After my first ever home brew

[TapeDeck]

It appears that my first home brew (Midwest extract Porter kit) is a success. A few minor problems but nothing that should have contaminated the beer, and it's bubbling away happily. Biggest problem is that I left my hydrometer at my folk's place (we were going to brew there on Christmas but were all too beat!) so I don't have gravity readings. I was planning to just wait about 2 weeks before going to secondary, and then leave it there for about a month. Pretty arbitrary, but I figured on aiming to go a bit long, to make sure things are done. I plan on drinking in late February.

I am not seeing specific threads on a couple of questions I have, so I wanted to ask here. I'm using the iPad app, and not totally used to the forum software, so if I'm beating a dead horse here, I would be totally glad to have a thread link rather than have anyone feel like they're beating a dead horse.

1). I want to add coffee to this beer. I know it's my first brew and logic dictates that I should just see how it turns out, but logic also dictates that you should make what you like to drink, and coffee porters and coffee stouts are my favorite drinks right now. Plus, kits are so inexpensive... All I lose is a few bucks and a day of work if I end up with something undrinkable.

From what I've read, the most favored coffee extraction method is a cold press. Is that just my French Press overnight in the fridge before squeezing?

I'm reading that most pour coffee into the secondary just before bottling or kegging. Is there any special step required for sanitation, or any sort of mixing method I should use? Or just pour and start bottling?

2). I'll have the cake at the bottom of my primary when I go to secondary in mid January. I know the next beer I make will be a stout. Is there any use to the cake in the primary? In other words, if I have that Sunday open, and can start the stout right then, would it do good things, bad things, or horrifying things to put my porter into secondary and pour the cooled boil kettle right into the primary with the old cake? I'm assuming it's a bad idea, but I was just curious. I'm just looking to see if there's any advantage besides pipeline, to running one beer after another.

Thanks for reading!

 

[browncoat]

Hi

To answer your questions:

1) a french press overnight would work. I have done it once that way and needed to add alot more coffee beans to extract the same flavor. I have also just added slightly crushed beans to a secondary and that worked well.

2) you can rack right on ti the yeast cake and some here do that. I normally wash my yeast. It is really easy, there is a sticky in (I believe) the fermentation forum. It illustrates the process really well.

 

[TapeDeck]

Hi

To answer your questions:

1) a french press overnight would work. I have done it once that way and needed to add alot more coffee beans to extract the same flavor. I have also just added slightly crushed beans to a secondary and that worked well.

2) you can rack right on ti the yeast cake and some here do that. I normally wash my yeast. It is really easy, there is a sticky in (I believe) the fermentation forum. It illustrates the process really well.

1). I was thinking about trying an Aeropress, as that seems to be the most successful method I've had of making very strong coffee without getting gritty or oily like the French Press. But I'm wondering about whether HEAT is the problem (Charlie P only mentions coffee briefly, but seems concerned with hot coffee and tannins) or simply the method of extraction. From what I understand, Half Acre used a butt load of standard pour overs... I think regular hot coffee... For their Big Hugs Imperial Stout.

2). Thank you! Will find the sticky!

 

[browncoat]

I think heat is the problem. I am no coffee expert but I believe that hot coffee extraction brings out some tannins or oils that are usually undesirable in beer. The java stout kit from northern brewer has you add the beans to the secondary. A search yields, like everything else in homebrewing, many different opinions and techniques to accomplish the same goal.

 

[Grumpybumpy]

I think heat is the problem. I am no coffee expert but I believe that hot coffee extraction brings out some tannins or oils that are usually undesirable in beer.

Plus 1

Cold brewing makes a much smoother flavor and keeps the oils to a minimum which affects head retention. Test out both methods ahead of time to taste the difference

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Also, the mobile app's search function is pretty terrible. Try using the dropdown to select search titles only. It helps narrow things down a bit