Coffee beans or coffee malt for coffee flavor?

[Cat Assistant Brewery]

I been work shopping some coffee beers and was wonder if you prefer using coffee beans or coffee malt to get the coffee flavor?

I tried using coffee beans couple times and I have never been that impressed with results. I am also finding that the beers with the beans in them don't age very well. Love to hear every ones thoughts on it or how the use it.

 

[palmtrees]

I been work shopping some coffee beers and was wonder if you prefer using coffee beans or coffee malt to get the coffee flavor?

I tried using coffee beans couple times and I have never been that impressed with results. I am also finding that the beers with the beans in them don't age very well. Love to hear every ones thoughts on it or how the use it.

How did you use the beans? Whole? Ground? In the boil or the fermenter?

I have a brew on deck that's attempting to copy a coffee blonde ale I love at a local brewery. They use whole beans in their fermenter, so that's what I'm doing. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Cat Assistant Brewery]

How did you use the beans? Whole? Ground? In the boil or the fermenter?

Fresh ground and been playing around with when add them to the boil. I have tried 10, 5 and flameout while the wort is cooling. But am finding that doing this really brings out all bitterness and after about month beers starts getting this unpleasant old coffee taste. Maybe because I love coffee I am picking up on those flavors more.

 

[jasonlonon]

I used whole coffee beans in a coffee blonde and it was pretty awesome. I used 1 cup of whole beans in a 5 gallon batch, put them in 5 days before cold crashing.

 

[Sam_92]

I agree coffee should be on the cold side, not boiled and whole beans are better that ground. That being said I have liked my stouts better with an equal amount of chocolate malt and roasted barley (8oz of each in 5 gal). I don't think I've enjoyed a homebrew coffee stout as much as an all malt stout.

 

[Golddiggie]

I use coffee (and chocolate) malts to get the coffee flavors in my brews. Most of the time I go for the lighter coffee roast malt. For the chocolate malts, either normal (UK) or the 'pale' version is what I'll use.

I use a combination in both a mocha porter and chocolate stout to good effect. You could try playing with grist percentage of those malts until you get the flavors you want. Don't be afraid to push the normal listed 'max' percentages for the malts. I do that with honey malt in my honey ale and have no complaints.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Cold steeping the coffee of your choice and then dosing to desired flavor on the cold side is another option.

 

[P-chopExpress]

Any time I’ve used coffee in a brew I’ve cold steeped 1 cup of ground coffee in 5 cups of boiled then cooled water over night for around 12 hours then add to the bottling bucket with the priming solution. That’s always given me good results.

 

[mkelly601]

I use coffee malt in my stout and it produces a good roast coffee flavor without the bitterness.

 

[mashpaddled]

Most breweries use whole beans on the cold side. It's easier and grinding isn't really necessary with an extended extraction period. I use 1oz/gal 24 hours before packaging. There are some commercial beers like KBS which use coffee on the cold and hot side. If you're getting old coffee flavor you may be over-extracting the coffee especially if you are grinding and/or using it on the hot side.

 

[Kickass]

I like to roughly crush, not grind but more so break open the bean, then add post fermentation for a few days to the primary vessel. You can research amounts if this is a method you choose to pursue.

 

[MadLuke]

I used coffee once. Cold-steeped 60 g in around 0.5 l for 2 nights, then strained, quicky brought it to boil to sterilize and then into +- 21l batch. Plus f***ton of dark malts. Has really nice coffee edge compared to other stouts where I use f... of dark malts.

I would pay attention to the roast levels. I would not touch anything that passed the second crack (oily surface = bad, for beer or coffee). Probably not too light either (too sour). I would around mid roast levels to get the best aroma.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I like to cold steep all my roasted and dark malts when brewing a stout; coffee would be another adjunct that gives up its flavors without imparting a bitter harshness that requires months of aging to smooth out. IMHO, big stouts can be turned quickly with a bit of planning.

 

[Brewshna]

I've roughly crushed coffee and steeped in vodka. Basically as tincture. Add that before bottling to taste. Works rather well. Last stout had no coffee but dark choc malt and some roast barley, nice light coffee Touch.

 

[Golddiggie]

As I mentioned, I don't use any malts darker than about 500L in my stouts/porters. No harsh bitterness form the grains as a result. Sure, I need to use more of the darker malts I use to get the color you would if using BLACK, but the lack of that bitterness is well worth it to me. Plus, I want the flavors from the malts I use.

 

[Brewshna]

That's a good tip. I'm minimising darker malt on my next stout too. Light chocolate malt it is

 

[Golddiggie]

This is the grist ratios I used for my last batch of my chocolate stout:

This is the coming batch grist:

I'm making the effort to keep the malts used in a batch to as few as possible. Which is why I removed the honey malt from the second (coming up) one.

 

[crazyjake19]

My preference is to add cold brew coffee to the finished beer to the level I want, for coffee flavor. Chocolate malt will add some fresh-brewed black coffee bitterness and depth to the finished beer as well.

Chocolate malt = coffee
Pale chocolate malt = chocolate

 

[Henbrew]

I make coffee brown ales/porters pretty often. I roast my own beans so it's always nice to try them out in my beer too. I just add 2-3oz of whole beans before I cold crash. Less is often more IMO. My last porter I added 3oz and I feel like the coffee overpowers the malt. Still a great beer though.