Adding coffee to Breakfast Stout, help needed.

[ClickClickBrew]

Hi Guys,

Need some suggestions here. Brewing up a Founder's Breakfast Stout clone (recipe) with a twist soon. I'm leaning more towards making it simply a coffee stout, ie sans chocolate, and have a question concerning the coffee addition.

The recipe suggests adding 2 oz of Sumatran coffee at the end of the boil, completing fermentation, then secondary'ing on 2 oz of Kona.

I'm considering upping the amounts to 3 oz each for a bit more punch, creating a cold brewed coffee, and adding it straight to the keg. However I need help on coffee to water ratio for the cold brew. All thoughts and suggestions welcome. Thanks!

 

[deadwolfbones]

Everything I've seen recently suggests that you get the best coffee flavor from using whole beans in secondary (or primary) just before packaging. I'd suggest you do a little more research, but that's the way I would go.

If you do decide to go for cold brew, you want to make a concentrate so as not to dilute your beer any more than necessary. Stumptown recommends a 3:16 ratio for concentrate, using a grind similar to French press (i.e. med-coarse). 16 hours at room temp or 20ish refrigerated. Use filtered or bottled drinking water.

 

[ClickClickBrew]

Everything I've seen recently suggests that you get the best coffee flavor from using whole beans in secondary (or primary) just before packaging. I'd suggest you do a little more research, but that's the way I would go.

If you do decide to go for cold brew, you want to make a concentrate so as not to dilute your beer any more than necessary. Stumptown recommends a 3:16 ratio for concentrate, using a grind similar to French press (i.e. med-coarse). 16 hours at room temp or 20ish refrigerated. Use filtered or bottled drinking water.

ahhh crap, dilution.... dilution had completely slipped my mind. With that in mind I think I might go with the wrap them in extra fine muslin, weigh them down with marbles, and pitch them into "secondary" method. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[couchsending]

2 days is all you need, maybe not even that long. You’ll start to get some serious negative aspects from coffee beans showing up in your beer with too much residence time, notably the awful green pepper aroma.

 

[ClickClickBrew]

2 days is all you need, maybe not even that long. You’ll start to get some serious negative aspects from coffee beans showing up in your beer with too much residence time, notably the awful green pepper aroma.

Thanks for the heads up. I think this is the route I'm going to go. 3 oz of coarse ground Kona, 3 oz of coarse ground Sumatra(maybe something else not sure about Sumatra right now), in separate muslin bags with marbles, added to the fermented during cold crash, pulled after 40 hours. Essentially cold brewing the coffee in the fermenter.

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

Cold brew is going to be a lot smoother and less harsh. Boiling the coffee is going to give you oxidation. I would brew the coldbrew 24 hours before kegging. I use about 4-5 ounces of coarse ground coffee for my 40 oz pitcher and brew cold in the fridge for no more than 24 hours before straining through a paper filter. I think 2 liters of cold brew should be plenty to get started.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Cold brew is going to be a lot smoother and less harsh. Boiling the coffee is going to give you oxidation. I would brew the coldbrew 24 hours before kegging. I use about 4-5 ounces of coarse ground coffee for my 40 oz pitcher and brew cold in the fridge for no more than 24 hours before straining through a paper filter. I think 2 liters of cold brew should be plenty to get started.

This is what I do except I only use about 500mL of water to about 4-5ounces of ground beans in a french press. I filter it and add it to the keg before racking, and the coffee flavor is awesome! As Cantina said, definitely smoother and less harsh...