Imperial Stout and when to add coffee?

The Green Man

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Hello brewers, I've just made up this Imperial Stout recipe. Whether, I'll pitch it on a massive yeast cake I'll have waiting, or not, I don't yet know,
I'm going to add coffee as a kind of dry hop / cold steep in the Primary for about about 12 hours (to avoid vegetal off flavour, in theory). The coffee will be ground mocha in a hop bag. The bag should keep the grounds in. I've read that this is a good way to get the coffee taste without uncontrolled and unpleasant bitterness. What do you think? Do you have any methods you use that have worked.

Here's the recipe:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/634098/old-bean-imperial-stout

Any and all advice on the recipe in general welcome as always. Thanks all.
 
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Gday Goodevening Green man ive only done one coffee beer that being a coffee chocolate stout from bertus breweries i always seem to get his name wrong hes got a blog going.

here is the brew i made https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/509259/choccoffee-stout

i added more coffee in fermentor it had plenty of coffee flavour and not overwhelming a great beer i loved it:).
 
heres me brew log on that coffee addition.
Screenshot_20180406-204346.png

the coffee came to the fore as stout conditioned not that its mentioned in brew log lol
 
Cheers mate. So about 10g of ground coffee in 5 litres probably be about right in a big Imperial then you reckon?
I'm thinking of a dry hop type effort. You didn't get any vegetal taste with the coffee in the primary for the duration?
 
Cheers mate. So about 10g of ground coffee in 5 litres probably be about right in a big Imperial then you reckon?
I'm thinking of a dry hop type effort. You didn't get any vegetal taste with the coffee in the primary for the duration?
You just touched on the reason I don't do coffee in my beers - I don't like the vegetal taste. But if I were to, I'd just cold-steep some coffee and add it to taste at packaging. Solves the problem of trying to predict the outcome. Or if you like brewed flavors, brew some and add to taste at packaging. Like espresso flavor? Same thing. Easier to do, introduces less oxygen, lower chance of infection, particularly if you cold-steep with boiled, cooled water and sanitize the h*** out of your French press.
 
When I've done coffee porter, I put 4 oz (weight) of ground coffee in a 32 oz bottle, filled the bottle with spring water, capped it and put it in the fridge over night. Next day poured through a coffee filter into a carboy and racked the beer on to it. This was a 5 gallon batch. Came out great.
 
I have a coffee stout on rotation through out the fall and winter. I like a robust coffee flavor so I add 8 oz of coarse ground coffee with a couple quarts of water and cold brew at least overnight. Add at packaging to taste. I add the whole thing after it is strained. My inspiration is Sierra Nevada's Coffee Stout.
 
Thanks all. Seems the cold steep is the way to go.
Out of interest, why not do the ground coffee as a 12 hour dry hop in a very fine mesh tea bag? Is it oil related or an infection risk?
Seems similar to me to the cold steep. I'll have a think and let you know how I get on.
 
Steeping in a bag should work. I didn't have a bag fine enough to hold in coffee grounds which is why I decided on my cold steep. I didn't want to make hot coffee to use because that is more bitter than when you cold steep it. But if you are steeping it in the beer, it will be cold so you shouldn't get bitterness.
 
A French press works nicely, if you have one, for both cold and hot steeps.
 
No perceived vegetable flavours as far as I remember :rolleyes:. I added the ground directly like I would my hop charges. Horses for courses and courses for horses whatever that means lol.
 
Cheers guys, think I will just chuck the coffee in a bag and dry hop-type steep for 12 hours-ish.
 
That will work, too! It might be interesting to split the batch and try several techniques to see what works best for the beer....
 
That will work, too! It might be interesting to split the batch and try several techniques to see what works best for the beer....
Would like to, just space and equipment problems. Will have to do it serially and see which one works best.
 

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