So I'm planing on doing a coffee stout of some sort in the coming weeks, I'm going to a local coffee shop and picking up some fresh roasted and ground coffee. The plan is to have a pretty strong coffee aroma, and as for the taste, I would like that to be more of a background flavor. So my questions to anyone who has used coffee in brewing before would be; what time should I add the coffee in the brewing process to get my desired outcome, does using ground coffee offer better results, and around how much coffee should I use for a 5 gallon batch?
I've used @OldSock's method of adding whole beans directly to the fermenter, with good results. I added the coffee about two days before bottling. I don't remember off the top of my head how much coffee I used - I'll consult my notes and post an update.
I've never done this but I know of commercial breweries that add ground coffee atop there grain bed right prior to sparging. I've only added whole beans to the keg prior to serving and this has given me fantastic coffee aroma, and perceived coffee flavor due to the roasted malts in the beer.
2 oz, in my experience is just pretty much perfect for a 5 gallon batch. I gently crush the fresh beans and add them in a bag. I let the beans sit in the beer for almost 3 full days and it had a purrrrfect coffee taste/aroma to it. You could probably go to 3 oz if you'd like. I wouldn't hesitate doing that much but maybe for only 1.5-2 days.
It depends on the size of the beer. The most recent coffee stout I did was the 1st runnings of a partigyle stout that came in at 1095 for 4.5 gallons. I split it 4 ways and ~1 gallon got 1.5oz of ground coffee that I cold steeped with 16oz of water. The coffee came through on the strong side, but was not overwhelming. You should google both "cold steep" and "dry beaning" to get an idea about common amounts of coffee as well as processes to add coffee.
I vote to cold steep. Take 2 oz coffee beans, smash with hammer to get a very coarse crack, muslin bag steep for 24-48 hrs. The debate of steep versus adding cold brew I think is largely due to commercial brewers getting more $$$ per BBL by adding cold brew. Think about it.. roughly 2 gallon/bbl of coldbrew added or 12 oz of grinds that cause beer loss through absorption. One method adds volume, one subtracts. Homebrew, I prefer the character that a straight steep offers.
These #s are averages, but ive seen a few places do it this way. 8 pints/gallon x 2 gallon/bbl x $5 per pint = $80 per BBL brewers get for adding cold pressed coffee. This versus adding grinds, which reduces volume of beer. My point.. I advocate for steeping and think the use of cold press is that of monetary motivations in the commercial setting.
Another vote for cold press. I coarse grind cold press and add to the secondary. Usually I use around 3 heaping tablespoons. Just take care to keep the grounds out or they might end up in yer bottles. Made that mistake a couple times and samplers were not impressed
I'll cast my vote for dry beaning. You can pull the beans out when you decide the flavor is right, and you're not adding extra water to mess up your painstakingly crafted base recipe.
Cold-steeped has always worked for me. As long as you make some seriously strong coffee you don't have to add a whole lot of water to it. 4 oz added to my imperial stout left me with a strong aroma/flavor of coffee in the beginning, but it blends nicely and mellows out over time with the other flavors.
2 oz freshly roasted, coarse ground, cold steeped overnight in a 32 oz French Press. Push down on the plunger and pour it into the keg. That's my sweet spot for a 1.060 Porter or Stout. Just enough coffee flavor that you don't have to point it out, but not enough to hide the beer. Obviously, ymmv. BTW, don't ever let your coffee come within two feet of boiling water! Which means coffee in the mash is a definite no-no, IMSNHO.
