Adding ingredients to stout during secondary fermentation

[soadtool]

Hey fellow brewers,

Extreme n00b here... just brewed my second beer, Brewer's Best Milk Stout. Except for a minor boilover, all went well. I definitely corrected a few mistakes I made during my first brew. Anyway... to the point!

I want to add ingredients to my stout when I rack to secondary fermentation next weekend. My end goal is a SWEET coffee stout with vanilla undertones. I was thinking of boiling down a pot of coffee to make syrup, adding some lactose and vanilla extract. If I boil all of that together, cool it down to room temperature, then add it to the carboy before siphoning the beer, will that work? Any other suggestions from more experienced brewers?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[phished880]

I would suggest not boiling down a pot of coffee.... Have you ever had a cup of coffee from a gas station that tasted like it was brewed a week before. I would suspect that's what it would taste like.

The 2 ways I have used coffee.
1. Adding coarsely crushed beans to secondary.
2. Adding strongly brewed coffee to beer at kegging.

 

[el_kirk]

I would second the advice not to boil down a pot of coffee. Crushed beans would work. I've actually used whole beans and been pleased with the results, as they're very easy to separate from the beer when you rack off of them. Use less vanilla than you think, a little goes a long way in a beer with that much going on, and the lactose will probably bring out the vanilla a bit more.

 

[soadtool]

Awesome, thanks for the advice!

I'll go with your suggestion of not boiling down a pot of coffee. I'll just toss in 1lb of good beans, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, and 8oz of lactose to the secondary. The other ingredients I was thinking of last night are Kahlua or the Nestle coffee syrup you can buy at the grocery. Any experience with either of those?

 

[jtakacs]

i don't know nothing from nothing when it comes to adding coffee to secondary, but 1 lb seems awfully high intuitively.

 

[phished880]

I used 1/2 lb in my coffee cream stout. I would try to avoid adding everything in the grocery store to one brew. I assume if you are posting here there will be more batches to come, same some ingredients. The flavor will begin to become very very muddled. Good luck

 

[zachary80]

Awesome, thanks for the advice!

I'll go with your suggestion of not boiling down a pot of coffee. I'll just toss in 1lb of good beans, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, and 8oz of lactose to the secondary. The other ingredients I was thinking of last night are Kahlua or the Nestle coffee syrup you can buy at the grocery. Any experience with either of those?

I added 4oz coarsely ground beans to my coffee stout for a week. Tastes like cold coffee and completely masks the beer