Coffee Stout thoughts.....

I use 4oz of whole bean for 48 hours in the secondary at ambient temps. The result is robust coffee aroma/flavor initially, and it settles into place 2-3 weeks later. Very easy process. Very repeatable results.

 

Actually, I knew what you meant by 'espresso'. I'm just giving you a hard time because ...well ...that's what the internet is for! And, since the term 'espresso' has been commandeered, in recent years, to refer to a roast and/or a blend, I guess your use of the term was correct vernacular-ly speaking.

I've been roasting and blending coffee since long before I discovered homebrewing. While it's not nearly as immersive a hobby as brewing, there are a lot of parallels, in terms of appreciation for the process and what each tweak brings to the party. It's cheaper than brewing, requires far less real estate, and you can taste the results of your effort in 24 hours instead of three weeks, making it easier to fix errors in your process in a more satisfying timeframe (I shudder to think of the stress borne by those who make 18+ year old spirits as a hobby!)

 

Brewed an Oatmeal Stout a year ago. Halfway during the 60 m boil we decided to grind up some Starbucks coffee beans (12 seconds) threw it in a steeping bag and boiled the last 30 minutes. Turned out great. Everybody liked it more than our ipa's.

 

Made a stout a few monthes back with this recipe.

10lb marris otter
2# chocolate malt
1.5# roast barley
.5#lb brown malt
1# wheat malt

EKG hops and 1084 yeast

I was going for a coffee like stout. I never put coffee in. But it tastes like, which was my goal. You can definately make a pseudo-coffee stout sans coffee.

 

I just drank a Founders Breakfast Stout, maybe my first, and it tasted like green pepper. Is this the coffee?

 

I don't get green pepper from fbs, but the first coffee stout I brewed, I let the coffee grounds soak in bourbon for about 3 weeks and got a green pepper taste after dumping the whole thing into primary. In the bourbon it didn't smell or taste like like green peppers, but probably because the coffee smell was so concentrated. It is most likely from over extraction of the coffee.

 

Yes, it's oxidized coffee. I recently submitted the same beer to two different categories in a local competition . One was filled via a beer gun into a co2 purged growler, the other via a cobra tap into a growler (forgot I signed up to submit it to two comps). The purged growler scored well and placed second in its category to another beer of mine, the cobra tap one got slammed for bell pepper flavor (ask Drewbage, he judged the cobra tap one).

 

Thanks for the info. Thought it might be something like that. So what beer finished first in the category ? And what were the two categories?

 

This was the beer that finished first:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-beer-adulterating-a-failed-barleywine.77391/

Dark sour with peaches and candi syrup. Category was herb/spice/veggie beer combined with fruit beer. The coffee beer I entered that finished second was a blonde milk stout (coffee, nibs and lactose added to a blonde ale with oatmeal). The oxidized blonde milk stout was also entered in specialty beer where it got hammered. Twice now I've got nailed when I submitted non co2 purged bottles/growlers bottled from the keg.

 

This is exactly what I do...works the best for me. I use 3oz of fresh course ground beans with 8oz of water in my French Press , added during kegging.

 

I can imagine that the green peppers really stood out w/o roasted grains to obscure the impact.

 

Absolutely. This bee actually come to mind as a great candidate for adding coffee at flameout, as the coffee flavor could provide some roast to make up for the lack of dark grains. The coffee flavor came from dry beaning, so it was smooth and devoid of much roast. Alternatively, some more nibs might help as they're very roasty.

 

Do they have Trader Joes markets in IN? They sell a cold brewed extract that has the same benefits of doing your own cold brewing but was highly concentrated. I did this for a recent stout and I am VERY pleased with the results. If you can't buy it, I still recommend the cold brew as it won't leave you with the astringency or acrid flavors that coffee typically has.

 

Yep, I won't bottle-condition another coffee beer if I can help it. I swear I ALWAYS get green pepper when I do. I guess my bottling process isn't that good at keeping oxygen to a minimum. I find it also helps to use a darker roasted coffee. Maybe because the heavier roasted beans are more resistant to oxygenation, not unlike roasted malt.

 

I use about 3 or 4 oz steeped in a pint of water, either cold steeped overnight or with 170F water(let it sit until cool). And I use fresh roasted decaf Colombian because I don't like my buzzes competing with each other, and I have no other use for the decaf beans that came with my roaster.

 

3 or 4 oz in 5 gallons is not going to give you a buzz. But if you're simply trying to use up the decaf beans, I guess this is less offensive than brewing your morning Joe with them (i got to choose the beans in my eight lb 'bonus' pack when I bought my roaster -- no decaf in that batch!)