Coffee In Beer

[MattC]

Im planning on creating an imperial stout with an infusion of freshly ground coffee to give an extra hit. Was hoping to hear any tips from anyone who has used coffee in beer and what their experiences were. I was thinking of adding it to the last 10 min of the boil, as any longer may effect the bitterness of the coffee and the resulting beer. And what quantities should be added?

Any thoughts??

 

[RdeVjun]

In stout, it is not uncommon- link. Some tips on how- to there, but maybe also consider coffee- like effects of some roasted malts but without the caffeine or other perhaps unwanted effects.

 

[Barry]

I have put a plunger of coffee (Vittoria Expresso) in the last few litres of a Southern Brown and a 60/-. Still young but both have a strong' good coffee taste IMHO. Just added to the last few litres when bulk priming.
Did a similar thing with Basil/ginger and chilli/ginger for two diffent batches of kolsch. This way you don't have 20L of a beer you don't like and you can make a full batch if you like it.

 

[felten]

Not sure how it would go in beer, but when I'm adding coffee to various foods I like to make a few espressos worth and boil it down with a little sugar into a syrup, instant coffee essence!

 

[Fourstar]

either add espresso shots to primary or soak some coffee grounds in a white spirit and add that along with the ground to primary or secondary.

i did the later with cacao nibs and it was awesome. soaking the nibs in white rum for 24 hours ended up smelling like a rich chocolate liquor and added the lot to the beer. quite tasty indeed!

:icon_chickcheers: i'd say 100g of coffee would be plentiful with around 100-150ml of liquor/just covered. (i guess you could water it down, the alcohol is there to extract the flavours.)

 

[brendanos]

You will achieve the smoothest and most pleasant character by cold extraction. Grind the coffee coarse (or not at all), and either:

a.) soak the beans in cool, sterile water for 24 hours then filter the liquid or add it directly into secondary (or use a cold drip system) or
b.) add the beans directly into secondary approx 18-24 hours before racking to bottling bucket/keg

You don't want to boil the coffee, nor do you want the bitterness/oils associated with espresso/hot extraction.

 

[manticle]

either add espresso shots to primary or soak some coffee grounds in a white spirit and add that along with the ground to primary or secondary.

Initially I read that as 'soak in white spirit'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_spirit

 

[brendanos]

I think 5-20g/L would be a good ballpark dosage rate depending on how strong a character you want, how you plan to add it, how much contact time (if any) the beans will have with the beer, and what type of coffee you use. I prefer to use light roasts of arabica varieties with low acidity.

You may want to compensate in your recipe formulation by backing off on any black/burnt malt character and dropping your bitterness slightly.r

 

[MattC]

Thanks to all, some very helpful hints there. I like the ideas of cold extraction, the adding whole beans to secondary or soaking in cold sterile water and then adding to primary might be the go. On the other hand 4*, white spirits? Rum, vodka? I remember reading once a guy in america soaking cinnamon sticks in makers mark bourbon and adding to the primary, I wonder if something like that would work. I love bourbon!!, and makers mark :icon_drool2:

thanks again guys

 

[Fourstar]

Thanks to all, some very helpful hints there. I like the ideas of cold extraction, the adding whole beans to secondary or soaking in cold sterile water and then adding to primary might be the go. On the other hand 4*, white spirits? Rum, vodka? I remember reading once a guy in america soaking cinnamon sticks in makers mark bourbon and adding to the primary, I wonder if something like that would work. I love bourbon!!, and makers mark :icon_drool2:

thanks again guys

You could soak it in any booze really, any spirit is fine you just got to remember its going to impart flavour if its not a neutral spirit like white rum or vodka. Obviously with the small amount we are adding there is going to be very little flavour addition from the spirit but if you add a distinctive spirit e.g. laphroiag islay whisky you might notice the falvours it adds.

i used 2 1/2 shots (75-80ml roughly) on 50g of cacao nibs so id look at close to double that for 100g of coffee. Alcohol is the best way of extracting volitiles and flavour from an adjunct. Hence the reason why gin distilleries add their aromatics at the distillation phase. In other words, boiling or soaking in spirit in alcohol is the best way to go, (alteast IMO)

 

[enoch1973]

So the next question is do you throw everything in the fermenter or just strain the the liquid in there?
edit: assuming we're not using a secondary

 

[Nick JD]

I have put 20g of ground coffee in with the grains at mash before (15L batch). Works nicely - just a hint of coffee in the aftertaste.

 

[yardy]

the latest BYO mag has some good tips and recipes for coffee brews

 

[barto1308]

I wonder how it would go "priming" with a few whole coffee beans? It may not actually impart too much flavour, but it might just add a little interest to the beer - a bit like the worm in the tequila.
This discussion has peaked my interest- I might just have to have a go. I reckon a RIS with an addition of a few coffee beans soaked in Vodka would go alright... Dah, comrade?

 

[manticle]

I reckon a good RIS has probably already got enough going on but you could always try a bottle or two if you're curious.

 

[alkos]

Bubbly espresso! My friends' most favourite (asking for a second batch all the time!):

Doppio per favore!
13-D Foreign Extra Stout



Size: 20,0 L
Efficiency: 75%
Attenuation: 65%
Calories: 221,35 kcal per 12,0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1,065 (1,056 - 1,075)
|===============#================|
Terminal Gravity: 1,023 (1,010 - 1,018)
|================================|
Color: 67,4 (59,1 - 78,8)
|==============#=================|
Alcohol: 5,58% (5,5% - 8,0%)
|========#=======================|
Bitterness: 40,0 (30,0 - 70,0)
|===========#====================|

Ingredients:
4500 g Maris Otter
350 g Crystal 60
350 g Crystal 120
350 g Black Malt
350 g Roasted Barley
350 g Coffee (ground) - cold extract - added to secondary
80 g Goldings (4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 ea WYeast 1084 Irish Ale

Schedule:
Ambient Air: 21,11 C
Source Water: 15,56 C
Elevation: 0,0 m


Notes
Coffee to be extracted in cold (!) sanitized water in fridge, for 24h

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.11

 

[MattC]

So coffee grounds are different to ground coffee? Are they the leftovers of coffee in the bottom of the plunger? So why do we use the grounds? Is it because the volatile compounds have been removed via the coffee brweing process?

Cheers

 

[alkos]

Ooops, it was supposed to be "coffee (ground)" as opposed to "beans" ;-) typo - corrected.

 

[O'Henry]

I'd go with Brendanos. I've tried his beers made using cold extraction in the secondary. They were coffee extreme. One of them was off the chain, even coffee drinkers were like 'woah'. The results are of course dependent on the variety used and the amount of beans.

 

[GUB]

We used the cold press/french press technique on a Porter and it worked great. Was very much the dominant character but that is ok as we bottled half as coffee Porter the other half straight.

From memory it was 100g ground and soaked in 1L of deionised water overnight then put in a plunger to get the grains out. That went in ~20L. The bonus is that since it is such a small amount of coffee you can afford to buy excellent quality beans ($3 for the 100g). If you don't have a grinder get the shop to do it the day you plan to soak them. Such a pure coffee flavour!