This season I’ll try a coffee Porter. I have some MO but may get some golden promise for this. Just had a nice one today it was from a local brewery in collaboration with a local coffee roaster I just befriended. I’ll have to pick his brain. I’m think cold brew a gallon of coffee with 8oz of bean hold back a gallon of water from the kettle and top up with the cold coffee. Let that ferment then run it through my oak bourbon barrel briefly maybe 3 or 4 days. Maybe a little organic vanilla extract at the keg. Any input
Oddly enough I am doing the same thing at the moment. I was given a high end bad of de-caf whole beans by a place that gives away their 1 day past freshness date. I have done a lot of coffee experiments and have not decided what I prefer. Cold brew is a little too mellow for me. I do not recognize it as coffee in the beer, which may be a good thing, I haven’t decided. This time since it’s a porter and not a stout I’m just going to dump the whole bag of beans in the fermenter as if dry hopping (after a quick pasteurization) with the hope that it is not overwhelming.
Your going to grind them I assume. Dumping them in the fermenter would basically be doing a cold brew. Might be a little to much contact time if you’re planning on leaving the whole time or are you using a bag and plan on pulling them. You could just make a stronger cold brew. I’m not looking for a strong coffee taste more aroma. Same with the vanilla just a hint. Of course this is all guess work. I need to go back to the brewery and bring home a growler to analyze and like I said talk to my roaster friend, he’s collaborated with a few breweries. He said he’s done a coffee pale ale that he said came out great
I did over a pound of coffee last time trying to replicate Founders Breakfast Stout. I followed every advice from cold and hot side coffee makers. I make a much better cup of coffee in the morning now but all that effort was wasted on the beer I was trying to make.
No I’m not going to grind them at all. Just into the fermenter. My buddy at work did just that (with the other 12 oz bag of the same coffee) for 2 weeks and I was really impressed with his flavor. I’m going to do half the time and compare
Do you use much brown malt in your porter? Fawcett brown malt brings in a rich, toasty flavor that in my mind complements coffee very well. Might be worth trying.
Generally I’ll use chocolate malt and a dab of roasted barley. Don’t have anymore RB anyway so I’ll get some brown malt. Any Chrystal malt?
I don’t, but I’m a fan of old-school porter and stout recipes. Pale, amber, brown (about 25%), and black malt for color. Mash high, like 158-160F. I really like the base beer it makes, and blends really nicely with coffee. But that’s just to my taste, YMMV. Some dark crystal malt might be nice, though.
Uncracked beans you say? I blended some coffee in a glass to get an idea. It was like 2:3 which would be about 1lb of coffee. The porter I’m trying to replicate was more aroma than taste. Never had the founders. Not worrying about making it to strong I can always blend it. Maybe do a three gallon test batch
I used Chocolate Malt and Midnight Wheat in this porter at a 1:1 ratio. I really want the Golden Promise to still shine. I have not used Midnight Wheat before but it is supposed to be ultra smooth and not bitter.
The Founder Breakfast Stout is really well balanced and uses Kona coffee and Sumatran (from what I’ve read). Kona coffee is very mild and almost not coffee IMO. You can get it pretty cheap at Trader Joes. If you are interested, make sure it says 100% Kona because most Konas are a blend. Sumatran on the other hand is very complex and rich and it now my first choice for a cup of Joe.
I put some Honey malt is this porter which might be a mistake but I thought it might balance the coffee out.
My Brew Cat coffee blend is dark roast Columbian and Sumatra
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How are you planning on adding the coffee. I recommend adding it to your mash. Thats the best way i have found. Its a smoother flavor with out the harsh bitterness also the coffee oils dont destroy your head retention this way. Some of it is filtered in your grain. As for amount. My roasted pecan coffee stout i only use 1 oz and its noticeable coffee flavor.
1oz in 5 gallons? @squeegeethree said he uses 16oz. I was thinking 8oz cold brewed in a gallon of cold Water added after the boil. I have to talk to my roaster at Sacred Grounds he collaborates with some breweries around here. I’ll see what he says
There will be alot going on with this beer between the coffee, barrel and vanilla.
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Yes 1 oz of grinded for 5 gallons in the mash for a porter is i used 2 oz in my chocolate cherry milk stout. A pound is just way too much and a waste of good coffee.
I brewed a breakfast stout a few years ago and put 2 oz of coarsely ground sumatra beans in the boil for last 10 mins. I don’t seem to have documented what beans I used for the cold brew but they would have been another very dark roast bean as well. I put 2 oz of cold brew in the bottling bucket. The coffee was actually too strong. Almost over powering at first. After a few years it mellowed and you could taste the chocolate flavor a bit from teh cacao nibs. If I were to brew it again I’d sample the beer prior to bottling and dose it wtih small coffee additions to get the flavor I want then scale it up and add prior to bottling. I might scale back the coffee grounds in the boil a bit too…
I just checked. I use .25 oz of coffee to make a single cup of coffee. I do not think that I would taste 4 cups of coffee in 5 gallons of beer therefore I have to conclude that 1 oz will not be enough coffee for me
The first time I used coffee I used 5oz, medium ground, dark roast, added at end of boil. This was in a heavy stout and I think it was well balanced from what I remember.
I then remade the same recipe and added 2oz of sumatran (24oz water) cold brew that I added at end of boil and 2 oz of Kona ground during the secondary. I could barely taste this.
So the roast and the coffee brew style is important. I also think your personal coffee preference is important. Cold brew for me is flavorless. I’m actually adding 12oz (not 16oz) of unground beans next time in the attempt of getting my cold brew variation flavorful.
I don’t know how you’re making cold brew but I’ve never had a cold brew that could be remotely described as flavorless.
It lacks the punch. I know and can appreciate that it is a more rounded flavor profile. It is to coffee as the lack of IBUs is to beer for me. I also feel that Kona barely passes for coffee and I know it’s very sought after and expensive.
I agree regarding Kona and further I don’t believe it’s what it was 25-30 years ago. The market for Kona coffee in Japan is so off the charts that very little of the high grade Kona gets sold to the states. I’ve never been a huge fan of it either. It’s rather acidic and light compared to African, Asian or even south American beans.
I don’t drink cold brew but I heard you don’t get the oils in the beer doing it that way. I mostly do pour over and kind of critical of my coffee. I’ve had alot of coffee beer that I don’t like. This one that I did like smelled of coffee more than it tasted of coffee if you know what I mean. So I would like to get more aroma than taste. The flavor I want to get from the malt and the barrel with a tiny hint of vanilla.
