Tips on adding coffee, vanilla, chocolate, walnuts

[josbor11]

So I'm finishing up with my third home brew batch but they are small one gallon batches and I followed recipes. I mostly wanted to get an idea of what I was doing before I went all out. I am going to be picking up a five gallon kit and would like to make a coffee stout with some vanilla and chocolate. I'm thinking strong coffee with subtle hints of vanilla and chocolate. I've done some research and basically want to figure out if I am on the right path or not.

Coffee

I was thinking of using some blue mountain coffee because it was used in Jackie O's Champion Ground and that was the best coffee stout I've ever tasted. If not that then I think I will sub it out for some intelligentsia el diablo dark roast. I also am a fan of Sunday Morning Stout but that's a bit too coffee forward. I'm thinking 70-75 g of coffee mixed with half a liter of water in a french press to be refrigerated for a day or two and then added after the boil (not sure if I should do it at flame out or after it has chilled). Any suggestions or corrections here would be greatly appreciated. If my idea is solid, would I need to sanitize the french press or just the container that the coffee sits in for the fridge? Would probably use a screw top mason jar or something. What about the beans? Should those be sanitized before I press them?

Vanilla Beans

Seems like the usage of vanilla beans is pretty consistent with reading up on them. Am I understanding it correctly that you should cut, split, and scoop out the inside then soak in bourbon for a few weeks and then pour the bourbon and the beans directly into your carboy / bucket after primary fermentation begins? Thinking two beans here for the five gallon batch and letting them soak for two weeks.

Chocolate

Thinking of using either dark chocolate or Mexican chocolate here. I have no idea on this one. I want there to be a presence but not overpowering, still want everything to take a backseat to coffee. I know you can add this to the boil or the primary but how much to add and in what form? Cocoa powder, syrup, bakers chocolate? Right now leaning towards cocoa nibs (3-4 oz) in the bucket with a week left before bottling.

Walnuts

Inspired by Jackie O's (Oil of Aphrodite) I was thinking of using some walnuts. Not sure if I am over doing it here with ingredients, but how would one use these and when would I add them?



Worth noting, probably won't have a secondary vessel for fermentation. Is this a problem? Do I really need one? Can't wait to get started with this. Also since I'm still new I am sticking with extract brewing for now. I have no idea how to mash and will probably look into that later down the road.

 

[rocketsan]

You forgot cherries, hazelnut, mocha and orange zest...

That's a lot of flavours man...

 

[bosster01]

Only experience I have so far - also a new brewer - is with cocao nibs in a chocolate stout.

I soaked the nibs for 5 days in alcohol at room tempt (vodka). Then I dumped the whole mixture into the stout in secondary for 1 week.

Sadly, the chocolate didn't really "pop" it's there, but I would have liked more chocolate taste.

Looking forward to hearing the answer to the rest of your questions.

I would think you'd want to put the vanilla bean extract mix you make with your rum into secondary. Unsure though.
-Also I'd use Vodka because it's a neutral spirit.

 

[josbor11]

Only experience I have so far - also a new brewer - is with cocao nibs in a chocolate stout.

I soaked the nibs for 5 days in alcohol at room tempt (vodka). Then I dumped the whole mixture into the stout in secondary for 1 week.

Sadly, the chocolate didn't really "pop" it's there, but I would have liked more chocolate taste.

Looking forward to hearing the answer to the rest of your questions.

I would think you'd want to put the vanilla bean extract mix you make with your rum into secondary. Unsure though.
-Also I'd use Vodka because it's a neutral spirit.

I was going to use boubon to soak the beans. Is there a benefit to using a secondary as opposed to throwing it all in your primary? How much cocoa nibs did you use for your batch and was it five gallons?

I may omit the black walnuts as I did some searching it it seems to be a hassle to use them. Might also look into extract for it instead of it exists and is reliable.

 

[bosster01]

I used 5 oz in 5 gallon. Unsure about benefit of using secondary other than I wanted to make sure the chocolate got mixed up so I was able to rack onto the nibs which ensured mixture.

