Coffee Stout

[justinrice1127]

I am making my first beer with coffee, it will be a coffee stout.  I am brewing this for a local competition that is held in early November.  My friend owns a local coffee shop and sent me some of his roasted beans and some liquid espresso and cold brewed coffee.  He recommends that I put all three in the secondary fermenter, when the recipe that I am using vaguely states to just “add 3 oz of coffee to the secondary”.  It doesn’t specify as to grind them completely up, just crack them, or to just put them in without doing anything to them.  The recipe also doesn’t state how long to leave the coffee in the secondary.  So, I wanted to see what you would recommend on 1) how to do the beans (grind up, crack, leave whole), 2) how long would you leave the beans in the secondary, and 3) would you or have you ever used the liquid espresso and or liquid cold brew…if so, how much and how long would you let it sit in the secondary before bottling?

[denny]

I use 2 methods for coffee beers.  First, I put 3-5 oz. of coarsely cracked beans (in a bag) in the fermenter after the bulk of fermentation has finished.  Then, when I bottle or keg, I add brewed coffee (or you could use your liquid espresso) to taste.  I prefer that to adding it to the fermenter because you can get just the right amount without too much guessing.

[jrdunne (Joe Sr.)]

@denny

I use 2 methods for coffee beers.  First, I put 3-5 oz. of coarsely cracked beans (in a bag) in the fermenter after the bulk of fermentation has finished.  Then, when I bottle or keg, I add brewed coffee (or you could use your liquid espresso) to taste.  I prefer that to adding it to the fermenter because you can get just the right amount without too much guessing.

Denny, are you saying you do both on the same beer?

Or, these are two separate methods you have used?

[garc_mall]

I have used 2 different methods to get coffee flavor in my beer.

1. Espresso at bottling. I found this added good flavor, but I picked up no aroma of coffee in my porter that I used this in.

2. Cold Brewed Coffee. I got a lot more aroma out of this type of addition, but that may have been because of the lower alcohol content (2.6 to 6.5 abv).

that is my experience so far. YMMV. I do plan on adding coffee in different forms to more beers, and if I find more information, I will add it to the overall homebrew reference.

[tygo]

@garc_mall

2. Cold Brewed Coffee. I got a lot more aroma out of this type of addition, but that may have been because of the lower alcohol content (2.6 to 6.5 abv).

I’ve done this as well and liked the results.

[denny]

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@denny

I use 2 methods for coffee beers.  First, I put 3-5 oz. of coarsely cracked beans (in a bag) in the fermenter after the bulk of fermentation has finished.  Then, when I bottle or keg, I add brewed coffee (or you could use your liquid espresso) to taste.  I prefer that to adding it to the fermenter because you can get just the right amount without too much guessing.

Denny, are you saying you do both on the same beer?

Or, these are two separate methods you have used?

Yeah, I use both on the same beer.  Different effects

[beersk]

I third the cold brewed coffee method.  I add about 16 ounces of strong cold brewed coffee at kegging. That’s for the 4 gallon batches I usually make, so it may vary for a 5 gallon batch. Depends how much coffee flavor/aroma you want too. What I do works well for me.