Best way to add 4oz ground Hazelnut coffee to Brown Ale without contamination?

[lorne17]

Hello all,

I have 5 gallons of a Brown that is in the primary and ready to switch to secondary. However, I plan to add some hazelnut coffee to it. The catch is, it is already ground and it is only 4oz of ground coffee. How do you recommend I add this to secondary without risking contaminating my beer?

1. Cold brew coffee through our Toddy (how much water should I put in to 4oz of grounds?)
2. Add grounds directly into my hop filter (fine mesh) and just put it in the serving keg or maybe just secondary?
3. Just brew drip coffee in our coffee machine to get it into coffee form and add 4-5 cups of coffee to my beer?

Thanks in advance,
Lorne

 

[jtratcliff]

hmmm... I would think that unless you did something particularly unhygenic with the ground coffee that you could just add it directly... The roasting of the beans should have killed anything on them (lacto & acetobacter, I think are used to ferment the beans prior to roasting)... There's already some alcohol in the beer to to help fight off infection....

If you're still too worried, do a quick, hot steep in a bit of water (not as much as when making coffee to drink) to pasteurize, and then add, grounds and all.... Or soak the grounds in vodka for a day or two and then add, vodka and all...

Or split the batch and try a couple different ways...

Good Luck!

 

[Jayjay1976]

Bake in the oven, 250 for 10 minutes ought to do it.

 

[lorne17]

hmmm... I would think that unless you did something particularly unhygenic with the ground coffee that you could just add it directly... The roasting of the beans should have killed anything on them (lacto & acetobacter, I think are used to ferment the beans prior to roasting)... There's already some alcohol in the beer to to help fight off infection....

If you're still too worried, do a quick, hot steep in a bit of water (not as much as when making coffee to drink) to pasteurize, and then add, grounds and all.... Or soak the grounds in vodka for a day or two and then add, vodka and all...

Or split the batch and try a couple different ways...

Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. Well I already cold brewed it in a toddy. I used 2 cup tap water in a sanitized toddy. Then let it sit with sanitized plastic wrap overnight the dripped it into a sanitized mason jar.

Another caveat is the grounds were freshly ground in sprouts grinder. Not sure how clean that is. Now I have cold brewed concentrated coffee. What should I do to prep it further? Anything?

Thanks,
Lorne

 

[lorne17]

Bake in the oven, 250 for 10 minutes ought to do it.

Good thinking. What if it’s already concentrated cold brew now?

 

[Craigmn]

You could make a tincture in the future and soak it in vodka(or any other liquor for flavor). When I do coffee for my stouts I do bourbon with whole beans

 

[lorne17]

You could make a tincture in the future and soak it in vodka(or any other liquor for flavor). When I do coffee for my stouts I do bourbon with whole beans

Should I not put my cold brew coffee in and get whole beans then? I don’t want to risk contaminating this batch of beer!

 

[Jayjay1976]

Put the cold brew in the microwave, boil briefly then dump it into fermenter while still hot.

 

[jtratcliff]

Doesn't even need to boil, if you're concerned about losing "coffeeness". Just needs to get to 160F or so for a minute or 2...

Google pasteurization temps/times...

Hotter goes quicker, but you can pasteurize at lower temps if you hold it longer...

 

[jtratcliff]

Just saw this post in another thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?posts/8520784

 

[lorne17]

Just saw this post in another thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?posts/8520784

Good find. Thank you!