just brewed the brunch stout for the first time. i dumped the coffee beans in at the end of the boil without looking at them. the instructions call for them to be coarse ground and i just assumed that they would be ground in the bag. will it matter much that they were whole? also i went ahead and dumped them into the primary but wasn’t sure if that was a good idea after i did it.
bump bump…
i can’t believe 33 people have read this and no one has an opinion. cmon, help a brother out.
Well it seems pretty obvious that you won’t get quite as good of extraction with whole beans, but it will be alright. I think leaving them in primary will help so that part is fine. They didn’t grind the beans because fresh-ground gives better flavor. You could always add a tablespoon of ground coffee to the primary, or do a cold-steep on some and add that to secondary.
I recommend letting it complete its primary fermentation and then taste a sample. Given you added the whole beans to the boil (well above making coffee temperature) plus letting it sit in primary, you will definitely get a coffee flavor…maybe even some coffee-bitterness because of the end-of-boil temperature 
.
By sampling after primary, you at least have a idea of how much flavor you have before adding more. If it is not enough, you can then increase the flavor using any number of coffee-flavored options (instant, cold-pressed, tincture of alcohol).
:cheers:
You will be fine as is. If you think it needs more coffee flavor when the time comes to bottle/keg, add some strong brewed/espresso then.
When I make my coffee porters I steep whole beans in the secondary and get plenty of coffee flavor. I think you’ll be fine. I’d be more concerned about boiling them than not crushing them although the concern really depends on the quantity. I think you’ll be fine.
brew on :cheers:
thanks for the feedback guys. seems to be the consensus that whole beans instead of crushed is not that big of a deal but adding them to hot wort is somewhat bad. when would be the appropriate time to add the beans? the directions say:
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
1.66 oz. Nugget (60 min)
1 lb D-180 Candi Syrup (0 min)
4 oz. Peace Coffee Organic French Roast
Coffee (0 min) (Grind coarsely)
i interpreted that to mean as soon as i kill the flame add the syrup and coffee. would it perhaps be better to add them to the secondary instead? and if that’s the case would ground or whole be better? or perhaps while cooling the wort add them once it gets down to a certain temperature?
[quote=“Bienweiser”]thanks for the feedback guys. seems to be the consensus that whole beans instead of crushed is not that big of a deal but adding them to hot wort is somewhat bad. when would be the appropriate time to add the beans? the directions say:
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
1.66 oz. Nugget (60 min)
1 lb D-180 Candi Syrup (0 min)
4 oz. Peace Coffee Organic French Roast
Coffee (0 min) (Grind coarsely)
i interpreted that to mean as soon as i kill the flame add the syrup and coffee. would it perhaps be better to add them to the secondary instead? and if that’s the case would ground or whole be better? or perhaps while cooling the wort add them once it gets down to a certain temperature?[/quote]
Looks like you did what the recipe said, (other than the crush), so i’m sure it will be fine. You can add them to the secondary / primary after fermentation.
What most will suggest, and possibly the best way to add coffee:
Grind the coffee, then cold brew it. Add the cold brew coffee (not the ground beans) to the bottling bucket or keg until you get the amount of flavor you want. which is something you can still do if the coffee flavor is lacking. play it by ear
I’d add the ground coffee to secondary in a mesh bag like dry hopping and taste it every other day until you get what you want.
I recently brewed the extract kit for the Brunch Stout. I followed the instructions and crushed the coffee coarsely. I found the coffee flavor to be too strong. In hindsight I wish I would have not crushed the beans at all. I was hoping it would mellow over time, but it hasn’t mellowed as much as I would like. I bottled it on 10/6 and the coffee flavor is still pretty strong.
I think your stout will turn out well the way you have done it.
