Best way to use coffee beans in a stout

[gerryhz]

So I am a big coffee enthusiast. My favorite coffee brewing methods are the pour-over method and the newly aeropress method. Of course, I grind my coffee beans (purchased from local roasters) every time I brew a cup of coffee.

I do not utilize dark roasts, only light to medium roasts.

My favorite coffee beans seems to be the natural processed varieties from Panama. I know semi-washed and washed processed beans do give you fuller bodies and stronger notes, but the natural processed varieties are more aromatic.

I want to bring that aromatic attribute to a coffee stout.

Here are my questions:

Use coffee beans as an addition to secondary? Or use it in the boil?

Should I use the whole beans, or grind them? If grind, to which size (fine or coarse)?

Anyone who has experience with utilizing coffee beans in their beers, please do advise.

Thank you.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Whole beans, straight into secondary, just like dry hopping. Here's a great writeup:

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/08/blonde-ale-on-coffee-beans-recipe.html

"As with my usual process for coffee beers, I added whole beans loose to the fermentor (without sanitizing them). We pulled a sample after 28 hours, and it already had enough coffee to proceeded with kegging. It’s amazing how much character comes through thanks to the extraction by both alcohol and water. I also find that this technique produces a longer-lasting coffee aroma compared to cold brewing in water alone, although that likely won’t matter too much for this batch."

 

[beernutz]

I got good results by adding ground coffee straight to the keg. I first tried to cold brew about 5 ounces of coffee in 20 ounces of water and add that to a keg but while the flavor was detectable there was little aroma. I then took the remaining 5 ounces of ground coffee, a Mayan low-acid blend, and put it inside a nylon hop boiling bag, which I then put inside another nylon boiling bag and added it to the stout keg.

What a difference! Now I have great coffee flavor and aroma. After about a week in the keg I fished out the nylon bags and put them into a second keg of stout (I usually brew 10 gallon batches) and that coffee has imparted great aroma and flavor to it as well.

 

[Schreiner]

I have not done it myself, but I spoke to the guys at Stillmank Brewing out of Green Bay reciently about their coffee porter (very tasty). They coaresly grind thier coffee and add it directly to the conical after fermentation is complete. They use one pound per barrel.

 

[Roadie]

I always french pressed our coffee additions and added nibs to secondary. On next stout I'm going to add nibs to primary where I hear the chocolate taste imparted is less of a bittersweet chocolate and more semi-sweet and use 4 oz of coffee beans per 5 gallons of beer in secondary as a starting point as I hear that works better.