Coffee Porter help

[Beer-lord]

I want to make a coffee porter and use cold brewed coffee. I've already decided on the brand I want but I've got no idea how much coffee I need to add nor, how much to cold brew.
What I think is 8-10 oz of finished brewed coffee added to the keg or the end of fermentation should do it but, how concentrated should I make the cold brewed coffee?
I'm still working on a recipe but have a general idea what the recipe will be minus the coffee. As this is my first coffee based beer, I'm relying on what I read and find online.

 

[jigtwins]

I have not tried the cold brewing for adding coffee. I have found that I get great aroma and flavor by doing the following. Here is what I do. For a 5 gallon batch I let the beer ferment until krausen drops, And the gravity is stable. typically 7-14days. I then add 12 oz of whole coffee beans to the fermenter in a hop sack. Let it soak for 5-7 days. Cold crash.Then transfer to keg or bottle. This gives me the desired aromas and flavor. Have done 4 batches like this. I was concerned with contamination but Never had a problem. I get my beans from a local coffee shop fresh roasted. I know this does not answer your question.

 

[Spyk'd]

I make a Cream Coffee Brown Ale that I cold brew 1oz of coffee in a pint of water and add that to the last 15 minutes of the boil.

I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but as I've posted in other areas of this forum; most people want the IDEA of an ingredient and not the actual substance in their beer.

The rest of my recipe emulates coffee so well, I don't need to add a ton of it to get outstanding coffee notes in the beer.

 

[GaBrewZoo]

Modern Times Brewery has their own coffee roaster and sells fresh roasted coffee and he says the best way he has found to use coffee was to put the whole beans in the secondary. Only about 1 to 2 ounces per 5 gallons. Listen to the Basic Brewing Radio podcast from August 6, 2015.

 

[C-Rider]

I've made my Coffee Stout many time and I use 8 oz of cold brewed coffee in 1.9 gallons. You do the math. I suggest not adding it all at once. You have to taste it w/each addition until you get the level you want. Remember you can always add more, but you can't take any out.

 

[slym2none]

I used 2 ounces of med-roast beans, lightly cracked, in 10 oz. of water, cold-steeped overnight, and it flavoured 2.5 gallons of RIS pretty nicely. After 6 months conditioning, I imagine the coffee won't be as pronounced, and I'd say it will be very nice indeed by Superbowl 2016.

 

[Beer-lord]

I appreciate the ideas here and will either do the cold press method or the whole beans.
I'm pretty sure I'm going with an Ethiopian blend since I really like what I've tasted.

 

[slym2none]

From what I have heard, if you taste this after adding coffee, it won't be as strong after conditioning.

 

[Calder]

I've used 1 ounce of whole beans in 2.5 gallons for a week before and got decent coffee flavor, but it does dissipate after a while. I've done that a couple off times. I have one right now with 2 ozs in 2.5 gallons which will be bottled next weekend.

No bags, just toss in the beans. They have been roasted, and have no sugars, so should be clean to just toss in. I use whole beans to prevent coffee fines making their way into the glass. It seems you can still extract the flavors efficiently with whole beans over time.

 

[C-Rider]

I never loose coffee flavor over time adding the cold b rewed to the bottling bucket.

 

[kombat]

I'm actually in the middle of making a coffee porter. It's been fermenting for 2 weeks now, and tonight I'm planning on adding the coffee. I've never done this before, so I welcome any input on my plan. It's a 1 gallon batch, and I'm planning on adding 2 oz of espresso coffee grounds (fresh, from a can) directly to the carboy for the final week of primary, then I'm going to bottle it as normal. Lots of other folks seem to be describing use whole beans though. I expected that after a week, the coffee grounds would settle to the bottom. Am I mistaken? Should I change my plan to go with whole beans instead of grounds? Should I prepare them external to the beer somehow first, or just add them directly to the beer?

 

[Calder]

I'm actually in the middle of making a coffee porter. It's been fermenting for 2 weeks now, and tonight I'm planning on adding the coffee. I've never done this before, so I welcome any input on my plan. It's a 1 gallon batch, and I'm planning on adding 2 oz of espresso coffee grounds (fresh, from a can) directly to the carboy for the final week of primary, then I'm going to bottle it as normal. Lots of other folks seem to be describing use whole beans though. I expected that after a week, the coffee grounds would settle to the bottom. Am I mistaken? Should I change my plan to go with whole beans instead of grounds? Should I prepare them external to the beer somehow first, or just add them directly to the beer?

I have only used whole beans. The beer seems ok at extracting the flavor. I did a little research and it appears coffee beans whole will give up almost the same flavor as ground given enough time.

I think coffee grounds are very light, and apart from taking forever to settle, they are easily disturbed and you may get some in the bottles.

 

[MindenMan]

I used 4 oz of very dark roasted coffee into 1 pint of filtered tap water and left it in the fridge overnight. Not knowing the coffee flavor would get more pronounced over time, I used another pint of water over the beans added to the bottling bucket. A month later, all I could taste was coffee; strong coffee. To me it was nasty tasting, and I likes me some coffee... A year later I found a bottle and it was amazing, I wished there would have been more.

 

[slym2none]

See? It doesn't "go away", it just "mellows & marries" with the other ingredients.

 

[MindenMan]

A member of my HBC makes a coffee IPA that I really enjoy. He lightly cracks the beans and leaves them in overnight. There is no color added using his method, and it is always a big hit at our HB Club meetings.

 

[benzesp]

I did 8 oz of coarsely ground on 5.5 gallons in secondary a while back. Was too much gonna roll back to 4oz and go with a thicker body mash. That should do it.

 

[brennanj11]

I think this is a balancing act between how much alcohol, body, and other coffee flavors you have in the malt (Roasted Barley). The other question is how pronounced do you want the coffee flavor in your Porter.
I would suggest after the primary fermentation is complete, taste your batch and see how pronounced the coffee flavor is from the specialty grains.
This should give you a good starting point.
If you can already taste a slightly bitter coffee and not alot of aroma or flavor and want an extra kick in your face, cold brew 1oz or 2 overnight in a french press and add directly to the bottling bucket.
If you can't taste anything, including no bitter aftertaste, you might want to leave coffee grounds in contact in the primary/secondary longer.
In this case very coarsley grind 3/4 oz of beans and place in a paint strainer bad and put in your fermenter for 5-7 days.

 

[hanuswalrus]

I did 4 oz coarse ground, dark roast local coffee cold steeped for 2 nights in filtered water (I wanna say about 10 oz of water) and then added to the bottling bucket. It was a 3 gallon batch and I thought it turned out very nice. Gives a good, clean coffee flavor and aroma. I like a strong coffee flavor/aroma in a coffee porter so that may be too much if you're shooting for something a bit more subtle. This beer was bottled about 4 months ago and I just had a bottle a couple nights ago. The coffee is definitely still there. This will probably be my go-to method for coffee beers in the future

 

[BigFloyd]

For a 5 gallon batch of porter-

Put 4 ounces of course ground dark roast beans in 20 ounces of cold water in a french press or something else that allows you filter out the grounds. Let that sit on the counter 14-16 hours.

Add the cold brewed coffee at kegging or bottling time. This will give you a nice, mellow and not overpowering coffee flavor to your beer.