Espresso (yeah, in my beer)

[astx813]

Brewing this weekend and wanted to get feedback from people who have used coffee before. As I see it, I have three options:

1. Brew the coffee as normal (either with a french press or a drip maker) and cool it down (add to primary or before bottling?)
2. Cold toddy and add after fermentation
3. Add freshly ground beans directly (after primary, before transferring?)

It seemed that a lot of the random people I crossed paths with were fans of the cold toddy method, but I'm not sure it's the way to go in this case. I'm making an Espresso Ale, and I hear that cold toddy doesn't give enough flavor for espresso. So any thoughts out there?[/list]

[HarvInSTL]

Having used the cold toddy method, I'm biased towards that. I've always felt that the extract produced was quite flavorful. And if you wanted to make it even more so just use more coffee or less water.

[projektsilence]

I actually have a coffee porter in bottles in the basement doing some bottle conditioning right now. What I did, and this wasn't my idea I just borrowed it, was ground half a cup of coffee bean (kona in my case) and added to the boil for the final 10 minutes. The porter definitely has a coffee flavoring to it, I'm not sure if it would be considered a lot or not but you can definitely tell. I'm not sure what the drawbacks to this would be or if you could get more/less flavoring doing it one of the other ways you listed, but it is another option.

[Michael]

Cold toddy in secondary will give you the most coffee character. If you brew it hot or add to boil, you won't get that coffee character that I think you're looking for. By the way, this is the way Schlafly does it to my understanding.

Mike

[beergoggles]

Could someone breakdown the cold toddy process for me with volumes/measurements which are generally accepted amounts for 5g of a stout?

[OldTree]

Could someone breakdown the cold toddy process for me with volumes/measurements which are generally accepted amounts for 5g of a stout?

You have to do the math, but 1# of coffee in 1gal of water per 1 barrel of beer is a great ballpark to be in.

Not saying this is "the" magical ratio, but the numbers are nice and round (on certain scales) and it gives a great result.

As far as the method, it goes something like this: Grind coffee, mix with cold water, put in fridge for 24-48hr, separate grounds from liquid, add liquid to beer.

Cheers,
Augie

[beergoggles]

Thanks Augie!

[ZooKeeper]

If I am doing secondary with oak cubes/vanilla/whatever, do I just add this at that time or wait until I keg it?

[siwelwerd]

I would wait until kegging. The reason being, I suggest adding it to taste, and if you are doing it after vanilla/oak/etc. you don't have to guess how those are going to change the perception.

[mbuckdc]

You generally want to be careful with any heat with your coffee as it will pull too many tannins from the coffee beans leading to an astringent beer. That being said, i wouldn't add it to the boil or just brew a pot of hot coffee and dump it in. Most people use the cold steep which works well. I am bringing a coffee stout to next month's meeting where I added coarse grounds directly to secondary for 48 hours, then kegged. It is the first time that I have done it this way. It is the method that terrapin brewery uses in their Wake 'n Bake stout. Let me know what you think in March....