Coffee roast for brewing coffee beer's?

Hello what’s the best type of roasted Coffee should one be looking for adding to there Coffee beer’s???

Coffee beers are difficult as the coffee adds bitterness. If I were you I would us a local roaster that you can get their coffee so you know what your getting.

The brewing process is also important in reducing bitterness. Cold brew is a bit more mellow. I like Sumatran.

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Yes I was thinking about doing what they call dry-beaning. Which would be technically cold brew coffee but I am using beer instead of water now I am wondering What temp should I dry-bean (adding coffee) at?

I’m a coffee nerd and have been thinking on this and have talked to a couple of my local roasters who collaborate with some breweries. Now if you want to to do a dark beer its more forgiving. I’ve grown away from dark roasted Indonesian coffees and prefer a medium roast Ethiopian. Ethiopian has a fruitet taste to me and I would use in a lighter beer. The breweries around here are making some pale ale coffee brews which are interesting. I would get a coffee that is no more than a week or 2 off roast and most definitely grind it yourself. Ground coffee will start to get oxygenated in a couple days. I would bloom the coffee to release the CO2 from the beans and add it when I cold crashed the beer.

@brew_cat you are right that the roast is critical. Founder Breakfast Stout has one of my favorite coffee profiles. They use Kona and Sumatran. Kona is very mild and fruity, not what I want in a coffee because I like the bite of the deeper roasts, but it was nice in beer. Trade Joes sells inexpensive Kona but its crazy expensive elsewhere.
I also thinking adding the coffee fresh at bottling/ kegging is the best way to preserve the coffee.

So you would add brewed coffee to the bottling bucket or keg? I could see that as a good way to control the flavor more than the steep at cold crash. At least until you made the recipe a couple times

You can do a mix to taste experiment before hand with a similar beer. Then plan accordingly at bottling time keeping in mind you will be diluting your ABV. Store-bought cold brew concentrate works well in this situation because you get more coffee with less water.

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I would be careful with oils from the coffee. Make the coffee and steep the grounds.

I like @irishjoe’s idea on steeping the grounds, especially if it’s a dark roast. The darker roasts, after the second crack, will put you into the dark/espresso roast range, but that comes with a lot of the oils being released onto the beans. This could also lead to some bitterness from the acidity of the oils released by the oils in the coffee.
Pairing the right coffee with the right hops could really pay off. Say an Kenyan coffee matched with a Citra or Mosaic hops both with citrus, grapefruit, and floral flavors. I’d use the Omega Hothead yeast. I recently used this kveik yeast and it leaves a nice clean flavor profile. As for the coffee, I’d roast it myself about 2-3 seconds past the second crack. I’d let the beans sit a day or two to degass and grind it to a coarse grind much like for a French press. Then I’d use it in the boil along with the hops for bittering and flavor.
My two cents :slight_smile:

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Pick up this months BYO magazine couple nice articles on brewing with coffee. A nice discussion with 4 breweries that explain their technique. I would be leary of putting it in the boil over extraction. It’s to hot and to long. Just my opinion. I think @squeegeethree has a good idea to blend it after the fact. It can get pretty gross pretty quick.

I would steep the grounds when the water is around 170-180. It’s approx. temp for making coffee. I would steep after boil.