Coffee Stout

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.
The recipe calculator works off the predicted attenuation of the yeast (sorry for the obvious stuff at the start). That's generally from the manufacturer and is for standard gravity (around 5% ABV) blond beers. There's many things that make that number not particularly reliable for dark beers, but the two bigger ones are that crystal and roast malts will make fairly unfermentable wort and they have materials that prevent the yeast working as well as predicted (maillard reaction materials).

A high amount of crystal and roast malts (up to 50%) can drop the attenuation 10 - 15%, medium amounts (around 30%) can drop it 5-10%.

There's more info that you probably want here - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2005.tb00648.x

I'd have thought a 60-65% attenuation would have been good with S04, but I haven't used it for dark beers. Someone who's used it more in dark beers would have a better idea. The 50% isn't great, but it's as good, if not better, than I was doing on my early dark beers. I'm still trying to work out if it's healthier yeast, more yeast or yeast nutrient that is more important. Probably a mix of the three.
 
I have had S-04 finish at 1020 in a 5% Stout. Looks like you have a session Stout there!
 
Hi all, tried a sample today, been bottle conditioning 13 days in a fairly warm room.

Tastes/smells awesome but very very light carbonation, too light for me. My question to the savvy brew vets is so do you think there is a chance for more carbonation with some more time?

Or is 2 weeks (will be 2 weeks tomorrow) all the time the yeasties need to do their thing in the bottles?

I did invert all my bottles a give them a swirl today. Not sure if that actually does anything.
 
Hi all, tied a sample today, been bottle conditioning 13 days in a fairly warm room.

Tastes/smells great but very very lite carbonation. My question to the vets is so you think there is a chance for more carbonation with some more time?

Or is 2 weeks (will be 2 weeks tomorrow) plenty for the yeasties to do their thing in the bottles?

I did invert all my bottles a give them a swirl.
When I bottled I found the only thing that helped carbonation was time. I’ve tried inverting, swirling, warming, setting the bottles on a running dryer, even a little hocus-pocus...only time seemed to help. Assuming all standard bottling practices were met, I’d say just give them another 2 weeks.
 
Hi all, tried a sample today, been bottle conditioning 13 days in a fairly warm room.

Tastes/smells awesome but very very light carbonation, too light for me. My question to the savvy brew vets is so do you think there is a chance for more carbonation with some more time?

Or is 2 weeks (will be 2 weeks tomorrow) all the time the yeasties need to do their thing in the bottles?

I did invert all my bottles a give them a swirl today. Not sure if that actually does anything.
Typically 3 weeks at 70F is what it takes for full carbonation
 
Save a couple aside, and leave them be for 6 months. This is a style that can benefit from aging.
 
A little over a year ago I brewed "Bloody Finger" Cranberry Chocolate Stout, 7.4%. I saved some number of bottles for a year. I'll just say that I am glad that I did.
 
I am going to set a couple aside. Silly noob question, when Im "aging" these does it matter if I store:
- chilled (this would be my preference, I have a small wine fridge that goes down to 6 deg C)
- in a cool corner of my basement (16-18 C)
- in my pantry (21-24C).

On a side note the extra week did carbonate this beer to a decent level, certainly no wonderful tan head on it but a nice level of carbonation for a stout, coffee aroma is amazing, coffee taste is perhaps a touch too much, I'll scale back the coffee additions a hair next time I make. All in all happy with how it turned out, thanks all for the help and input.
 
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Out of sunlight is probably the most important one. Other than that the warmer your storage location the quicker it ages.
 
Good point on the light!
 
I am going to set a couple aside. Silly noob question, when Im "aging" these does it matter if I store:
- chilled (this would be my preference, I have a small wine fridge that goes down to 6 deg C)
- in a cool corner of my basement (16-18 C)
- in my pantry (21-24C).

On a side note the extra week did carbonate this beer to a decent level, certainly no wonderful tan head on it but a nice level of carbonation for a stout, coffee aroma is amazing, coffee taste is perhaps a touch too much, I'll scale back the coffee additions a hair next time I make. All in all happy with how it turned out, thanks all for the help and input.
Wondering how your Coffee Stout has aged? Did the coffee taste mellow as the weeks went by (assuming there were weeks :D) or did it remain “a touch too much”? Did you ever pick up any green pepper flavors like @Nosybear alluded to earlier in this thread, and which I have heard is a common off flavor associated with coffee additions?

I ask because I plan on making a Coffee Stout this weekend, though I intend to just “dry bean” for about a week before packaging. I’m hoping to add coffee aroma, but not necessarily coffee taste, if that makes sense. Start small and build from there.
 
Wondering how your Coffee Stout has aged? Did the coffee taste mellow as the weeks went by (assuming there were weeks :D) or did it remain “a touch too much”? Did you ever pick up any green pepper flavors like @Nosybear alluded to earlier in this thread, and which I have heard is a common off flavor associated with coffee additions?

I ask because I plan on making a Coffee Stout this weekend, though I intend to just “dry bean” for about a week before packaging. I’m hoping to add coffee aroma, but not necessarily coffee taste, if that makes sense. Start small and build from there.
I have dry beaned with whole beans with great results! Do it!
 
It turned out great. I got nothing but great reviews from my beer compadres (although they may just being polite). I will make again in pretty much the same fashion “sparging” hot wort over freshly ground coffee and dry beanin! My initial thoughts of a little too much coffee flavour turned out ok after aging a little bit.
 
I have dry beaned with whole beans with great results! Do it!
Care to expand? How long did you leave the beans in and how much did you add?

My latest thought is 2oz whole beans in 3gallons (fermenter volume) for 1 week.
 
It turned out great. I got nothing but great reviews from my beer compadres (although they may just being polite). I will make again in pretty much the same fashion “sparging” hot wort over freshly ground coffee and dry beanin! My initial thoughts of a little too much coffee flavour turned out ok after aging a little bit.
Excellent. Glad to hear you have nice friends :D. I kid.

I thought the coffee might mellow a bit as it aged and I’m glad it came out great. The “sparging” idea sounds pretty interesting. Depending on how my first “dry bean” run goes, I may consider that for next time. Thanks for the reply.
 
Care to expand? How long did you leave the beans in and how much did you add?

My latest thought is 2oz whole beans in 3gallons (fermenter volume) for 1 week.

That sounds about right. I think I used 2 oz whole beans medium roast in 5 gallons of blonde stout along with 3 oz of cacao nibs for about 1 week.
 

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