Coffee Stout

2 grams of coffee seems a bit light, but perhaps you are not looking for something to keep you awake at night. Try it and keep notes for the next batch.

Point of reference, i used 2 oz (55 g) in 21 liters (5-1/4 gal) of a Porter, at the same time I pitched the yeast and the coffee flavor is there but not overpowering.
 
Oops Thanks Don I didn't enter it into the recipe correctly, my intention was on cold steeping about 1/4 lb of course ground coffee in a liter of water overnight then filter and add post boil.
 
You should bitter with something other than EKG. Save those wonderful hops for late additions and bitter with something more purposeful like Magnum or Bravo.

+1 on the suggestion for Flaked Barley.

I hold my Stouts near and dear, and I'm not a fan of Crystal or Chocolate in them. 2-Row (70%), Flaked Barley (20%) and Roasted Barley (10%) is all you really need (though I find a small addition of Wheat helps with head retention).

My favorite Stout yeast - by far - is BRY-97. Attenuates well and leaves the beer dry and quaffable. Just the way I like them.

Good luck!
 
I'd be careful with coffee: Either too much or too little, not quite sure, and it takes on a flavor that I describe as green pepper. Tastes downright nasty to me. Others may like it so take this as advice, not gospel....
 
Ok so today was a bit of a struggle for me. I started off realizing I forgot to grab hops, so I sub’d in Cluster hops, adjusted the addition time for the 9.5AA to hit the ibu’s I was after.

I was shooting for a strike temp of 160f for a mash at 152f, hit my strike temp, killed the heat, added grains and my temp was 158f....barely dropped at all, mash ended at 152f at the end of 60 min, so not sure what that means for my finished beer. Second brew in a row I’m high on strike and mash temps will adjust for next time.

Did the boil for 60 mins and then circulated hot wort over approx 125 gms/4.5oz of freshly ground coffee.

Chilled it down and seems I’ve missed my OG by 2 points 1.054 versus 1.056.

Also coffee flavour seems very weak at this stage.

Also chilled wort down to 18C/64f and realized I pitched yeast that was closer to room temp, believe I read somewhere this is a big no-no?

Not my best brew day.

Wort tastes great though. :)

Happy Brew Years!
 
None of that seems to be cause for concern.

Except that 4.5 oz of coffee is what one might use for 4 cups of morning joe (32 oz.) so it wont be "coffee" but have a hint of. Which, I guess, is the point.

I bet it turns out great.
 
Thanks for the reassurance Don, hoping so!

Anyone out there have experience “dry-beaning” (har-har) was thinking if I throw a big ‘ol handful of whole coffee beans in a hop bag weighed down with some marbles for a few days before bottling??
 
Doesn't sound all that different from one of my first few brews.
Next time you are too warm after mashing in, you can add cool water to bring the temp down if you need, but 158 isn't too terribly bad, especially seeing as you fell from 158 to 152. A single mash temp measurement isn't all that accurate anyway. Six degrees is a pretty significant drop, that early temperature may not have been accurate.
 
Haha. So simple.....didn’t even think of that.
 
BrainYYC said:
Haha. So simple.....didn’t even think of that.
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Every single detail doesn't have to be absolutely perfect, but the closer you get on each of those details, the better your beer will be! Brew, think, learn, brew again but brew better!
 
BrainYYC said:
Thanks for the reassurance Don, hoping so!

Anyone out there have experience “dry-beaning” (har-har) was thinking if I throw a big ‘ol handful of whole coffee beans in a hop bag weighed down with some marbles for a few days before bottling??
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I've done this a few times. Great for aroma, not a huge hit to flavour though. Certainly worth doing, especially as it's so easy.
 
BrainYYC said:
Thanks for the reassurance Don, hoping so!

Anyone out there have experience “dry-beaning” (har-har) was thinking if I throw a big ‘ol handful of whole coffee beans in a hop bag weighed down with some marbles for a few days before bottling??
Click to expand...

I used the “dry beaning” method for a blonde stout. Worked great. I could see the results being more mild in a proper stout. I think I used 2-3 oz for 5 gallons of beer.
 
So confused, unless I’m reading this wrong beer finished at 1.027, my refractometer reading before it went into fermenter was 1.054, ABV of only 3.5%. Fermentation seemed like it went well, was in the fermenter for 16 days. I am confident that my pitching and fermentation temps were all good. Taste and smell is excellent.

Will this impact bottle conditioning, I used prescribed weight of corn sugar for the beer temp and 2.0 volumes of co2

Thoughts?



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It shouldn't affect carbonation. My guess is that if you had it in the fermentor that long, it's done. You could have taken gravity readings on three consecutive days and looked for change - a refractometer, even uncorrected, is great for this. But if it had fermented that long - caveat, and it wasn't WY3724 - it's likely done.
 
Thanks Nosy, so you think this is an attenuation issue? 50%ish (realty) instead of 70%ish as defaulted in the receipt creator.

just trying to learn/nail down my process.
 
BrainYYC said:
Thanks Nosy, so you think this is an attenuation issue? 50%ish (realty) instead of 70%ish as defaulted in the receipt creator.

just trying to learn/nail down my process.
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Depends on a lot of factors. Yes, the attenuation seems a bit low but it could be the yeast - some English yeasts really drop like a rock, for example, the wort if the mash temperature got too high, any number of things. But yeast generally tend to consume all the sugars they can before dropping out of suspension so in most cases, once they stop, they're done. You may be able to coax another point or three out of the wort by using krauesen or a wine yeast, generally not worth the effort.

Forgot to mention: The default by the recipe creator - he or she may not have gotten any better attenuation than you did, they just didn't update the attenuation. I never do....
 
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