I was looking at adding coffee to my next batch of Caribou Slobber. I have read about two ways to do this.
Brewing coffee, cooling it, and add it to primary before adding the wort. I was looking at 1/2 gallon of brewed coffee.
Adding coffee grinds to a secondary. I am not sure how much.
Are there pros/cons to doing this one way over the other?
The best way I’ve found is to make strong coffee in a French press. If you don’t have one yet, you will love it for coffee.
Anyway, I think I used 6 oz of coffee beans to make a half-gallon of coffee, which was added at bottling time.
In order to avoid oxidation, I boiled the coffee water ahead of time to drive out oxygen. I’ve done this twice, once using a hot press, and once using a cold press. For the cold press, I steeped the grounds for 12 hours, shaking periodically, before pressing. Even though I used the same amount and brand of beans both times, I got a LOT more flavor and aroma out of the cold press. I’d say close to twice as much coffee character. This was for an espresso stout, and it was strong enough to leave the beer unbalanced. The hot steep I did for the first batch was perfect.
In your case, I’d maybe try using 2-3 oz of beans, depending on what kind of coffee you’re using. You could do a sampling at bottling time to determine the best ratio, which I should have done with my cold steep. Mix up several different ratios and see what you like.
The coffee will dilute the beer, so you’ll have to lower the calculated ABV of your beer accordingly.
Good luck! Don’t overdo it! :cheers:
I also prefer to do a cold pressed coffee addition over other methods.
I have never cold pressed before. To clarify this is making an extract in which you are then adding more water to? I have a four cup french press, so I will give this method a try.
I also have a 4-cup press, 32 oz. So I cold steeped 3 oz of beans for 12 hours in a quart jar, so I could shake it periodically. Then I pressed it. Then I did the same thing again, ending up with 64 oz of coffee (half a gallon).
So it was much stronger than coffee that you’d drink normally, but I did not add any other water.
I’ve heard of some people cold-steeping coffee to make an extract, which can then later be diluted. My grandma had a big cold-water extraction unit, and she would steep the coffee overnight I think, to produce a coffee syrup. She would just heat up water and add a shot of the syrup. It was really smooth, low acidity. So that’s essentially what you’re adding to the brew.
I don’t know that the Caribou Slobber could support a LOT of coffee, which is why I encourage you to try a couple different ratios before dosing the whole batch.
Good luck!
I do basically the same method, but use a lot less water and allow my coffee to steep for 18-24hrs.
What are your proportions?
The ratio of water to coffee I use for cold brewed coffee is 1:1 by volume or roughly 4:1 by weight. Also makes for a very good iced coffee drink when poured over ice and diluted with some milk. Will note it is going to look like a crap ton of grounds, it is but I like the results so much I live with the massive use of coffee.
I use 22oz of water per 4oz of medium-coarse ground coffee to make my concentrate. Since we also enjoy iced coffee, I typically do 8oz at a time. Make sure to allow it to set for 18-24hrs before pressing. If you plan on using the concentrate to make a cup of coffee, you will need to dilute with water or milk. I can’t stress enough how important it is to use premium coffee when cold pressing concentrate.
Edit: I also recommend filtering after pressing.
Looked back at my notes and for my brown (pretty much the Pro Series Surly Bender recipe) I used 16 oz of cold pressed coffee concentrate (using the proportions stated above). The amount of coffee used came from pouring a bunch of 4 oz beer samples and adding various amounts of coffee, then scaled up that volume to the 5 gallon keg of brown I had waiting.
I followed the cold brewed coffee process from here: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/ … ew-coffee/
I used BB’s method of cold pressing for my last coffee stout and it turned out great. Twenty four hours seemed to be the sweet spot for extraction.
