Coffee Beers

[Cicada]

As a homebrewer and coffee professional (roastery and cafe) I can say with certainty that Beer and Coffee are the two most important drinks in my life, and I love exploring the intersection of the two.

In conversations with other folks, we've wondered about what kinds of coffee would do best in what beers. I've mostly seen stouts and porters brewed with coffee, but last night had a coffee IPA that was surprisingly good. The malt flavors were replaced

What are yall's thoughts/experiences on coffees and beers?
I imagine most people use darker roasted central/south american coffees, but has anyone ever tried anything lighter roasted or a brighter coffee? How about natural processed vs. washed process?

Coffee brew methods?
Hot brewed or cold brewed?
When do you add it?

Any and all answers/thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks

 

[biestie]

Cold brewed coffee is definitely the way to go in beer. My wife LOVES coffee stouts and porters... I'm kind of meh on them. THIS recipe on the other hand, is something we both agree on and I tend to make it fairly often.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/7455/white-stout/

 

[slym2none]

I've seen a few coffee blondes out lately. Haven't tried one yet, though.

The one beer I have used coffee in was a RIS. I added 4 oz medium-roast, lightly cracked beans to 12 oz water & let it cold-steep over night. Added that to my beer before bottling, and it was definitely a breakfast drink for about 2 months. After that, it calmed down nicely & was just about what I wanted to begin with.

I need to make that again...

 

[Natdavis777]

I love coffee-infused beers. I make a few every fall. I prefer the dry hop method of adding the coffee my my beers though. Both "dry hopping" and cold brewed methods work though.

My last coffee beer was an Amber, and it was pretty solid. A buddy of mine does "Kegs and Eggs" on some Sundays at his brewery. He basically has a brunch and takes his beers on tap, puts them in corneys, infuses coffee, and serves them in a flight with the brunch.

 

[kempshark]

I love coffee stouts and porters. I have had some decent coffee cream ales and blondes. One of the more interesting coffee beers I had was New Beligium Oscar Worthy Coffee.....a coffee sour. I love coffee beers (mostly stouts and porters like I said) and sours, but never thought of the two together. I have to say, it was pretty darn good.....

http://http://www.newbelgium.com/community/Blog/new-belgium-brewing/2015/12/02/this-is-how-we-make-our-sour-beer-oscar-worthy-coffee

 

[WisePrey]

I've seen a few coffee blondes out lately. Haven't tried one yet, though.

I just had a 6 pack of a coffee beer from Goose Island that was a blonde. It was really good, very nice and strong coffee aroma and taste from the beer. Was almost off putting at first, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Also, I just added 8oz of whole coffee beans to a porter that I made a couple weeks ago, was actually just a brewer's best Pumpkin Spice Porter kit that was on sale, I just skipped the pumpkin spices (saving them for later I guess) and changed the hops. I also couldn't help myself, I added an ounce of Northern Brewer to the coffee beans for the dry hop .

I used a locally roasted coffee, I don't actually remember what type of coffee I used, I did write it down though, just not in front of me at the moment.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I love coffee in my stouts and porters. I came across 6 Point CREAM, which is a coffee blonde. It was interesting, but not something I would buy again.

Cold brewed is the way to go. There are two Alabama breweries which have a coffee stout. Good People has their Coffee Oatmeal Stout and Back Forty has their Trade Day which is Cuban Coffee Stout. Both are excellent, smooth, and utilize cold brewed.

I recently purchased Terrapins 4 pack Single Origin Coffee Stout, where 4 different kinds of coffee are used in the same base stout. Very cool concept, but I assume they were all hot brewed since each one had a acrid/harsh taste to it. Of course it could be the base stout recipe (malts are 2-Row, Crystal 85, Flaked Barly, Flaked Oats,Chocolate, Blackprinz, Midnight Wheat, Black, Roasted Barley).

 

[Cicada]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll have to try out these suggestions soon.

That Terrapin selection is pretty much what I'd be looking to try, either from a brewing or drinking standpoint.

I've had both of those Alabama beers (live in Auburn nowadays--The coffee IPA was from Red Clay in Opelika), and really like them both. Have really been digging the Trade Day recently. Will have to try out a coffee blonde when I get a chance, some of my favorite things are coffee, beer and blondes, so surely it can't be bad, right?

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

http://www.beeradvocate.com/mag/10348/coffee-beer-chaser-roasters-gain-ideas-inspiration-from-brewers/

Heres a new article on coffee and beer.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

What are yall's thoughts/experiences on coffees and beers?
I imagine most people use darker roasted central/south american coffees, but has anyone ever tried anything lighter roasted or a brighter coffee? How about natural processed vs. washed process?

Coffee brew methods?
Hot brewed or cold brewed?
When do you add it?

I've good results with a lighter Kona coffee cold brewed and added to the bottling bucket. Haven't tried in in a lighter beer but it gives a very smooth flavor in a stout or porter. I will mash the dark grains late for an even smoother roastiness.

 

[HIM_Tattoos]

Recently did a coffee stout, used a 1lb, 50/50 mix of Ethiopian and Sumatran (for 5 gallon), the Sumatran was roasted a bit darker than normal, but it turned out really good. You catch the darkness in the Sumatran at the end. In hindsight I would have used either a dedicated single origin dark roast, or dedicated single origin light peaberry. I didn't use the cold brew method, ground for French press and made a large pot of coffee on the stove. Again, in hindsight, I should have just gone cold brew method.

 

[pwnshop]

I recently had a coffee quad from kasteel called Barista and it was amazing. I have been looking for a recipe but it seems like no one has cloned it yet. If you are able to find it i highly recommend it.

 

[Cicada]

Had a chance last week at the SCAA Expo (Specialty Coffee Association of America) to attend an exhibit called "Uppers and Downers" which was curated by Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting. Really interesting and well done. They had (mostly) local breweries and roasteries paired to create coffee beers that they were proud of. I had ryes, IPAs, sours, and something else that wasn't super memorable but were all brewed with different methods of coffee-ing.
My favorite and most interesting one was New Belgium's Oscar Worthy Coffee - their Oscar sour racked onto whole bean Ethiopia Yirgacheffe beans. Loved the approach and it was great to taste the way the coffee really mellowed the sour out and brought out some great blueberry and jasmine notes.
Was very interesting to hear the comments of other attendees about how much they loved trying new things and thanking the brewers for not making "another effing coffee stout".

 

[WarmGas]

I made a nice coffee stout (cold brewed into secondary) that my beer-hating wife even praises. One dark and stormy night I was force carbonating this at 40 PSI for 24 hours in the kegerator. The coffee stout keg was sitting quietly next to an already carbed IPA. I thought I'd have a glass or three of the IPA and since I don't have a gas manifold I had to re-connect the gas to the IPA to get it to flow out of the tap.

As soon as I stupidly pressed the QD onto the IPA keg post I fired about a quart of 40 PSI coffee stout directly into my 8 PSI IPA keg. It all happened in a nano-second.

RDWHAHB, right? I tried my accidental coffee-IPA and, well, it tasted like toad ****.