Unsure if it would fully mix by just dumping into primary?

What did you find out about the walnuts?

 

[nettekdl]

I've never used walnuts but I have used hazelnuts and yes it is kind of a pain because you don't want the natural oils from the nuts in your beer. I just toast them lightly in the oven, pat the oil off with paper towels and then spread them on clean towels in a sealed container over night. If you do some searching you can find a more specific answer as to temps and times, I haven't done it in awhile and of course forgot that part in my brew notes but I know I got the info off a thread on here a few years ago

 

[josbor11]

I used 5 oz in 5 gallon. Unsure about benefit of using secondary other than I wanted to make sure the chocolate got mixed up so I was able to rack onto the nibs which ensured mixture.

Unsure if it would fully mix by just dumping into primary?

What did you find out about the walnuts?

Maybe I should up it then, I was thinking of only doing three oz of cocoa nibs originally. I don't want it to be a chocolate stout though, just thought a touch of chocolate and vanilla would pair well with the coffee.

 

[josbor11]

I've never used walnuts but I have used hazelnuts and yes it is kind of a pain because you don't want the natural oils from the nuts in your beer. I just toast them lightly in the oven, pat the oil off with paper towels and then spread them on clean towels in a sealed container over night. If you do some searching you can find a more specific answer as to temps and times, I haven't done it in awhile and of course forgot that part in my brew notes but I know I got the info off a thread on here a few years ago

I think I know what post you're talking about (the one about the pecans). I wasn't sure how much of that also applied to walnuts. Did you do like three ten minute roasts at varying temps? How much oil are we talking about here? Are you using paper towels or bath towels lol? Once you get all the oils out, are you soaking them in liquor like you would vanilla beans and adding it after a few days or did you steep them with the grains or loosely add them to the fermenting bucket?

 

[alhounos]

I've had good results simply dropping whole, unsanitized coffee beans into the fermentor after fermentation, a la madfermentationist. I 'dry bean' with about 1oz/5gal for 24-36 before packaging. Boiled coffee doesn't taste good.

Also, take it easy with too many flavor additions. It can get noisy and muddy. Try one at a time, see which ones work. Try splitting the batch between several small fermentors and try one flavoring in each. Water jugs, wine/beer jugs, anything you can sanitize and put an airlock on can be a fermentor.

 

[josbor11]

I've had good results simply dropping whole, unsanitized coffee beans into the fermentor after fermentation, a la madfermentationist. I 'dry bean' with about 1oz/5gal for 24-36 before packaging. Boiled coffee doesn't taste good.

Also, take it easy with too many flavor additions. It can get noisy and muddy. Try one at a time, see which ones work. Try splitting the batch between several small fermentors and try one flavoring in each. Water jugs, wine/beer jugs, anything you can sanitize and put an airlock on can be a fermentor.

How strong was your coffee with 1 oz? I was considering 2-2.5 with mine. I probably will omit the walnuts but I think coffee, cocoa, and vanilla will blend nicely in a RIS if I can get a really full body.

 

[alhounos]

Looking at my notes it was actually 1.5oz last time. I'd say it is assertive but not overpowering, so just about right.

Keep in mind that with something like an imperial stout will have plenty of flavors without any additions. And that your key to success with a beer like that will be a large amount of yeast and low fermentation temps.

 

[josbor11]

Looking at my notes it was actually 1.5oz last time. I'd say it is assertive but not overpowering, so just about right.

Keep in mind that with something like an imperial stout will have plenty of flavors without any additions. And that your key to success with a beer like that will be a large amount of yeast and low fermentation temps.

Low ferm temp is no problem right now as our basement is usually pretty cold this time of the year. Yeast is something I am not totally familiar with yet though. I created a beer smith recipe for the base and it gave me an estimated OG of 1.097 and an estimated 9.7% ABV. It's also estimating that 325 billion yeast cells are needed but using two packets of American Ale (1056) will only give me 192. As a result it suggests using:

2 dry yeast packets
2 liquid yeast packets and 2.5 L of yeast starter
4 liquid yeast packets

Which of those three routes is best or are they all a wash? Are these calculations on beer smith usually pretty reliable? Also, why is it that it's telling me two dry packets are fine but with two liquid packets I would need starter as well?

