Adding coffee (how much?)

[Gggsss]

Hi All

Have a milk stout in the fermenter at the moment and wanted to add coffee (and vanilla) to make a kind of "vanilla latte" stout. Only issue is, is the amount to add. I have read plenty of recipes that call for MLs of coffee, but how much ground coffee to water to start off with etc? Was thinking of cold steeping the coffee for a day or two. Alternatively can I just chuck the ground coffee in to the FV as I would dry hopping?

Was going to chuck it in 3-4 days before bottling as I would dry hopping.

Basically what do you lot do?

A million thanks in advance.

 

[Alan_Reginato]

I've tried once, with cold brew, hot brew and instant coffee at bottling. Cold brew is better. 30g per 150 mL of water.
Well, the coffee taste was there, but it imparts a bitter aftertaste that isn't pleasent, so I just quit trying.
Dry hopping will be even more subtle, especially in a stout that already has coffee notes. Not speaking of the infection risk.
Is far more efficient using "coffee" malts in mash.
The vanilla stuff, I would use a tincture, with high proof alcohol.
How much? Always try before, in a sample, because the extraction rate of many things that you could make a tincture with, are difficult to reply.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

For a 12 litres batch I added 250ml of coffee to the secondary and left it 7 days along with Cocoa nibs. When you make the coffee with grounds do not use boiling water, add water at 80 C.

 

[Jim Brewster]

I've never used coffee myself but I know some breweries use whole coffee beans in the fermenters. Probably at the same stage as you would dry hop

 

[MZonard]

I'd say be careful as I added two small cups of espresso to a 21 litre brew and it was way too much. The effect has not diminished - I did the brew last Christmas. I sip it with chocolate. Might be good for adding to a home made curry.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I added some coffee to a porter last year. It would have been a cold brew but I forget the exact method. My notes say:

"30g coffee to 182ml cold water. Added 128g to 4.2 litres"

It wasn't as coffee-y as I'd have liked, so next time I'd increase coffee / reduce water.

One other thing, the bottles that I added the cold brew to had a propensity to gush. Not sure if this was coincidence or not. I was thinking it might be worth boiling the cold brew to remove any nasties (compared to actually making a hot brew, but not thought any more on that subject)

See also:
Adding Flavors to Your Stout | Craft Beer & Brewing (beerandbrewing.com)

Edit: Found it here: Brewing with Coffee. – Macclesfield Homebrew (archive.org) This is the Way Back Machine archive version. You will need to speak with @Sadfield and ask him nicely to update his domain.

 

[stripeyjoe]

I did a coffee porter this year (Elusive Spellbinder clone from Malt Miller), these were the instructions:
Add 100g whole bean coffee in a sanitised muslin bag and hold at ambient/20C for 1 day.
Crash chill to around 5C, package as per your usual process.
Our total coffee infusion time is 3-4 days, so packaging around day 8 or 9.

I didn't bother with the bag and just chucked them into the FV, turned out really nice. Was a bit bitter to start with but is now fantastic (though I do like coffee!)

 

[Gggsss]

Thanks all. Plenty of food for thought. Gonna make a decision in the next couple of days.

 

[Hoppopotamus]

Consider adding coffee after the boil as the wort cools. You will get different flavours from (good coffee) at different temperatures.
Generally don't boil the coffee as burnt coffee -like burnt toast - all tastes the same

 

[YeastFace]

I think a lot will depend on how much and which dark grains your recipes contain, as some of these may already add a coffee flavour which could be overdone with a large addition of coffee. A lot will also depend on which coffee you intend to use.

I've added via cold brew and dry-beaning (that's definitely a word) before and think the latter gave a better, more-rounded flavour.

 

[Gggsss]

Cheers for the feedback.
I’m using espresso/strong roast ground coffee.

Took a gravity reading/had a taste earlier and it was quite sweet with a decent hit of chocolate. So thinking a liberal splash of coffee…

 

[UKSkydiver]

I'm coming back to this thread as it seems pertinent to my new question....

Tagging @samale - as I know that you have some previous doing this.

As you may have read before, I have used cold brew a couple of times previously.

I currently have a "user upper" porter fermenting and I'd like to use whole coffee beans that I've got knocking about.

It's a small 11-ish litre brew in the FV. It's been in since Sunday - so four days.

Do I need to somehow sanitise the beans? Put them in the oven for a while or soak them in vodka - something like that?

Or just chuck 'em in a (sanitised) bag in the FV for 3-4 days

I'm guessing about 100-150g

I would appreciate your experience on this please. Thanks

 

[Caramel Ox]

I'm coming back to this thread as it seems pertinent to my new question....

Tagging @samale - as I know that you have some previous doing this.

As you may have read before, I have used cold brew a couple of times previously.

I currently have a "user upper" porter fermenting and I'd like to use whole coffee beans that I've got knocking about.

It's a small 11-ish litre brew in the FV. It's been in since Sunday - so four days.

Do I need to somehow sanitise the beans? Put them in the oven for a while or soak them in vodka - something like that?

Or just chuck 'em in a (sanitised) bag in the FV for 3-4 days

I'm guessing about 100-150g

I would appreciate your experience on this please. Thanks

I did a taste test recently of light roast beans in a mature porter

Post in thread 'Can I get the lovely fruity flavours from lightly roasted coffee to express in the finished beer?'
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ress-in-the-finished-beer.102598/post-1260620

I reckoned on 8g/l dry hopped, whole beans may be okay with a 4 day steep I tasted after 24 hours when they were less potent but more convenient. I wouldn’t be trying to sanitise- the last thing done to the beans was a roast.