I was curious about adding coffee to my RIS. The stout is about 8% and 80 IBUs. I was going to cold brew some coffee so that I didn't get any of the bitter acidity from the coffee. I just want the flavor. Any suggestions? How much coffee do I use for a 5gal batch?
I just used about two cups of a chocolate coffee in a 5 gal batch that came through nicely. I would probably up it to 2 1/2 - 3 cups for my taste, but I find a little goes a long way.
I just brewed a founders Breakfast stout clone and my lhbs recipe had me add 5 oz of dark roast at the end if the boil and cover and steep for 10 minutes, and leave the grains in while fermenting. I just bottled it, and it tastes amazing. Its definatly a little bitter from the coffee, but I think it works out perfectly. Its a nice strong dark stout with a black coffee flavor.
So you just threw in 5oz of cracked (or uncracked?) black patent/roasted barley right into boil?? I would think the harshness and astringency wouldn't be ideal, but perhaps the smaller amount or less boil time helps curb that? Interesting...
Exactly what I thought at first too, then I realized he said he left "grains" in during ferment... That is what spurred my inquiry to find out more. Beans would make more sense though, I agree
I did the same with a regular roast coffee right before bottling. The batch was infected, so we were trying to salvage it. Turned out okay in the end...wouldn't win any awards, but definitely drinkable.
My rule of thumb is about an ounce per gallon, so 5 ounces for a 5 gallon batch. I like the "dry-bean" method (i.e. dry hop with whole beans), mostly because it's quick, dirty, and it works. But I imagine a cold-steep accomplishes the same task.
Thanks! I will try around 5 oz and maybe "dry bean" would be the way to go. Then, I wouldn't be added more water to the batch. I didn't add any coffee to the boil, but thought I would experiment.
Sorry my post was vague. I cold pressed a double chocalate light roast blend. I believe it was generic brand (Java Delight). I used the recommended amount for two cups. It added great chocalate coffee flavor to the beer. I was surprised how well the chocalate flavor came through. I would probably use a little more next time. I was being cautious because I didn't want to overwhelm the base beer. I added it when I kegged the beer. It really transformed an underwhelming stout into a very tasty beer.
I am interested in the process to see if I can use it for my next stout. Let me see if I got this right... So what you did is put coarsely ground coffee in a french press and infused it with 2 cups of cool water for about 12 hours, then got the two cups of cold coffee (sans the ground coffee), and added that to the 5 gallons of beer. Is that correct?
Pretty much. I left in the french press for a few days. When it came time to keg the beer, I briefly boiled the coffee (minus the grounds) to sanitize it and put it in the keg. Then I racked the beer on top of it. Hope that helps.
Done this many times. Coursely crack 2 oz of whole bean coffee. Put into sanitized hop bag and place in fermenter 24 hrs before bottling or kegging. You'll get plenty of aroma and flavor..
