How can I turn a Sweet Stout into a Coffee Stout?

[mckeand13]

I just purchased a NB Sweet Stout that I'd like to turn into a Coffee Stout. Mmmmmm.

I'm just wondering what to add and when.

Coffee beans, grounds, coffee itself.....

While steeping, secondary fermentation......

Please post things that you've tried and how they have turned out.

Thanks!

[bstein]

20 oz of your favorite coffee cold brewed for 24 hrs added at bottling time. This is how a new recipe from BYO reads. It is a chocolate coffee stout. That is how I am going to do my next stout with coffee and using this method.

Cold brewing extracts the flavor without the tannins and acidity of normal hot coffee.

[fricka]

Just another idea. There are LOTS of ways to make coffee stout. My personal favorite is to simply rack the beer to secondary and dry "hop" with 5-10oz (that's a guesstimate quantification of my own eyeball morning estimates -- basically the same amount you'd use for half to a full 12-cup pot of strong java) of good quality very coursely ground beans. If you're in doubt about how much to add, maybe go light 'till you get a feel for it and an idea of how much you personally like. The course grind is key to making this work -- a fine grind will carry over into the bottling bucket and might jam your bottle filler. Makes for a smoother, more delicate coffee addition than adding brewed coffee straight to the bottling bucket imo. But that's just my opinion. You'll no doubt develop your own.

[stumptowner]

i followed recipe which had you add a pot of fresh-bewed coffee at flameout. It was great...
But next time I think i'm gonna try that idea of "dry-hopping" with ground beens in the secondary.
or maybe i'll add some freshbrewed at bottlting.

or maybe do some of all all three.

lots of ways to play around with this,

i think coffee and stout are a perfect match.

I don't see how you could go "wrong" with any of the methods.

[Burcee]

I made a vanilla coffee stout a couple of months ago. I just steeped a cup of ground vanilla flavored coffee in a grain bag at flame out. It turned out amazing! The aroma of the vanilla is very strong, however not strong in the taste. I think it's a great balance. A very interesting beer!!

[mckeand13]

Could you define cold brewing? I've never heard of that before.

Thanks for the ideas so far. They all sound good. Hmmm which way?

[antipop]

I wanted to do the same thing with the Sweet Stout. I bought a half pound of Espresso from Caribou and had them grind the beans for a French Press (this leaves the beans very coarse/thick) and then I added them for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
Everyone that tried it thought it was really good and compared it to the Bell's Java Stout.

[GOOMBA!]

20 oz of your favorite coffee cold brewed for 24 hrs added at bottling time. This is how a new recipe from BYO reads. It is a chocolate coffee stout. That is how I am going to do my next stout with coffee and using this method.

Cold brewing extracts the flavor without the tannins and acidity of normal hot coffee.

This is definitely the way to go. I made a Sumatra Porter last year and it was by far the most popular beer of 2004 from our humble crew. Unfortunately I can't be much help in the How-To department as a buddy of mine is a coffee guru/roaster and he made me what he called a cold toddy for the same reasons stated above by bstein/BYO. If there is a good coffee shop (not morebucks) in your area, see if they have the technology or knowhow to do it that way, it's worth the extra effort.

[moose]

(not morebucks)

What is it about coffee and stouts? The two definately go together and if you like stouts and have been brewing for a couple of years, I can almost guarantee you've added coffee to it at one time or another.

I did a sweet stout and added fresh ground Papua New Guinea coffee to the boil, it added lots of roasted flavor (not necessarily coffee) and lots of bitterness. If it wasn't a cream stout, it wouldn't have been very good. I think flameout is a good but I am very interested in the dry hop idea. I'd say you would get maximum coffee flavor transfer that way. All are good methods (except for mine).