Stout

[Gil Breau]

Hrm the cold brewing coffee makes sense...

The way a lot of people do it (myself included), is to "cold infuse" coffee and then add it to the secondary. I have done this a handful of times, with no contamination problems. Last one I did was a oatmeal coffee stout, which we called a "breakfast stout."

For a 10 gal batch, I steeped one pound of PREMIUM coarse fresh ground dark coffee in about half a gal of (boiled and cooled) water in the fridge for 24 - 48 hrs. Strained this through your standard kitchen strainer and added to the secondary. You will get less than HALF the original volume of water added, as the coffee soaks up a lot.

This was enough for a very pronounced coffee flavor - more than I would prefer, really. (though this is very subjective...I have compared to other coffee porters / stouts and it was similar) I have noticed that the coffee flavor does mellow over time. It has been about 5 months since bottling, and I enjoy the flavors a lot better now as they have married nicely.

If I were to do the recipe again, I would probably use 1/2 pound of coffee instead of one pound. I have never been a big fan of "added flavors" in beer, though, so....YMMV.

From what I understand, the cold extraction method will reduce / eliminate the amount of head retention destroying oils as opposed to HOT brewing the coffee.

[Richard]

I got to add again - for simplicities sake - six cups of (hot) brewed coffee added (cold) to the primary post-ferment produced a non-overwhelming but very pleasant coffee taste. This was with some fairly generic-brand Hawaiian coffee, basically packing the number-2 filter to the top. The head retention was fine, so I'm thinking this "coffee oils kill body" thing is another of those myths...

[Kyle]

Adding to secondary sounds like a good plan. After the coffee is brewed, would you bring it up to a boil to sterilize it before cooling and putting in secondary?

Also, by 6 cups, do you mean up to the "6" line on the caraffe, or 6 real cups, there is a big difference, at least on my coffee maker.

[Gil Breau]

I made 1.5L = 6 cups last batch and it was more than enough

The post I quoted said to pasteurize the water but just cold steep the grains overnight in the boiled water, and forgo sterilizing the brew.

[Richard]

I sanitised the carafe but didn't bother boiling the coffee... experience with coffee in general suggests that boiling it will leave you with 6 cups of ass, rather than 6 cups of tasty coffee

And I was going off the carafe, which I think operates in coffee cups which are only half a normal "cup" as per kitchen measurements. I may be wrong. If you're really interested I can measure the amount my carafe holds at this level.

[Kyle]

I'll just use 1.5 litres and make it super strong.

[Kyle]

It is time to add the coffee to this, so I will be making a very strong batch in my 1L French-press, since I find the flavour to be best that way. The question is do I add it (cooled) to the carboy and then let sit awhile, or just add right to the keg and put the beer on top?

I'm thinking both have pros/cons.

[Dave Savoie]

I would cool first then add and Keg on top

[JohnQ]

what about actually chilling it first so it doesn't sit around sucking up the air, or does the time that it sits matter?  Just thinking that cold coffee can taste like, oh you know, what Richard always says!

[Kyle]

I'll put the french press in the fridge, that should cool it quickly to warmish, and then I'll dump it in the keg, followed by the brew.

[Dave Savoie]

Ive read that it needs to be completely cooled as adding warm coffee to the wort can cause slight off flavors try to get it to same temp as the wort to be safe

[Kyle]

hmm, good to know.

I'll cool fully then.  I was going to keg this last night but since the kegs I ordered did not arrive at the originally stated date, I only had one available keg, and I put a lite ale in it. So the Stout is still waiting.

[Dave Savoie]

Kyle do you have a Mic for your computer ?

[Kyle]

It has one built in that works for Skype, but other than that, nope.

[Dave Savoie]

Nice it will work with Ventrilo then !!

Back to the Stout I just drank my last bottle of stout
all I have left is medicinal Raspberry beer Ewwwww