[ltalley02]

I'm working on a recipe for a coffee porter and I'm trying to figure out the best way, how much and when to add the coffee.  I'm planning on using coffee from a local roastery and really want the flavor of the coffee to come through.  I'll be doing a 5 gallon extract batch with steeped grains.  Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
Luke

[kramerog]

I'm working on a recipe for a coffee porter and I'm trying to figure out the best way, how much and when to add the coffee.  I'm planning on using coffee from a local roastery and really want the flavor of the coffee to come through.  I'll be doing a 5 gallon extract batch with steeped grains.  Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
Luke

Make a french press coffee and add to taste shortly before bottling (I think I last used 8-12 cups/5 gallons).  By using boiling water and waiting a few minutes you kill the critters and you get a predictable rich coffee flavor. 

However, my only coffee porter did not age well beyond 6 months.  The coffee flavor degraded.

[denny]

The other thing you can do is "dry bean" the beer.  Rack to secondary and add about 4-5 oz. of coarse;ly cracked beans in a sanitized bag.  Leave them in for 4-10 days, depending on the amount of coffee aroma you want.

[Steve]

I've utilized hot brewed in the boil, the cool brewed in the secondary and the concentrated brewed at packaging time methods and I prefer the middle method. 

• - Hot water brewing will extract flavor and aroma efficiently, but also produces a lot of coffee bitterness and acidity. The cool brew method retards creation of acidity and bitterness while still getting flavor and aroma.  It will take longer to extract the flavor and aroma.
• - The coarse grind is important to let the beer infuse the grinds easily. Fine grounds are too tightly packed together to let the beer in.
• - Putting the grounds in several grain bag and letting them soak is very easy, but don't overfill the bags so you can get them in and out of the carboy neck.

How much Coffee flavor do you want? You can go with the usual proportions of 2 tbsp/6 oz. coffee to water (that would be 13 cups to 5 gal.) which is pretty extreme!... or go lighter.

[corkybstewart]

I steep about 1/3 pound of medium roast, coarse ground coffee in 170F water, and let the grounds settle for a couple of hours.  Add the liquid directly to the keg or bottling bucket.

[tschmidlin]

Big Time makes a coffee beer where Bill dry beans the kegs as Denny described, it is very smooth but with a strong coffee flavor after just a few days.  He prefers that method to the others.

[tygo]

On a somewhat related note what does everyone think about yeast for a coffee beer?  I'm doing a mocha porter and I'm debating between something clean to let the coffee & chocolate flavors shine through and an english strain. 

[tschmidlin]

On a somewhat related note what does everyone think about yeast for a coffee beer?  I'm doing a mocha porter and I'm debating between something clean to let the coffee & chocolate flavors shine through and an english strain. 

My inclination would be to go with a clean yeast like 1056, but I think you'll be ok either way.