone too, more so actually.

 

[Juno_Malone]

Sorry everyone, I completely forgot to post a final result/update! The final recipe looked like this:

I think after all the tweaks, the final recipe was:

Wake and Hop Coffee IPA
Brew Method: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.4 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 7.2 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.056
Original Gravity: 1.071
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 7.9%
IBU (tinseth): 83.2
SRM (morey): 13.4

FERMENTABLES:
12 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (76.2%)
1.5 lb - American - White Wheat (9.5%)
0.75 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.8%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Coffee Malt (3.2%)
0.5 lb - American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (3.2%)
0.5 lb - Flaked Oats (3.2%)
Mash at 153F for 60 minutes.

HOPS:
1.5 oz - Magnum, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 65.87
1 oz - Northern Brewer, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.8, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 9.55
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 7.78
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Aroma for 0 min
1 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Aroma for 0 min
1 oz - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Whirlpool for 15 min at 180 °F
0.5 oz - Simcoe, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.7, Use: Whirlpool for 15 min at 180 °F
1.0 oz - Centennial, Type: Whole Leaf, AA: 10, use: Dry Hop for 7 days

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.5 tsp - Irish Moss, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
0.25 tsp - Fermax, Time: 10 min, Type: Other, Use: Boil
2 oz - Whole Bean Coffee (Guatemala Atitlan "Monja Blanca" single-source light roast), Time: 5 days, Type: Flavor, Use: Secondary

YEAST:
Wyeast - Rogue Pacman 1764
Attenuation (avg): 75%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temp: 60 - 72 F
Fermentation Temp: 66 F


It turned out really well, but I think I'd do a few things differently next time:

• I'd probably leave the coffee malt and the flaked oats out entirely. The beer ended up slightly darker than I wanted it to be, and I didn't notice the flaked oats at all. So I'd simplify the grain bill to just 2-row, wheat, crystal 40L, and carapils.
• The Pacman 1764 went crazy and finished at 1.011, so I ended up with a much stronger beer than I was hoping for. I might adjust the grains next time to bring this down to maybe 6.7% ABV or so. But I'll stick with the Pacman yeast in the spirit of cloning the Rogue beer.
• Maybe cut the Magnum down to 1oz? Rogue lists their Cold Brew IPA at 82 IBU, so I used 1.5oz Magnum to bitter to help reach that number. But I feel like it was just a little too much, to where it was clashing with the coffee.
• This was the first time I've tried the method of just adding whole coffee beans to the carboy a few days prior to bottling. It worked well, but I think it'd be interesting to brew this one again but split it in to two 3-gal carboys. From there, I'd use the whole-bean dry-hop method with one, and the cold-brew bottling bucket addition on the other. Just to see how they match up side by side.