Need help with coffee stout

First, it would be a great idea to check the SG of the beer before you go doing anything to it. Second, since you will just be adding coffee, a lot of people are going to tell you that there is no need to do a secondary due to the risk of many cons as opposed to the few pros. I would probably let the beer sit in he primary for 2-3 weeks and add the coffee towards the end of that time prior to bottling. Which leads me to my next question, how do you plan on preparing the coffee? There are a couple things you could do: I have taken fresh coffee beans and given them a nice course ground with a roller to break up the bean. You could achieve this with a meat tenderizer or hammer. If you decide to go that route, add about 2 oz of beans and then put them in a bag and add them to your fermenter. It would be a good idea to use *non scented dental floss* to tie to the bag and remove the bag at bottling time, or you could just work around it. If you choose to follow that step, you want to make sure that you check the flavor of the beer to see where the coffee is because it will definitely impose a strong coffee aroma the longer you leave it. 2 oz for almost 3 full days was perfect for me. I like coffee beers so I let mine sit a little bit longer.
The other route is that you could make a cold brew overnight and then add that to the bottling bucket.

 

Before I add the bag of beans to my beer, I soak the heck out of them in starsan. Some people don't bother but I am super anal about having ruining a beer due to being lazy.

 

I'm currently fermenting a stout to which I'll be adding 1L of cold brewed coffee. The idea with cold brewed coffee is that there would be less acid present from the high temperatures of a hot brew. I just wait until fermentation is done, and then dump in the brewed coffee.

 

When I add coffee for a beer that is going to be bottled rather than kegged, I just add it right at the time of bottling. That way, you can pull little samples of the beer until you've gotten just the amount of coffee you want. I can't see any benefit to adding it earlier.

Like most post-fermentation additions, the right amount tends to be a little less than your tongue thinks.

I also cold brew in a French press rather than hot brew for my coffee additions.

 

Hot brewing coffee releases oils and produces acids. I recommend cold brewing or better, place 4 to 8 ounces of a good Italian espresso blend whole bean coffee in a muslin bag and immerse that into your brew bucket during secondary. If you are weary of contamination, buy a lighter roast bean blend from your local coffee roaster and cook them for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven. Watch them so that they do not smoke and burn. add them after they have cooled.

 

Plenty of good recommendations here but I agree that adding cold brew to the bottling bucket / keg is the best bet. It's the best way regardless of the coffee you have and its roast to dial in the flavor that you want. The advice on whole beans (cracked) will vary person to person b/c of varying roasts, bean varieties, and flavor preferences.

I would definitely not use hot brew either way.

 

For sure cold brewed coffee. The tannins from coffee can greatly and negatively affect the beer flavor. I used to add at bottling so I could adjust the amount to flavor, but since have gotten better at knowing how much is needed/wanted so now I add in secondary to allow more time for the flavors to mingle and meld before going into bottles.

 

I am curious to this myself. Right this moment I have a coffee stout cooling in the kettle. Why not soak the coarse grind beans in vodka or whiskey like other adjuncts? Not trying to hijack the thread, just curious.

 

I can see why you might want to stay on the safe side.The only thing that comes to mind is at the time of addition you should have enough alcohol to negate infection. Still, I've never heard of that with coffee and I'm not sure why not.