Black malt & coffee mead

strogermead

strogermead

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I want to know if anyone have negative experiences with (cold brewed) coffee in primary fermentation.

I like to experiment. Now I'm planning to make a mead with cold brewed coffee (then sanitised by heating) and ferment it with some malting chocolate and roasted barley. And a somewhat dark honey. SRM 17 / EBC 34.
 
I've never heard of using roasted malts in a mead and have no advice whatsoever for you. I'm just hoping to hear about how it is once you've brewed it.
Thank you in advance
 
whats the DP on that Mash? just wondering how well that grist is going to convert without base malt. oh ok your using them as colour /flavour steep?
 
Using the malt as colour / flavor / body :) I'll do a test with the ingredients first, to see / taste what I get when combining them.
 
Just an update: Now having tried the ingredients the only taste I get is ashes with some coffee. But still I suppose I have to go through with it, hoping the honey from the Brazilian mountains will back me up. Even thought of a name; silent, dark and sad. From a Norwegian song about taking a girl home from an after party. Hooray.
 
Sometimes you just have to commit to it and hope it turns out in the end.
 
strogermead said:
Just an update: Now having tried the ingredients the only taste I get is ashes with some coffee. But still I suppose I have to go through with it, hoping the honey from the Brazilian mountains will back me up. Even thought of a name; silent, dark and sad. From a Norwegian song about taking a girl home from an after party. Hooray.
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Just a thought but if you kept it to the sweeter side just a bit, it may turn the ashes around to blend with the coffee. Hope it turns out, sounds interesting. Cheers!
 
Head First said:
Just a thought but if you kept it to the sweeter side just a bit, it may turn the ashes around to blend with the coffee. Hope it turns out, sounds interesting. Cheers!
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I think I've found a good blend already, having 3-4 attempts on the kitchen counter :) Thought I'd stop it at 1.006, not too sweet because of the lack of bitterness. But we'll see when sweetening after fermentation.
 
Sounds like you're making a braggot of sorts, honey & malt. Dark roasts have a bitterness to them you may not want, lighter roasts give a more pleasant coffee flavor. Three methods are, 1) Toss a few ounces in secondary, 2) blend with cold brewed coffee, 3) staggered additions during fermentation. All three of these work, just depends on how much coffee you want.
 
The small amount of malt doesn't qualify it to be a braggot. And I'm not really going for å coffee mead, just want to see what I get when combining the ingrediens Might be shit, might be gold
 
strogermead said:
The small amount of malt doesn't qualify it to be a braggot. And I'm not really going for å coffee mead, just want to see what I get when combining the ingrediens Might be shit, might be gold
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According to BJCP, there is no "qualified" amount of malt needed. The overall impression must be a "harmonious blend of mead and beer." The rumor that it had to be 50% of one or another is an old wives tale.
 
jdwebb said:
According to BJCP, there is no "qualified" amount of malt needed. The overall impression must be a "harmonious blend of mead and beer." The rumor that it had to be 50% of one or another is an old wives tale.
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The old wives told me 25, but ok :)
 
jmcnamara said:
I've never heard of using roasted malts in a mead and have no advice whatsoever for you. I'm just hoping to hear about how it is once you've brewed it.
Thank you in advance
Click to expand...

A short week on bottle:
Smell: A mix of 2/3 coffee and 1/3 black malts. Smells quite good. Good balance. Not too sweet.
Taste: Coffee pops right out but is quickly replaced by a shortlived bitterness. The black malts make an entrance, but the quite potent coffee is what stays in the after taste. Semisweet. I keep forgetting i have honey in this thing.

I used more coffee than I planned since I thought didn't have enough and panicked. Should have stayed with the original plan. I suppose the tastes will come better together with time.
 

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strogermead said:
I want to know if anyone have negative experiences with (cold brewed) coffee in primary fermentation.

I like to experiment. Now I'm planning to make a mead with cold brewed coffee (then sanitised by heating) and ferment it with some malting chocolate and roasted barley. And a somewhat dark honey. SRM 17 / EBC 34.
Click to expand...
Off topic but...............I would like to try and make some Mead, seems like you would be the one to ask for a good mead recipe from. (I checked your website but..........not my language..lol)
 
Vallka said:
Off topic but...............I would like to try and make some Mead, seems like you would be the one to ask for a good mead recipe from. (I checked your website but..........not my language..lol)
Click to expand...
What kind of mead do you want to make? My first one was a rousing success, ready to drink in 6 weeks, nice flavors, nothing hot or boozy about it....
 
Vallka said:
Off topic but...............I would like to try and make some Mead, seems like you would be the one to ask for a good mead recipe from. (I checked your website but..........not my language..lol)
Click to expand...

You could start with a (perhaps boring) base mead: water, honey, yeast and nutrients. Get the basics right. You could also just boil a tea for 15 minutes out of almost anything with taste or bitterness and add it, either with the fermentation or when racking afterwords.

A good place to go for guidance is gotmead.com's mead guide. I don't follow their nutrients regime, just use Wyeast nutrients for wine :)
 
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