Cream Stout, Additions Help?

[WileECoyote]

Hello, Im going to be brewing my 2nd beer tomorrow, its a Cream Stout kit from Midwest, I would like to do some additions, they are 1lb dark brown sugar, cocoa (no idea how much) and coffee (no idea how much) or when to add ether cocoa or coffee.
Thinking of liquifying sugar and cocoa adding at 10min to flame out, coffee add 1 min to flame out or at flame out, ether in grain bag or pre brewed.

I figured out the coffee (I think lol) 1 cup coffee to 3 cups water cold brewed for several days, strained then added to secondary fermenter.
Dose this sound ok?

I would like the outcome to be like if you took a Guinness altered it to be a bit less bitter, a bit sweeter, with more caramel, more chocolate, and coffee flavors.

the ingredients for this recipe include: 6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract, 8 oz. Lactose, 8 oz. Black Malt, 8 oz. Caramel 80L specialty grain, 1 oz. German Northern Brewer bittering hops, yeast
Yeast was upgraded to the their better dry yeast.

Richer and creamy'r more flavorful then Guinness is all a plus.

Any suggestions on amounts and when to add would be much appreciated.

Will my additions produce the outcome I am looking for?

Thanks
WileECoyote

 

[bniesen]

post the entire recipe so we can get a better idea where to start

 

[WileECoyote]

post the entire recipe so we can get a better idea where to start

This is a copy paste from midwest's order site, hope this helps.

If you did not have your grains crushed in our store then use a rolling pin or an
empty beer bottle to lightly crush the grains. Next, put the crushed grains into the muslin boiling bag. Add a minimum 1.5 -2 gallons of tap water to your pot. If you have a larger pot and can boil a larger volume do so. Boiling a larger volume will result in better hop utilization, less darkening of the wort and better tasting beer. REMEMBER: Boilovers are messy – be sure to leave a gallon or two of headspace in the kettle. Turn your heat to high and let the temp come up to about 155°F. Place the muslin bag with grains into the kettle and let steep at ≈ 155°F for 15-30 minutes. You'll need a thermometer for this stage. If you don't have a thermometer don’t worry, just make sure you don't boil the grains. After steeping, remove grains, give the bag a gentle squeeze and either discard the grain bag or rinse and save for future use. Crank the heat up to high and bring the steeping water up to a boil and then remove from heat.
With the kettle removed from the burner, add the Lactose and malt extract (some kits
contain liquid (LME), dry (DME) or both). Make sure to stir the water so the malt extract does not scorch on the bottom of your pot. When the extract is fully dissolved, return the kettle to the burner. As soon as you see a boiling bubble add 1 oz Northern Brewer bittering hops and boil 60 minutes for optimal hop utilization and bittering. Hops can be added directly to the kettle or placed in a nylon boiling bag (Catalog #6300) in order to keep hop sediment out of the fermenter. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POT UNATTENDED! Boil-overs are messy and should be cleaned up immediately. Traditional Cream Stouts do not use aroma hops. Finish the boil and remove the pot from the burner.
**Check out our FAQ at www.Midwestsupplies.com for some tips on improving your beer with late extract additions, full boils and alternate steeping methods.***
2. Cleaning and Sanitation
3. Steeping Grains
4. The Boil
5. Cooling and Aerating the Wort
Methods of cooling wort:
1. You can set your brew kettle (sanitized top on, if available) in a sink full of ice stirring the wort with a sanitized spoon every 15 minutes. 2. You can use ice as part of your top up water (8 lbs. of ice is approximately 1 gallon of water) 3. THE BEST: Use a wort chiller immediately after boiling. The faster you cool the wort and add the yeast, the less chance you'll have of any contamination. The temperature must be below 80 before adding the yeast. ***A water saving tip: Instead of running the cooling water down the drain, collect it in a clean bucket and add it to your washing machine for a load of laundry***
Pour the cooled wort (Pronounced "WERT") into the primary fermenter and top up with water to just over the 5 gallon mark. Make sure you have cooled your wort below 80 degrees. If you want to take a hydrometer reading, do it now. Do not return any samples back to the fermenter. At this point you need to aerate the wort. You can stir vigorously, pour back and forth between two sanitized buckets or try one of our aeration systems to inject oxygen into the wort. Yeast need oxygen in order to do their job, so try not to skip this step.
If you are using dry yeast, you can re-hydrate the yeast in luke-warm water (90-
100 degrees), let it stand for 10 minutes and pour into the wort, or you can just sprinkle the dry yeast over the top of the beer. If you are using liquid yeast, follow the directions on the packet. Approximately 1-3 days after adding the yeast you should start to notice a healthy fermentation taking place. A head of foam (called krausen) will have formed and CO2 should be bubbling out of the airlock (half filled with water!) If your fermentation is over active and comes out of the fermenter, clean it up using a towel soaked in sanitizer. After 5-7 days of fermentation, transfer into a glass carboy. If you are using a single stage fermenting system, then leave the beer in the fermenter for two weeks total.

Thanks
WileECoyote

 

[WileECoyote]

Please Anyone? its brewing day, Help.

 

[WileECoyote]

The Cream Stout is done, it was a great time brewing, and it taste so good I couldn't believe it, I added 1lb dark brown sugar to the boil right off the bat, and only went with 1/2 oz of the hops to compensate for the bitterness of the 1/2 cup of cocoa I will be adding to the secondary fermenter along with cold brewed coffee, still not sure how much coffee, but ill figure it out , I am getting my technique down much better, I felt much more relaxed brewing this time, after pitching yeast I let it sit for 1 hr at 80 deg, then cooled it down in a swamp cooler to 66 deg, where it is now, yeasties doing their thing.

