Adding coffee to Breakfast Stout, help needed.

[ClickClickBrew]

Hi Guys,

Need some suggestions here. Brewing up a Founder's Breakfast Stout clone (recipe) with a twist soon. I'm leaning more towards making it simply a coffee stout, ie sans chocolate, and have a question concerning the coffee addition.

The recipe suggests adding 2 oz of Sumatran coffee at the end of the boil, completing fermentation, then secondary'ing on 2 oz of Kona.

I'm considering upping the amounts to 3 oz each for a bit more punch, creating a cold brewed coffee, and adding it straight to the keg. However I need help on coffee to water ratio for the cold brew. All thoughts and suggestions welcome. Thanks!

 

[Jtvann]

I'm about to make one myself this weekend.

Not to derail your question, but in regards to Kona coffee ... Coffee can be labelled Kona Coffee even if it only has a small fraction of floor sweepings of coffee beans. Don't let price be the driving factor tip the quality of coffee. The bag should say 100% Kona coffee if it is the real thing. If it's not 100% Kona, you might as well just use any coffee that you really like.

That being said, I've got friends in the coffee business that gave me some beans a while back and making my own recipe with my spin was more special to me. I only used cold brew coffee in the fermenter. It took a while for the taste to meld together. By the time the keg was almost empty it was the most delicious beer I'd ever had. Need to age my next batch for sure.

My advice on the ratio of coffee to water is to just make a batch that tastes good. Experiment with a couple to suit your tastes. Maybe not the answer you are looking for. I'll let you know what I'm using later on in the week of youd like.

 

[ClickClickBrew]

I'm about to make one myself this weekend.

Not to derail your question, but in regards to Kona coffee ... Coffee can be labelled Kona Coffee even if it only has a small fraction of floor sweepings of coffee beans. Don't let price be the driving factor tip the quality of coffee. The bag should say 100% Kona coffee if it is the real thing. If it's not 100% Kona, you might as well just use any coffee that you really like.

That being said, I've got friends in the coffee business that gave me some beans a while back and making my own recipe with my spin was more special to me. I only used cold brew coffee in the fermenter. It took a while for the taste to meld together. By the time the keg was almost empty it was the most delicious beer I'd ever had. Need to age my next batch for sure.

My advice on the ratio of coffee to water is to just make a batch that tastes good. Experiment with a couple to suit your tastes. Maybe not the answer you are looking for. I'll let you know what I'm using later on in the week of youd like.

I trust that the Kona I purchased is good Kona as I know my roaster pretty well. However, even if it's isn't, it tastes great, so I'm happy. So what levels did you end up going with?

 

[plazola86]

Don't add it to the boil. Its going to add bitterness and just lose all the flavor and aroma after fermentation. Don't cold brew just add the beans or grounds to the fermenter a day or 2 before kegging or bottling. If you want a big coffee addition use 1oz per gallon.

 

[Jtvann]

I'd have to disagree about not using cold brew. It's very easy to dose a keg with the exact amount that you want. I've had good success with it in the past.

I agree with keeping it our of the boil.