Coffe Stout question.

[GPP33]

I brewed Yoopers Oatmeal Stout for my mom for her Birthday. She likes coffee stouts and absolutely loves coffe. She's a fan of Starbucks, but only the straight nasty thick black stuff. I hate coffee and generally will grab something other than a Stout, though I can appreciate a good one.

So last night I tapped it for her. We started with just the Stout which was actually really good. Yoopers nailed the description being not "too". Personally I could taste a ton of coffee in it but my mom couldn't. After dinner I put 3oz of bottled Starbucks cold brew in a keg then transferred 3 gal of the Stout into it. Poured a sample and all I get is coffee, my mom still can't taste it (though she had just finished a real coffee). I thought I had read 4oz is perfect for a 5gal batch but looking back it was 4oz of coffee grounds, plus all the water. I was reading about people adding a couple of cups of cold brew and here I am overwhelmed by my 1/3 cup. I'm afraid to add more but it sounds like I'm still way below where I need to be.

So is the Starbucks cold brew crazy strong, I'm I getting too much due to the coffe flavor from the Stout and from the coffee or am I just a coffee wussy?

 

[friarsmith]

The stout will have enough coffee when you, err your mother says it has enough coffee. So try adding 4-8oz more. Perhaps she's really wanting the astringency or acridness in a cup of black coffee in her beer. No amount of cold brew will give your beer the bracing aspect of that first cup of black coffee in the morning, but you wouldn't appreciate that now, would you

You might also try testing various quantities of dispensed beer and coffee to get the desired proportion. My guess is that your mother will want 25% coffee

There are eleventy-hundred ways to add coffee to a beer. My favorite is a 16oz cold brew addition to a 5gal keg at time of kegging, and that provides a "soft but distinct" coffee flavor w/o astringency for my taste threshold. UK Coffee Malt really bolsters any "real" coffee additions, in my experience too.

I'm sure yooper's recipe is great. FWIW, this is the grist for my go-to cold brew American Stout. Usually flowing on nitro in mid-February in these parts...

6 gal @ 1.066 OG
11 lb United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale
1 lb German - Munich Light
0.6 lb United Kingdom - Crystal 50L
0.6 lb United Kingdom - Extra Dark Crystal 160L
0.5 lb United Kingdom - Roasted Barley
0.5 lb United Kingdom - Chocolate
0.5 lb United Kingdom - Coffee Malt
1 lb Flaked Barley

 

[C-Rider]

First brewing.....I add 4 oz of Cold Brewed 10% Kona coffee per gal when I do a coffee stout.

Second StarBucks....I've tried their coffee straight and it's JUNK....Sure if you cover it's flavor w/lots of cream and sugar than almost anything can taste good. Coffee Bean and Tee is not bad black, same for Dunkin Donuts. My daily coffee is almost anything 10% Kona coffee straight. I do about 2 cups each morning. LOL

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I love coffee and recently made a coffee stout with homemade cold brew. I definitely can taste the coffee in my beer and it is not subtle, but not coffee forward to me. I used 3 oz. coffee with 12 oz. water. So that comes to 10 oz. of strong cold brew in my 2 gallon batch. Scaled up, that is 25oz. cold brew made from 7.5 oz. coffee grounds and 30 oz. water for a five gallon batch.

 

[GPP33]

See you guys are saying you're using way more coffee than I did.....must just be that I think the coffee ruins the beer so I'm having a hard time convincing myself to add more.

I was planning on spiking a pint to see how much she wanted but with 3oz in 3 gallons I'd need to put .09oz in a pint which I have no way of accurately measuring.

Maybe I'll add a half ounce which would equate to about 16oz in the keg and see how that goes.

 

[Calder]

I toss 2 ozs beans in 5 gallons and leave for a week, and find it good for me. No need to crush the beans, coffee gives up its flavor very readily. No eed to sanitize if straight of a fresh pack. Using whole beans makes it easier to remove.

From the sounds of it, your Mother may need more than 2 ozs. Put beans in a bag with some marbles or other weight and suspend in the keg, and see how it goes.