WTK: Adding Coffee & Cacao to Recipe

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by ultravista, Apr 24, 2013.

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  1. ultravista

    ultravista Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2010 Nevada

    I am planning an imperial coffee porter with cacao.
    The large batch recipe calls for 3 pounds of coffee and 2 pounds of cacao per barrel. If my math is correct, the multiplier for 5.5 gallons is 0.1774 (3*(5.5/31)*16).

    For 5.5 gallons, I plan on:
    8.5 ounces of coffee
    5.7 ounces of cacao nibs

    First, does that seem excessive for a 5.5 gallon batch?

    Second, what is the best way to add the coffee and cacao nibs? I’ve read about cold pressing the coffee and vodka soaking the nibs and looking for opinions on which is the best way to extract flavor without astringency. Others put both into the primary, secondary, or keg. I’ve also read about a brewer soaking the cacao in vodka and hitting it with a blender/processor to emulsify the batch.

    Normally my batch size is 5.5 gallons to net 5 gallons in the keg; however, with the introduction of coffee and cacao, I may need to adjust the batch size to account for the extra volume or potential loss due to absorption.

    When cold pressing coffee, is there a ratio of water to crushed coffee? Do you use all of the liquid or condense it down to a slurry?

    The same goes for the cacao.

    Is there a disadvantage to adding the coffee and cacao slurry to the chilled fermenter or is it best to do it post-fermentation.
    Looking for your best practices – please chime in.
     
    #1 ultravista, Apr 24, 2013
  2. sergeantstogie

    sergeantstogie Initiate (0) Nov 16, 2010 Washington

    What the hell is WTK? Never used nibs but coffee gets a course grind and tossed into secondary or a cold press and into secondary.
     
    #2 sergeantstogie, Apr 24, 2013
  3. Herky21

    Herky21 Initiate (0) Aug 7, 2011 Iowa

    I'd suggest roasting the nibs in the oven. It sanitizes and makes the flavor even better. And the addition of coffee depends on the rest of the recipe. Cold press is good, or putting coffee beans (ground to coarse) straight into the secondary can work well too. If you plan on some of the bitterness acting as part of the perceived IBUs of the recipe, you'll need to steep some coffee post boil while it is still hot.
     
    #3 Herky21, Apr 24, 2013
  4. barfdiggs

    barfdiggs Initiate (0) Mar 22, 2011 California

    If adding the beans coarsely ground to secondary (or primary after fermentation is complete) 8.5 ounces gives you around 1.5 oz/gallon of beer, which is a bit on the high end. Personal experiences using coarse ground coffee have yielded around 0.5-1.0 oz of coarse ground coffee per a gallon of beer if you want a coffee bomb, so 1.5 oz/gallon may be extreme (if this is what you're going for, great). Method of choice, coarse grind beans, put in sanitized hop bag and steep in the beer for 24 hours (68F) or 24-48 hours (38F; preferred).

    Re nibs, you can add in secondary (I had one of my only two infections adding to secondary, even after dunking nibs in star san, so beware) or make a vodka tincture (BA drewbage method). I switched over to the vodka tincture as it works well. Soak nibs in vodka for 3-4 days, filter solids from liquid using coffee filter over mason jar, stick mason jar containing liquid in freezer with straw in the liquid, wait for fat to solidfy on top, pour resulting liquid through straw into beer. FWIW after filtering with a coffee filter I've stuck the mason jar containing the filtrate in the fridge and waited for remaining solids to drop out (sometimes a little stuff goes through the filter) and added that to the beer, and it worked fine, but head retention was reduced a little because of the fat.
     
    #4 barfdiggs, Apr 24, 2013
  5. ultravista

    ultravista Initiate (0) Dec 11, 2010 Nevada

    Herky21 - do you have a process for roasting the nibs?
     
    #5 ultravista, Apr 24, 2013
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