Do coffee grounds settle out?

I have read that coffee grounds can make a real mess, so it is better to put them in a large grain bag (lots of room to increase surface contact with the wort). For more about using coffee in your beer, see: https://byo.com/mead/item/315-brewing-with-coffee

 

Cold brewed coffe works well, as do coffee beans that are roughly cracked, not ground. I have no experience with grounds. My best coffee brews have been using cracked beans in thesecondary.

 

I just used several gallons of cold brewed coffee from a local coffee roaster. It was delivered in special containers that have the outlet valve above a wide and flat bottom for just that reason - the coffee particulate would settle out. In brewing a stout, however, that was not an issue, but we were told to let it sit for an hour to three hours before using it so that it could sediment out. Whatever your set-up you should be able to figure something out.

 

I would NOT recommend using ground coffee in your beer. Besides the logistical issues with filtering out grounds (whole beans totally sidestep this issue unless you're pouring wort/beer between vessels, since they're so large), you're asking for over extraction.

Ground coffee reaches optimal levels of extraction in seconds to minutes in hot water. In cold water, that time extends to hours or two days max. If you're planning on leaving the coffee in the primary and secondary fermenters, your exposure time is going to be several days to weeks. Get yourself a French press and steep coffee for that long and you'll taste the issue.

Just make cold brew in advance and add it to the beer, or proceed with your plan, but use whole beans.

 

When I make cold brew coffee the grounds settle almost to a putty in the bottom of the jar, so I would think the grounds won't be an issue.

I was just thinking of brewing a coffee beer. But I was at one of my favorite local breweries and they had a "small batch " of their porter that was coffee infused, it wasn't good at all, over run by acidity of the coffee. It also lost all head retention and most of the body. Not to change the subject, but how would one prevent this. Make the cold brew coffee in a jar and add it just prior to bottling?

 

What you're tasting is likely over-extracted coffee. It's very common because most people don't know how to brew coffee properly. There are three major things that affect extraction: time, grind size, and temperature. (When you get into more advanced brewing methods, like espresso, pressure becomes a factor as well).

I already talked about contact time in an earlier post.

The temperature should either be just off-boil, room temperature, or fridge temperature. The higher the temperature, the less contact time you want, and vice-versa.

If you're getting a putty when you make cold brew, you're likely grinding too fine. You want a very coarse grind for a slow, cold extraction. Generally, the finer the grind, the less time you need to step, and vice-versa. I should note: If you have a blade (as opposed to burr) coffee grinder, you really don't have much control of the grind size. Even if you grind it coarsely, the dust created by the blades will compete extraction almost instantly, lending off flavors.

I would recommend adding whole beans to primary or secondary for a period of days (1-7, maybe). Otherwise, properly prepared cold brew concentrate (I believe the ratio I use (thanks to Modern Times) is 12 oz coffee to 7 cups of water) added prior to bottling or kegging is a excellent choice, if you've got the process of making it down.

 

Is that how much you use for a 5 gallon batch? Or is that just your ratio for the concentrate, then you figure out how much to use based on each beer?

 

I brewed an stout with coffee about 6 months ago. ROugh cracked beans into the boil, then some more in secondary. Needless to say the bags they both were in both broke open and I had a racking nightmare. Otherwise the beer was/is GREAT. Beans were in there for about 3 months and it is one of my best beers yet.

 

That's just the ratio I use to make cold brew coffee in general. It's a concentrate, keep in mind, so you'll want to dilute it with water or ice if you're drinking it black. One 12 ounce serving over the course of several hours is enough to give me serious jitters. It's high octane stuff, so I wouldn't go too heavy with it in a beer, since alcohol and caffeine don't mix.

My last coffee beer I dry beaned at 4 oz per 5 gallons, so I'd guess 2⅓ cups of cold brew would be in that range.

 

I would put it in a sack. Or do it as a could press.
I prefer cold press. Easier to control. Easier to clean up from.

 

I brew a cup of coffee and add it to the secondary.