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Author Topic: First attempt at a Coffee Stout  (Read 2719 times)

Offline Megary

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Re: First attempt at a Coffee Stout
« Reply #15 on: April 26, 2021, 04:10:29 pm »
For what it’s worth, I ended up “dry beaning” with 2oz of locally sourced, medium roast, whole beans.  The beans went into 3 gallons of beer in the fermenter for one week.  When I first tapped the keg, I thought I overdid it, the coffee was a touch too strong in aroma for sure, and the taste was too much coffee and roast, what with the roasted barley and all.  It came across as a bit harsh.  But after 3 weeks in the keg, the coffee has mellowed considerably to the point that it’s more of a supporting actor.  The beer is now a Stout first, with a nice coffee aroma.  The taste could still use something to balance the added coffee however.

I think if I were to make this again, I would back off on the % of roasted barley and maybe sub in a touch of crystal...maybe even C120...as a way to tone down the roast and bitterness and give it another dimension. (Idea stolen from Schalfly’s Coffee Stout).

Still, a pretty good first try.

Online denny

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Re: First attempt at a Coffee Stout
« Reply #16 on: April 26, 2021, 04:20:05 pm »
For what it’s worth, I ended up “dry beaning” with 2oz of locally sourced, medium roast, whole beans.  The beans went into 3 gallons of beer in the fermenter for one week.  When I first tapped the keg, I thought I overdid it, the coffee was a touch too strong in aroma for sure, and the taste was too much coffee and roast, what with the roasted barley and all.  It came across as a bit harsh.  But after 3 weeks in the keg, the coffee has mellowed considerably to the point that it’s more of a supporting actor.  The beer is now a Stout first, with a nice coffee aroma.  The taste could still use something to balance the added coffee however.

I think if I were to make this again, I would back off on the % of roasted barley and maybe sub in a touch of crystal...maybe even C120...as a way to tone down the roast and bitterness and give it another dimension. (Idea stolen from Schalfly’s Coffee Stout).

Still, a pretty good first try.

The other thing I discovered about coffee beers is that I wanted to cut the hops back a bit to account for the bitterness in the coffee.  I dry bean for  aroma, but add brewed coffee to taste for flavor.
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