Want to make a Coffee Stout. Tips/Thoughts?

Your question comes up fairly often in this forum. I can't offer any advice from personal experience because I have never brewed a coffee stout; however, here is a link to a search that I did of thread titles that have 'coffee' in the title. There's a lot of reading in these threads but it may be the quickest way for you to get a lot of info. https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/33440260/?q=coffee&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8

 

oh yeah, definatly in the yearly rotation. Lots of options, tho I am not familiar with 2 roads brew.
tips:
if your going to make coffee, cold press it and use a coffee you really like ,ie, don't use instant if you like Sumatra XXX.

if using beans I find coarsely crushing them works best and if you put them in after the primary ferment is done, sample the brew every 3-4 days. Beans give off a lot of flavor and aroma. you can over do it with coffee.

for me, I find using british malts( crisp, simpsons) give the best stout results .

Simpsons make a coffee malt which is ok and less work using in the mash than screwing around with coffee or beans. that being said, I think beans is best.

good luck

 

I used this recipe recently: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/coffee-chocolate-stout.441897/

And it turned out quite nice. I like a little more sweetness to my coffee stouts, so I will probably modify the grain bill slightly next time and add lactose.

For coffee I used 3oz of fresh sumatra beans ground to a french press consistency, poured in a little vodka, and froze overnight to kill any bugs. I threw this in at time of kegging and had plenty of lovely coffee notes.

If you are bottling, I would just let the coffee sit for about 5 days on secondary prior to bottling. I typically stay away from cold press as I worry about infection.

 

After brewing a handful of coffee stouts, there a couple things I'd recommend...

1) Go with a dark roast. I personally like light roasts when I'm drinking coffee, but for a coffee beer you want the bold, rich, chocolately, roasty flavors of a dark roast and not the bright, fruity, floral, citrusy flavors of a light roast.

2) Go local. Don't buy starbucks, just get whatever is local and good.

3) "Dry bean" for the last few days before packaging using whole beans. People will have different opinions on this one, but I prefer to steep whole beans in my beer rather than making cold brew and adding that.

 

Just started drinking our first stout from Jaspers "I Eat Danger for Breakfast Stout" Breakfast Stout clone and it's pretty damn close to the shelf version, as the Mrs says, smells like coffee and tastes like chocolate