Coffee

[Ilikebeer1]

what is better whole bean or ground?
During boil, flame out, secondary?

 

[rcubed1]

Definitely no correct answer here and it can depend a lot on the beans and type of beer they are going in.

I always add cold in the keg with a rough crush (some beans end whole but mostly they are broken into large chunks). Some people love making cold brew and then dosing it in at keg. I would avoid heat with coffee additions in beer.

 

[Ziggy]

Whole bean straight into the fermenter during cold crash. Age 1 week. Best/most intense yet not overkill amount of coffee i've ever had in a stout. Might be too much for some though.

 

[Gonzoillini1]

What has worked best for my process is very similar to what rcubed and Ziggy posted above.

I "dry bean" in the keg with about 4oz of roughly crushed beans (we used to call it angering the beans, literally taking a pint glass / rolling pin and just hitting them a few times to crack open some of the beans without crushing / grinding anything) in a weighted muslin bag for 5 gallons of beer, and I start tasting it after 3-4 days and pull the beans when I'm happy with the flavor.

Fresh coffee (less than 3-4 weeks old), keeping oxidation as low as possible throughout the process, and then not sitting on the finished beer all keep the green pepper / oxidized coffee character away.

I would be very wary of doing anything with coffee on the hot side of the process.

 

[Ziggy]

What has worked best for my process is very similar to what rcubed and Ziggy posted above.

I "dry bean" in the keg with about 4oz of roughly crushed beans (we used to call it angering the beans, literally taking a pint glass / rolling pin and just hitting them a few times to crack open some of the beans without crushing / grinding anything) in a weighted muslin bag for 5 gallons of beer, and I start tasting it after 3-4 days and pull the beans when I'm happy with the flavor.

Fresh coffee (less than 3-4 weeks old), keeping oxidation as low as possible throughout the process, and then not sitting on the finished beer all keep the green pepper / oxidized coffee character away.

I would be very wary of doing anything with coffee on the hot side of the process.

Can't emphasize fresh coffee enough too. I vacuum sealed mine incase of any delays

 

[liquiddegenerate]

I'll second or third whole beans in secondary or keg.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

I make a concentrated cold brew the day before and add at packaging. I think getting all the coffee solids out of the beer is important to avoiding the green pepper and stale coffee flavors. I bottle only so those bottles end up hanging out at room temperature. If I kegged I'd probably just add in the keg.

 

[anteater1]

+1 more for dry beaning with whole or very coarsely crushed beans in secondary/keg. I also find that the type of bean I want in my beer is a lot different than the bean I like to drink in a cup of coffee. Dark roasts are the way to go in beer.

 

[fbslim201]

A number of breweries around Minneapolis are starting to sell Barrel-aged coffee beans. They’re not cheap, but they really add another dimension. My favorite so far were Apple brandy BA beans from Wild Mind.

 

[rcubed1]

Modern Times has been doing this for awhile now. I've enjoyed BA beans but it's not something I want to drink every day.

 

[fbslim201]

Modern Times has been doing this for awhile now. I've enjoyed BA beans but it's not something I want to drink every day.

Agreed. I like the flavor they impart in beer, like Modern Times’ House of the Dead or city of the dead. It’s not as heavy a barrel flavor as normal Barrel Aging.