Any suggestions on how/when to add coffee?

Only time I added coffee was in secondary. Get some whole beans, crush them with a rolling pin, and soak them in vodka for a day or two. Then dump vodka and beans into secondary and rack on top.

 

I do the same but I do not add the vodka (maybe next time). I also recommend tasting the beer after a day or two because the coffee flavor can get intense! Also put the coffee in a hop bag.

 

pull a shot of espresso per bottle at bottling, call it a mocha. but I like coffee and have never put it in beer. maybe i should do this before advising others...

 

When I made a mocha stout a few years ago I crushed some coffee grounds and cold brewed them in a French press for 24 hours. I then pressed the coffee and poured the mixture into my keg. The beans were crushed by hand because I wanted large pieced, not powder. Also I kept the french press in the fridge the entire time the coffee was steeping.

 

My friend recently kegged a coffee porter, and it's the first beer between the two of us with coffee. He was advised by a local brewery to add a few ounces of coarsely ground coffee directly to the fermenter, no booze or hop bag needed. The grounds sank to the bottom and it was easy to rack the beer off without picking any grounds up. I think he left it contact around 5 or 7 days (1/2 cup of grounds), pretty much what you'd do for dry hopping. He gave me a growler over the weekend, and I think it came out well.

 

I've only done this twice, so take this FWIW: my method, per Gordon Strong, has been to grind the beans and soak them in cold water overnight, then add a little at a time to the finished beer and taste test over a period of days until the level of coffee flavor is what you want.

The rationale here is that boiling coffee can bring out acidic flavors you don't want, so you're better off getting the oils out of the beans in a cold soak situation. The amount you'll want in the beer is a matter of taste, so there's no better indication than your taste buds. Good luck!

 

I recently brewed a Founders Breakfast Stout clone. Added the ground coffee at flameout, lid on for 10 minutes to steep. Took my first sample while tranferring to secondary. Tastes amazing.

 

If you want a rich coffee flavor, I have had great results with cold brewing coffee for a couple days and then adding the cold brew to the keg. Just add as much as you think and do it to taste.

 

I add the coffee directly to the fermenter a day or two before bottling or keging and rack it through a gran bag. I did it this way based on old_sock's suggestions and his blog post. I really enjoyed the trung nguyuen coffee I used in my breakfast stout and wee heavy, it has a nice coffee and cocoa flavor. naturally I used the gourmet blend because Im fancy
http://www.trung-nguyen-online.com/trung-nguyen-coffee-order.php#gourmet-blend

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/breakfast-stout-riff.html

 

Recently brewed a coffee stout, course cracked beans at 10 minutes before flame out.
We have had 3 bottles since, good nose, great flavor.

Cheers

 

Does anybody get a green pepper flavor from coffee beers? I get it intensely in some commercial and homebrew beers. Any ideas how to avoid? I've done cold brewed and directly into the fermenter and both had the same green pepper flavor.

 

If you use too much coffee, introduce oxygen or let the coffee beans/grinds sit in the beer for a long time when dry beaning or cold pressing, you can get some off flavors (vegetal), all stemming from oxidation.

Best way to avoid it is to cold press in the fridge or dry bean at lagering/fridge temps and keep the contact time short <48 hours.

 

I've done both (cold press in fridge, added at bottling) and (dry beaning at ~50F for 3 days) and gotten the green pepper flavor.

I've even get it in highly rated coffee beers. Could I just be overly sensitive to it?

 

That might be most likely answer, as you may just be more sensitive to 2-methoxy-3-isobutyl-pyrazine (Compound responsible for green pepper flavor). We all have different thresholds for compounds.

Might be interesting to take note of which coffee beers or roasts/sources of coffee you get the pepper flavor from to see if you can find a type/roast of coffee to minimize the flavor when making your own beers to maximize your enjoyment.

From my own personal experience, I (and some BJCP judges) picked up a strong green pepper & vegetal flavors when I had a milk stout sit on coarse ground beans in secondary for 7 days at room temp instead of the usual 24 hours at 38 F, and have picked it up in commercial beers from Evil Twin and Stone and some imports of questionable freshness. I haven't had any subsequent homebrewed batches pick up that note, but I've been borderline OCD about buying freshly roasted, high quality coffee (Intelligentsia, Klatch, Handsome, Portola), purging the keg with CO2 before racking cooled beer onto crushed beans, and then limiting contact to 24 hours before pulling the beans from the keg.

 

There's a ton of ways to do this, none of em wrong I suppose, all depending on taste. I've had best success (and tried a few different ways) by using cold pressed coffee, brew 16 ounces of it for a 5 gallon batch, add to the secondary about a day before bottling.

 

I added 2oz at flameout to my fbs clone for 30 minutes before chilling and transfer. The recipe also calls for an additional 2oz cold steeped and added to the keg or bottling bucket.

 

In a recent 10 gallon imperial stout, I took a cue from Troegs Java Head Stout and ran the beer through my hoprocket, but I hooked it up post-chiller, not pre-chiller. As a result, the coffee flavor was far smoother and much less acidic. It's was definitely a worthwhile experiment I will gladly repeat in the future.