 

[sabotenfighter]

Just make a big yeast starter a few days before you brew. Its good practice to make starters when using liquid yeast anyway and saves money in the long run/ensures lots of healthy yeast.

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

First make a stout. Then make a coffee stout. Then make a chocolate stout. Then start putting them together. It'll be much less of a crap shoot. You'll be able to figure out how much of what pleases your taste. You might get lucky just doing it all at one time but then again you might not.

For coffee I cold brew and add it when bottling. For vanilla and chocolate I do what you describe in but in a secondary.

 

[bosster01]

Low ferm temp is no problem right now as our basement is usually pretty cold this time of the year. Yeast is something I am not totally familiar with yet though. I created a beer smith recipe for the base and it gave me an estimated OG of 1.097 and an estimated 9.7% ABV. It's also estimating that 325 billion yeast cells are needed but using two packets of American Ale (1056) will only give me 192. As a result it suggests using:

2 dry yeast packets
2 liquid yeast packets and 2.5 L of yeast starter
4 liquid yeast packets

Which of those three routes is best or are they all a wash? Are these calculations on beer smith usually pretty reliable? Also, why is it that it's telling me two dry packets are fine but with two liquid packets I would need starter as well?

Dry yeast packets have a greater number of viable cells than liquid yeast which is why they say all you need is 2.

The method I would use is to make a yeast starter starting from 1 liquid yeast packet and stepping it up until I had 325 billion cells.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

This website will tell you how to build it up.

If you have no idea how to make a starter I'd just start googling it. Essentially you make up some wort, or you use the fast pitched canned worth that NB sells. You then pitch your yeast, into the specified volume, and then you let it ferment for like a day, you then cold crash it to get the cells to the bottom, decant off the liquid, and either pitch into your wort or "step up" by making an even larger starter.

 

[bosster01]

Back at the original point:

I spent some time researching the best way to add coffee to beer. It sounds like the best way to do it is to cold press coffee by soaking it in cold water for 24 hours.

The amount that I read was like 4 oz in 2 cups of water. This can be added directly at bottling time (you can even use the coffee to dissolve your priming sugar which would sanitize it).

OR you can add it to secondary OR you can add it to the boil at flameout.

Any opinions about the best time, best amount, or best method?

 

[josbor11]

Regarding yeast, it is telling me that my beer smith extract recipe will be needing almost 400 billion cells to ferment and that two packets of yeast will cover it if using dry yeast. However, when I use yeast pitching and starter calculators online like the one at brewers friend it tells me that using 2 packets of dry yeast will fall significantly short so which one am I to believe?

 

[alhounos]

Two packets of dry yeast, properly rehydrated, will do the job. However, my preference for a beer like this is to make an average strength 5% starter beer and then pitch the new beer on top of the yeast cake.

Basically, make a normal stout, ferment for 5-6 days, rack it to another fermentor, and immediately pitch the imperial beer into the old yeast.
Also, best not to make 5 gallons when you're just starting.

 

[slym2none]

You forgot cherries, hazelnut, mocha and orange zest...

Mocha = coffee & chocolate.

 

[rocketsan]

Mocha = coffee & chocolate.

To some...

 

[iijakii]

Not sure about Walnuts -- but gonna assume it's the same as other nuts? I've made a Pecan Porter, just threw the roasted pecans right in the mash. Came out fantastic. I had read lots of head retention scary comments online and was skeptical of trying that, but (512) out of Austin makes a phenomenal Pecan Porter and they mentioned doing it that way. No oil troubles. I lost the recipe sadly so I can't remember how much I used, but I want to say it was about 6% of the grainbill.

 

[slym2none]

to some...

ok...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mocha

 

[josbor11]

Thanks for all the responses guys.