Peace Stout Kit: Coffee Stout

[RandallFlag]

Hey gang. I have made about 15 to 20 batches of beer (AG & Extract) and I pretty much have my process down to a level that produces quality beer. However, I made a Peace Stout Kit that was sent to me by the good folks at Northern Brewer for free for ordering some dollar value's worth of stuff. I appreciated it immensely since I love coffee stout.

Ok, here's the question. The beer came out tasting great, smelling great, properly carbonated after 3 months in the bottle. However, it has no head. Node. Nada. Zilch.

What would be the most likely culprit for this? I've never experienced this before.

Thanks.

 

[RM-MN]

Coffee beans contain oil. Oil will kill the head on your beer.

 

[RandallFlag]

Coffee beans contain oil. Oil will kill the head on your beer.

Thx. That's very interesting. So how do they do it in a "real" brewery as all the coffee stouts I have had generally have a decent head on them? I'm wondering if they add cold brewed coffee to the fermentor since it has considerably less oil extraction.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I actually recently brought a home-built knockoff of this recipe to one of our local breweries to talk about the lack of head. In their coffee stout/porters they have started using cold brewed coffee as a post-boil addition instead of dumping grounds into their whirlpool. I think he said about 1/2 growler of cold brew in a 5 gallon batch, but I could be quoting that incorrectly.

Either way, by steeping cold you will knock quite a bit of the oil out of the coffee and should be able to get better head retention.

I just renamed mine "The Married Man's Stout" and now everyone gets a laugh when they pour a pint.

 

[christyle]

I just renamed mine "The Married Man's Stout" and now everyone gets a laugh when they pour a pint.

Took me a second....

When I made a coffee milk stout, I put I think 2oz by weight of coffee grounds in a French press with like 16oz cold water or something, and added it after bottling the first half of my 5 gallon batch, so it was for 2.5 gallons. The taste and aroma is great and no issue with head retention. I see no reason to try it any other way now. Super easy to add at bottling and works great.

 

[RandallFlag]

I just renamed mine "The Married Man's Stout" and now everyone gets a laugh when they pour a pint.

This also took me a few seconds as well. I was all like "do all married guys like coffee or something? I don't get it...."

Then I got it. Or rather I got the fact that married men don't get it, which is actually getting what you were hoping everyone would get, right?

But about that cold brewed coffee....that's what I suspected after the first poster mentioned the whole oils thing.

 

[RandallFlag]

Btw @BeardedBrews, I have now named my coffee stout "Married Man's Stout" as well. Genius steals, right?

 

[BeardedBrews]

Btw @BeardedBrews, I have now named my coffee stout "Married Man's Stout" as well. Genius steals, right?

Glad I could give back to the community a little bit!

I should have also mentioned that my sense on this recipe was that it was a little one-dimensional. I subbed DME instead of LME which might have changed the flavor profile some, but overall it just felt plain. Perhaps I've been drinking too much IPA, but I'm thinking the steeping grains just don't add quite enough texture to a more malt-focused beer.

Anyway, it wouldn't be as much fun if each batch didn't leave us with something we wanted to do differently next time.

 

[christyle]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=141483

Try this one next time, and add coffee at bottling. The best beer i've brewed.

 

[RandallFlag]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=141483

Try this one next time, and add coffee at bottling. The best beer i've brewed.

Wish I had time to brew them all. I only brewed the Peace Stout Coffee because they sent it as a freebie. I love coffee stouts a WHOLE LOT so I will definitely make sure I get to the one you posted this summer/fall to be ready in time for winter drinking.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[christyle]

No problem, it will now be on my permanent rotation. I want to "Imperialize" it and start trying bigger versions of it with rum/oak aging involved. Great beer.

 

[BeardedBrews]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=141483

Try this one next time, and add coffee at bottling. The best beer i've brewed.

I brewed 5 gallons of this over the weekend and it is chugging away in the fermenter. I have to say that the wort tasted amazing, the description from that post is spot-on. I can't wait to see what I end up with after two weeks, I am guessing I will be wishing I made a double batch.

The only downside was the difficulty in keeping the boil from running away from me in my 8 gallon pot. DME is the worst for this.

 

[christyle]

I use a 7.5 gallon, so I know your pain! It's well worth it though. It's the best beer i've made and one of my favorite stouts out there, no joke. The coffee version I made is awesome.

Good luck with it!

 

[BeardedBrews]

I only brewed the Peace Stout Coffee because they sent it as a freebie.

I generally try to avoid resurrecting old threads, but I had to come back to this brew for some comments. Back in May I posted that this batch felt very one-dimensional, it was almost cloying in the combination between malt extract flavor and the odd flavor of over-brewed coffee.

This past weekend, on a whim, I popped open a bottle. Good Lord, it was awesome! It has developed a nice creamy ivory head that holds well after pouring, and the flavors have blended and mellowed out considerably. Now you can taste the roast of the malts and the potency of the coffee has faded a little. It is actually very close to Surly's Coffee Bender, which is more than I could have hoped for.

Packaged on 3/29/15 in EZ-Cap Bottles
+68 Day Tasting Notes = Bleh!
+297 Day Tasting Notes = Wow!

Now I have to figure out if I want to try it again. Decisions, decisions.

I brewed this one: Originally Posted by christyle https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=141483 and it turned out great much sooner, so I'll probably just run a coffee version of that.

 

[RM-MN]

I keep telling people that a good stout takes time to mature. The darker the beer and the higher the amount of alcohol in it the longer it takes. I find that a robust porter might be pretty good at 3 months, better at 6 but a stout needs 6 months and will be better at a year. Save a few for next year and see if it continues to improve.

 

[dreaded_rust]

...

