Your thoughts/suggestions -Zoe clone dry hopped w/Coffee

Not sure what Zoe tastes like but here's my experience.

I added .25 lb of coarse ground coffee in a 5 lb batch of RIS and the coffee aroma was way to strong for a couple of months. At 6 months the beer was delicious and one of my best but it took up keg space for a long time to get to that point.

I fermented the beer out, then crash cooled at 32F for two weeks. Added the coffee to a new keg and racked the beer on top of it. I let the beer warm from 32F to room temp with the coffee in it for 48 hours then removed the coffee. The coffee aroma and flavor were delicious once it balanced. Maybe adding whole beans would cut some of the aroma down.

 

Might be weird with a hoppy amber like Zoe... but I say try it!

 

Zoe is such a great beer. I'd split the batch 50/50 regular clone vs coffee added. Good luck

 

I had good luck with a coffee blonde with lots of late-boil Cascades. Just make sure to select a coffee that meshes with the hop aromatics, something light, bright, citrusy etc. rather than something really dark, charred, chocolaty etc.

 

I do 2 oz for most 5 gallon batches. Takes 24-48 hours whole, or 12-24 hours for coarsely crushed. You can always add more if it needs it.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, I brew a lightly hopped coffee blonde with a more chocolatey/tobacco type bean at ~1 oz/gal 'dry beaned' for 48 hours. This produces a beer that is more like a malty iced coffee.

I would definitely recommend something much closer to OldSock's coffee ratio if you still want the hops to come through.