Coffee Pale Ale

[timmehgrogan]

Had an amazing beer when I was in canada last year and am trying to recreate it. I've searched everywhere for ideas so thought I'd come here.
I'm only can brewing at the moment, done 2 which have been quite enjoyable.
The beer label (which I have) says it has Simcoe hops and California yeast, which I searched for but only came up with a lager yeast, then narrowed down to American Ale II 1272.
I was going to combine these with the Coopers APA can and fermentables. Only thing is, I have no idea how to add the coffee.
When I did the brewery tour in canada they said they used 20% brewed coffee in the beer, which I'd equate to 4l for a 20l batch, but not sure how it would go.
would anyone have any tips or ideas on this??
Cheers in advance

 

[brianvcskin]

Cold steep the coffee if you do it hot you will get too much tannins. For the amount I would say trial and error. But somebody might have prevoius experience on qty.

 

[rossbaker]

I'd like to hear how this recipe turns out...

 

[Matty McFly]

I once used 2L of cold steeped coffee in a 20L batch of stout. It was quite nice, but crazy bitter, so be careful with it. I'd recommend starting with a smaller amount, 4L is quite a lot and will probably overpower any other subtle flavours you're going for.

Maybe it's worth splitting the batch up in two smaller fermenters and expermenting? Those 10L water containers from Bunnings would do it.

Let us know how you go, I'm curious too.

 

[fletcher]

for a coffee flavour, i'd probably recommend steeping some chocolate malt and adding this to your boiling water when adding your ingredients. i've always found that chocolate malt gives a HUGE coffee flavour and aroma to a beer. in a lighter pale ale, it would really shine through.

 

[dean1639]

You could try cold brewed coffee, do a bit of research on this method of brewing coffee.

Cheers

 

[chubbytaxman]

Hey timmeh,

This sounds like a really awesome beer ...
Being an AG'er, I might have a look at adapting this.
Hearing good stuff about cold steeping coffee overnight etc, however, not thought of chocolate malt as fletcher says above :beer:
Interested to hear how it turns out - if you go that road.

 

[timmehgrogan]

Cheers guys. Got my hops and yeast ordered today and getting the Coopers stuff during the week.
Gonna go the cold steep and see how it goes.
Will keep you posted!

 

[LiquidGold]

I did a coffee stout last year that I was happy with which tasted and looked more like coffee than beer using cold steep. The thing to keep in mind is not just how much volume of cold steep coffee you use but also the strength of that steep which in my case was a 1:10 ratio of coffee to water eg. 50g to 500ml.

I can't remember where I read it but someone suggested adding the coffee either in secondary or when bottling and to work out your quantities by testing a small sample. I remember using a pipette and adding 1ml at a time to a 50ml sample until I thought it tasted good then scaled up.

I ended up putting 400ml of 1:10 ratio cold steep coffee to 10L of stout and although it tasted great it overpowered everything else. I was glad to have bottled the first half without coffee to have as a side by side comparison.

 

[timmehgrogan]

Brew was put on last night. Simcoe hops smell amazing!
Gonna cold steep coffee tonight and add to fermenter tomorrow night.
Fingers crossed

 

[timmehgrogan]

PS. Cold steeped coffee smells amazing when opening the fridge door!

 

[timmehgrogan]

So on Friday night I added a litre of my cold brewed coffee to my 22 litres in the FV. I'd ground 200g of coffee beans in a pestle and mortar and added to a nut bag and left overnight.

Got home from a weekend away last night and took a reading, which was all good.
But the best thing was that there was a distinct coffee aroma, and taste too, not over powering but could still taste the coffee and the hops. Going to bottle on Sunday... unless I get a keg before then (fingers crossed)

 

[Spiesy]

Minor difference, but if it states "California yeast" it is more than likely WLP001 California Ale Yeast. WY1056 or US-05 will be very similar.

 

[Dave70]

for a coffee flavour, i'd probably recommend steeping some chocolate malt and adding this to your boiling water when adding your ingredients. i've always found that chocolate malt gives a HUGE coffee flavour and aroma to a beer. in a lighter pale ale, it would really shine through.

Yep. Always found the results with adding coffee adjuncts hit and miss. Better off steeping choc and /or and roasted barely than faffing about with french presses.

 

[timmehgrogan]

So, beers have been in the bottle for 2 weeks now and cracked the first one last night.
Very happy with the outcome, and with a little bit of tweaking and maybe it being my first AG beer when I get to it, will make a great breakfast beer!
Looking forward to consuming a few for the long weekend!

 

[timmehgrogan]

 

[mattymcfatty]

Good to hear. Did the coffee flavour come through as expected?

 

[timmehgrogan]

Yeah it did. Coffee might be a bit bitter though. That's where the tweaking needs to be done.