When to add certain ingredients?

[GoldenCrow]

Hi everyone,

My friends and I recently brewed a Russian imperial stout. It was in primary for seven days before racking into secondary, where it has been for the past three days. My friend came up with the recipe which calls for three vanilla beans and one pound of coffee, but he did not specify when to add these. He is leaving that for me to decide (the beer is fermenting at my place and he lives an hour away).

We are planning on letting it ferment for about 6 weeks. What would the difference be between adding these two ingredients now vs closer to bottling time?

As always, thanks for the feedback!

 

[m00ps]

Adding earlier and leaving them in may extract too much of the flavors you are looking for or it may (in the case of coffee) extract tannins that can give the beer a harsh astringent aftertaste. I generally to anywhere 1-2 weeks from bottling

Also, if you add them very early into fermentation, The flavors and aromas could get lost in the vigorous off-gassing from the yeast. I definitely wouldnt do anything until airlock activity comes to a halt

For coffee, I'd recommend doing whole bean additions about a week before bottling. Much better and smooth coffee aroma from this than cold pressed or grounds IME