Coffee Stout/Porter

[devexwarrior]

I've often thought I'd like to try adding coffee flavour to a dark beer. I now find myself with a regular supply of coffee machine grounds [nights in a hotel where one pf the jobs is cleaning the coffee machine and t he used grounds only end up in the bin]. I was wondering how much is added and when in the brewing sequence?

 

[GhostShip]

Have a read through this thread;

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/st-peters-cream-stout.79414/#post-1184378
I've done the St Peters Cream Stout kit twice now and both times added coffee. Absolutely superb pint - I've still got a couple left one year on from brewing the last one and if anything, it's become even better with age.

EDIT: just read your post again and noticed you mention grounds. Someone may well correct me, but surely the grounds have already had most of the coffee goodness squeezed out of them?

 

[UKSkydiver]

I like a well flavoured stout and even though I have pushed the limits in terms of amounts, my experience is that it still only give a faint flavour.
This won't be particularly useful to your use case, as I haven't used spent grounds, but I'd imagine needing more / to steep more / longer.

 

[samale]

I dry hopped my last porter with whole bean's. It takes a long time to condition out and for me the coffee is too dominant. I used a 227g, dry hopped for 4 days at low temp

 

[specmalt]

An old thread, I knoiw. I did a 23 L batch of coffee stout a few years back, and split the batch at end of fermentation. Half I used 28gm whole beans chucked directly into the batch still on the slurry. The 'clean' half I had racked off, I added the other half of the coffee serving (28gm coarse ground in 270ml water and cold steeped overnight then strained out) and added directly to 'clean' half of batch immediately prior to bottling...it did require some tender stirring in to mix it well.

Taste outcomes...the batch with the whole beans gave a brewed coffee (pourover, filter, etc) brewed tea style of flavour outcome, if that makes sense. The cold-steeped batch, surprisingly enough, gave a much fuller, creamier flavour result through the stout (8.8% abv). I havent used the whole bean addition again, but am considering that it woul;d probably be well suited to your non-darker type styles as well, given the brewed tea-style of flavour note. If using the cold-steeped version, amount rquired is only 56gm coarse ground and cold steeped in 550 ml water (c0overed) in the fridge for no more than 18 to 20 hrs. I am fortunate enough to roast my own beans at home, so freshness isn't an issue. I would definitely recommend using fresh beans from a specialist coffee place, you can even buy them coarse ground as well, but only buy as and when you are going to use it if buying them ground as it starts to lose flavour as soon as cracked.