A question about beers brewed with coffee

Good question - I'm not a coffee beer expert, but I am a beer geek as well as a coffee geek - I look forward to seeing where this thread goes.

 

Is there a list of some cold pressed beers vs bean brewed beers?

 

Sounds like a question for an experienced home brewer.

 

Surly Coffee Bender uses a "cold extraction" process. It is possibly the most intense coffee beer i have ever had. so, i'm going to go with, cold pressed coffee beers are more intense.

The kopi beers i have had are usually amazing. brunch weasel, de molen kopi loewak, speedway kopi...

 

Brewing it warm has a lot more acids being released, and will stale quicker. Cold is a more flavorful, and natural representation of the coffee bean. Cold retains better as well.

 

Cold pressed in my opinion lends a stronger, more upfront, "fresh" coffee taste. Coffee bean or, even more so, coffee grounds, tend to create more spicy, earthy, roasted flavor. There's certainly a big difference. I'm sure everyone has an opinion as to which one is better or how they would describe the differences. A lot of other factors go into it as well such as how the coffee is added in the brewing process, where it comes from/variety, and freshness obv.

 

I'm not sure if this is what they do, but I've been told of a methed for creating a cold brewed 'coffee extract' that is far different and much stronger than cold pressed coffee.

 

that would explain the intensity of Coffee Bender. so, is the extract like a coffee oil of some sort or a small amount of liquid is forced through ground coffee?

 

I have brewed many coffee beers and I fiind that cold pressing the coffee and adding it after fermentation is the best method for getting coffee flavor and aroma. Adding beans to the mash/boil tends to extract bitterness and a roasty flavor (which can be good). I cold press my coffee with an espresso grind and make it super concentrated.

 

I think the cold pressed coffee has a more noticeable flavor and tastes more like fresh coffee than those brewed with beans, at least from my 10 years of homebrew experience.

 

The process was explained to my by my boss, who once brewed a beer with this ingredient and according to him - wrecked the beer - too intense. Too much of the extract perhaps.

What he said he did was basically finely ground coffee (think turkish grind - super super SUUUUPER fine grind) and then - you know those conical filters? basically fill one of those and place in a funnel and over a vessel - keep it in the fridge, and add a small amount of very cold water at a time, over the course of several hours (he basically said you'll get up a few times over the course of the night if you want to use/drink it on saturday) the cold water takes a very long time to get through those grounds and the result is like 10X espresso, but cold. Really have to choke it down. He said he added just a little bit to the batch and it overpowered the beer.

 

Being first, a coffee geek turned me into a stout geek. I would agree that the cold brew method for coffee will produce a "cleaner", less acidic brew. This would theoretically, make for a better quality beer as well.

 

So I have brewed the same beer twice, once utilizing coffee in the last 5 minutes, and recently with the coffee charge split up 2oz at flameout and 2oz cold pressed and added at bottling. The stout where I added all 4oz in the last 5minutes had subtle coffee flavors mingling with the roasted malts. It was there if you were looking for it, however you could have missed it if you didn't know to taste for it. The recent batch had the beans split, and its like getting smashed in the face with espresso. Cold steeping hold the essential oils, similar to dryhopping, giving you more flavor and aroma. I will always, ALWAYS, use cold steeped coffee at bottling or poured. Into the keg from now on. It just pops.

 

This is really interesting stuff, hadn't ever thought of what the difference could possibly be... awesome to see the descriptions of the effects of cold pressed in here! Regardless, won't stop my love for a nice coffee brew, no matter the method!

 

I love Terp Wake n Bake. Which is that? I choose that one.

 

Here's a great place to coffeegeek out! http://coffeegeek.com/forums

 

I cold brew coffee pretty often. Haven't yet heard of this method.

Generally you steep coarse ground coffee(easier to filter with a coarse grind) in water for 24 hours at room temp. it's supposed to be concentrated because it doesnt take up tons of space.You dilute it with 50:50 with ice or water when you drink it.

To answer the OP: I don't really see it advertised and with many beers the coffee is some times too muted to tell. Who would know Dark Lord was a coffee stout unless it said so?Hot brew would stale quickly and I believe most brewers do a cold brewed method.

 

Grew up in a coffee roastery...

As a rule, the more active the brewing process, the stronger the flavor. So, if you brew a coffee and then add it, you're definitely going to get a stronger flavor than just throwing some beans in secondary. I've known of brewers that strain their hot wort over cracked (not ground) coffee beans and had decent results. Overall for beer though I definitely think cold extraction is best because you won't get as many tannins that way.

 

For that matter, how would you know which one it is? Any coffee beer I've ever enjoyed just says that there's coffee in it. Do breweries tend to go into specifics on how they made it?