I brewed this one: Originally Posted by christyle https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=141483 and it turned out great much sooner, so I'll probably just run a coffee version of that.

What would be a good dry yeast for this recipe?

 

[christyle]

What would be a good dry yeast for this recipe?

Read the thread, there's a ton of info in there, but I would guess Nottingham.

 

[BeardedBrews]

What would be a good dry yeast for this recipe?

For some reason I didn't write down the yeast I used, I'm betting it was Nottingham, but us-05 would probably have worked. I might have even used 04, lol.

 

[dreaded_rust]

Read the thread, there's a ton of info in there, but I would guess Nottingham.

I read through a few pages of the thread but all that was mentioned was us05.

Thats good cause i use that a lot

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

In regards to a comment made earlier in the thread, how is cold brewing coffee any different than "dry hopping" with crushed coffee beans? If you pour all of the cold Brew coffee into the beer, is t the oil still getting in it? The way I see it, isn't "dry hopping" with crushed beans the same as cold brewing, but you use the whole carboy as your water instead of just 16-20 oz. as in cold brewing?

 

[BeardedBrews]

In regards to a comment made earlier in the thread, how is cold brewing coffee any different than "dry hopping" with crushed coffee beans? If you pour all of the cold Brew coffee into the beer, is t the oil still getting in it? The way I see it, isn't "dry hopping" with crushed beans the same as cold brewing, but you use the whole carboy as your water instead of just 16-20 oz. as in cold brewing?

The idea would be to cold steep and then separate the grounds from the coffee before you pitch. That way the oil hasn't been extracted from the beans.

Dropping grounds in the carboy would work, but it is easier to flavor to taste using the strength and volume of liquid coffee.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Ok, so the oils comes from the beans and not from the grounds? Can you feed my curiosity and explain how that works?

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Also, what would be the grounds to water ratio for a 5 gallon batch? Also, would it hurt to use beer from your secondary as the medium for the cold brew?

 

[christyle]

I can't tell you why on any of this, but all my coffee beers have done great with 1 cup of coffee's worth of cold brew: a few ounces of coffee grounds to 8 oz or so of cold water for like 2-3 days.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Awesome, thanks!

 

[BeardedBrews]

Ok, so the oils comes from the beans and not from the grounds? Can you feed my curiosity and explain how that works?

The oil is coming from the beans, and is further developed when the bean is roasted. If you go to a nice locally roasted coffee shop and order cups of three different varieties you will almost certainly find a difference in the sheen of oil on the tops when they cool.

The hotter the water you use to steep the grains, the easier it is to get the oils out (just like washing dishes). This is a bit of a trade off because some of the coffee flavor comes from the oil, but I find that I like the mellowed cold brew flavor just as much.

In the end, no matter how you do it, beer will be made and it will taste good.

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Maybe its because im not married... But i dont get it ??

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

The oil is coming from the beans, and is further developed when the bean is roasted. If you go to a nice locally roasted coffee shop and order cups of three different varieties you will almost certainly find a difference in the sheen of oil on the tops when they cool.

The hotter the water you use to steep the grains, the easier it is to get the oils out (just like washing dishes). This is a bit of a trade off because some of the coffee flavor comes from the oil, but I find that I like the mellowed cold brew flavor just as much.

In the end, no matter how you do it, beer will be made and it will taste good.

The way I read his explanation was that dry beaning would introduce oils but cold brew would not. Is there not oils still in the grounds once beans are grounded? They way I see it (which could be totally wrong ) is that dry beaning would be the same as cold brewing, but you're just using your beer as the medium for making the coffee. I'm not trying to complicate things, just understand them better.

In cold brewing, what is your coffee ground to water ratio for a 5 gallon batch. My biggest fear in all of this is watering a good milk stout down.

Thanks for your input!

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

I guess my question is: don't the grounds have the oils just as the beans do? In either method, you're not using hot water to extract flavor from the grounds/beans.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Both have oil and dry beaning would work fine too.

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Both have oil and dry beaning would work fine too.

Short and sweet. Good call. What's your recipe for cold brewing for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

Both have oil and dry beaning would work fine too.

Short and sweet. Good call. What's your recipe for cold brewing for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[BeardedBrews]

[TLDR] 4 ounces coarse in a pint jar for 24 hours - filter and add to bottling bucket or keg for 5 gallons [/TLDR]


I'd start with 6-8 ounces of coarse ground coffee in a quart jar and fill with cool water. Shake it up and let it steep for 24 hours then strain. Cheesecloth filtering before you pour it through a coffee filter will help considerably, but be prepared for it to drain really slowly through the coffee filter.

If you want to dial in the coffee presence in your finished brew i would add about 1/3 of the coffee to the fermenter, swirl it up very gently to mix, and then let it sit a day or two to blend and settle. Taste it, and if you like it proceed to bottling. If you want more coffee flavor, add more and either wait again, or bottle it and cross your fingers.

This is all easier if you're kegging. Just transfer to the keg, add 1/3 of the coffee, and carb it on up. After a few days you will have a good idea of the taste, and you can always open the keg and add more coffee if you need it.

-Ben

 

[PLAY_DEAD]

I think I'm going to dry beaning in the secondary for 2 days with 5 oz of cracked/crushed Sumatra blend beans. 1. Because I already have a hop bag and whole beans, and 2. I want to brew again and do the cold brew method and compare the two. Wish me luck!

 

[JDWebb]

I got this kit as a freebie from Northern Brewer. I added 1 pound of lactose, 1 pound brown sugar, and left the coffee out during the boil. Just racked it to secondary onto 4oz Costa Rican whole bean coffee, 2 Ugandan vanilla beans and 6oz of roasted cocoa nibs.