Im hoping it taste as good after fermentation as it did right after cooling the wort today

Thanks
WileECoyote

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, tomorrow I will be transferring to a secondary and doing my additions to this batch, my first additions to the fermenting stage of a brew, then only 1 more week to bottling, I cant wait.

Thanks
WiliECoyote

 

[joyceman]

I just did a Midwest Stout a couple of weeks ago. I added some matlodextrin and lactose in the boil, and added some coffee and hazelnut in the secondary. I still have a week or so in secondary before bottling, so no idea how its going to turn out yet.


As to coffee in stouts, ive tended to go light with around a cup or so of cold brewed in the secondary. I've heard some people discussing steeping the beans in the wort in secondary, but havent tried it myself.

 

[WileECoyote]

As to coffee in stouts, ive tended to go light with around a cup or so of cold brewed in the secondary. I've heard some people discussing steeping the beans in the wort in secondary, but havent tried it myself.

Thanks joyceman, That gives me a starting point on my coffee addition.
The cold brewed coffee is waiting in the fridge.
How much flavor comes through with adding 1 cup to the mix?
I would like to have a definite coffee taste, but not over powering.

Thanks
WiliECoyote

 

[joyceman]

With 1 cup I got a light coffee flavor. There was a definite bitterness from the coffee, but it wasnt overpowering. To my taste it was the perfect amount, but I generally dont like an overly bitter stout. I think the sweetness from the lactose helped balance it nicely.

I get the impression that you could go over 1 cup without unbalancing the flavor depending on your taste.

 

[WileECoyote]

With 1 cup I got a light coffee flavor. There was a definite bitterness from the coffee, but it wasnt overpowering. To my taste it was the perfect amount, but I generally dont like an overly bitter stout. I think the sweetness from the lactose helped balance it nicely.

I get the impression that you could go over 1 cup without unbalancing the flavor depending on your taste.

joyceman I took your advice and went with (secondary additions) 1 cup of cold brewed coffee extract, also added 4oz cocoa powder and 2 vanilla beans split lengthwise and cut into 1 1/2" long pieces, the hydrometer sample tasted great, a bit more than a hint (almost the right amount) of coffee/chocolate flavor.

I will taste again after 7 days, right before bottling and if the coffee or chocolate isn't quite enough (vanilla beans should enhance), I will do another addition and bottle it.

Thanks
WiliECoyote

 

[suzanneb]

when you say 1 cup of coffee. do you mean a cup of coffee. or do you mean you took a cup of ground coffee and steeped it in 3 cups water and added all the liquid from that? or just one cup of that?

 

[WileECoyote]

when you say 1 cup of coffee. do you mean a cup of coffee. or do you mean you took a cup of ground coffee and steeped it in 3 cups water and added all the liquid from that? or just one cup of that?

Hello suzanneb, what I did is cold brewed a batch of coffee using 1 cup of ground coffee, 3 cups of water, put them in a glass canning jar, shuck the bajeebass out of it, put in fridge for 24 hrs, then strain out 1 cup of the liquid and then put that into my secondary right before transferring my beer to it.

It did add some coffee flavor to the brew.

Thanks
WiliECoyote

 

[suzanneb]

hi
just wondering how you got to that ratio. why use 3 cups of liquid and only put one cup into the brew. was there more than 1 cup of liquid in the jar.

also you added to secondary fermenter correct. did you have to boil it to sanitize first or anything like that??? how long did you leave it in the secondary to get the flavor intergrated or does it integrate instantly.

 

[joyceman]

I didnt boil the coffee when I put it in secondary. I was afraid boiling would make the coffee more bitter/sharp. Probably chancy, but I figured the coffee had a high ph and the beer was 5-6% alcohol at this point. The chance of an infection seemed low.

My 1ts stout was in secondary for 2 weeks. My 2cd is on week 1 of an anticipated 2-3 weeks.

 

[WileECoyote]

hi
just wondering how you got to that ratio. why use 3 cups of liquid and only put one cup into the brew. was there more than 1 cup of liquid in the jar.

also you added to secondary fermenter correct. did you have to boil it to sanitize first or anything like that??? how long did you leave it in the secondary to get the flavor intergrated or does it integrate instantly.

Hello suzanneb, I didn't come up with that ratio on my own, I read it somewhere, I have read so much on brewing in the last 2 months that I cant remember where, at 1 cup of coffee grounds and 3 cups of water, there is some left over after you filter out 1 cup, I guess you could cut it in 1/2 so there is no waste, but it might fall short a bit? (not sure)

The reason for the cold brew extraction is less coffee bitterness, if you boil the mix it will become more bitter, so it went into mine cold too, and I also added cocoa and vanilla beans.

Mine will be in the secondary for 1 week, then bottled, this can change if the vanilla flavor has not been extracted enough to help mellow the cocoa out, (its just a best guess taste thing for me) depending on how you want your brew to taste, the coffee flavor dose integrate instantly.

Hope this helps
WiliECoyote

 

[WileECoyote]

Update, it was 2 weeks in the secondary then into the bottles, also the coffee flavor was a bit week so I added 1/2 cup more coffee extract after 1 week in secondary, tasted at bottling and should have added 2 cups of coffee extract at time of transferring to secondary.

Thanks
WhiliECoyote