Coffee in stout

[Stonch]

I have been reading on an American forum (alarm bells) about adding a quantity of cooled espresso to the secondary when brewing stout to produce coffee flavours. I love Dark Star Espresso stout, so that kind of appeals.

Any thoughts?

[delboy]

wouldnt be my cup of tea but i say go for it!!

[Stonch]

Judging how much to put in will be tough... on one hand, I don't want to overdo it, but then unless you significantly effect that flavour there ain't much point.

I reckon about a couple of double espresso's worth will do it.

It is ok just to add flavourings in the keg for secondary isn't it? Can't think why not.

I was telling Dave The Long Armed Goon (my brew partner) about the idea and he could barely contain his excitement. We're racking on Thursday night. Stonch's Stout will have had 12 days in primary by then so even if it is about 6 points off target FG, I've lost patience with it!!

[delboy]

Hi
When im thinking of adding something exoctic like cocoa etc to a brew, i get some existing homebrew or a commercial beer and expt adding in differing amounts to see what i can actually taste and how good it is.
You could make some espresso chill it and add it to some guiness to work out just how much compliments it and when it starts to become overpowering.
might be something like 10-20ml in a pint or such.

The only problem i can see with adding in secondary is that it might carry over some oxygen into the brew. You could try adding about the same time as pitching the yeast, you might loss a bit of the aroma but i think the flavour would be locked in.

[delboy]

Are you thinking of adding it to this stout or another one you have planned??
If its to this one then i would get the espresso (obviously with the beans removed at this stage to prevent it getting to bitter) and boil for a while to remove o2 before adding to the secondary!!

[Stonch]

Was thinking of adding it to this stout - but actually may leave it alone, as this is only brew 2 it's perhaps too early to start dicking around.

By the way - you mention Guinness - that stuff doesn't get through my front door, never mind past my lips! Evil, bland nonsense!

[deadlydes]

a pint of guinness with a shot of tia maria in it is a great drink

[BarryNL]

Judging how much to put in will be tough... on one hand, I don't want to overdo it, but then unless you significantly effect that flavour there ain't much point.

This sounds like one of those times when you decide to buy another secondary and split the batch. FWIW, a lot of recipesseem to specify 400 - 600 ml of coffee for a 5 gallon batch, so I doubt a couple of small cups would be noticable.

[BarryNL]

Was thinking of adding it to this stout - but actually may leave it alone, as this is only brew 2 it's perhaps too early to start dicking around.

By the way - you mention Guinness - that stuff doesn't get through my front door, never mind past my lips! Evil, bland nonsense!

Now, foreign export is another matter. The Guinness in the supermarket here is 8% and far from bland.

[delboy]

Was thinking of adding it to this stout - but actually may leave it alone, as this is only brew 2 it's perhaps too early to start dicking around.

By the way - you mention Guinness - that stuff doesn't get through my front door, never mind past my lips! Evil, bland nonsense!

I quite agree about them being evil but for other reasons (guiness, the single biggest reason why beers over in my neck of the woods come in two forms COLD and TASTLESS), pick up some sam smiths stout or something equally as good for your espresso additions.

[Chris The Fish]

as this is only brew 2 it's perhaps too early to start dicking around.

utter balls, if i may politely say so.

my very first brew i dicked around (a stout) i primed 1/2 with black treacle and half with muscovado sugar. You could taste the difference (i prefered the muscavado).

I reckon you onto a winner with the coffee, im massive coffee fan, and also a gentle and considerate stout lover so ill be interested to see how it goes.

im onto my 7th brew tomorrow and ill brewing a pilsner with 1/3 honey instead of the sugar and using ale yeast instead of the lager yeast provided. I may also whack in some progress in dry hop just for the eck of it!

[kenmc]

By the way - you mention Guinness - that stuff doesn't get through my front door, never mind past my lips! Evil, bland nonsense!

Zounds, I am wounded!
Actually no, to be fair I wouldn't bring it home either. But in a good pub, kept and poured properly, it's a decent 'staple' over here - for when you end up in a pub that only otherwise serves fizzy water.

Incidentally they are playing with the recipes here and releasing a different variant of guinness every 6 months. The first was quite nice, a bit hoppier, called Brew 39. Didn't get the second one, was called Toucan Brew. This one is called North Star, it's not too different from the regular stuff.

The bottled non-draught is a lot better than the cans or bottled draught though, and as BarryNL mentions, the export is LUVLY....

edit. oh and go for the coffee stout - I added a few mls to different botles of a stout I did - 10, 20 and 30 mls in different bottles, all 330ml bottles. The 30ml was the only one I could really taste if I remember correctly. I also added some vanilla essence to some other bottles - didn't really work so well unfortunately..

[BarryNL]

Zounds, I am wounded!
Actually no, to be fair I wouldn't bring it home either. But in a good pub, kept and poured properly, it's a decent 'staple' over here - for when you end up in a pub that only otherwise serves fizzy water.

You live in Dublin? Why do you drink anywhere other than the Porterhouse?



Ok, the music probably gets repetitive after a while, but the beer more than compensates... even if you do have to let it warm up for 10 minutes before drinking it.

[Stonch]

Zounds, I am wounded!
Actually no, to be fair I wouldn't bring it home either. But in a good pub, kept and poured properly, it's a decent 'staple' over here - for when you end up in a pub that only otherwise serves fizzy water.

You live in Dublin? Why do you drink anywhere other than the Porterhouse?



Ok, the music probably gets repetitive after a while, but the beer more than compensates... even if you do have to let it warm up for 10 minutes before drinking it.

Ah... I couldn't disagree more. I think Porterhouse beers are very poor.

[Stonch]

Was thinking of adding it to this stout - but actually may leave it alone, as this is only brew 2 it's perhaps too early to start dicking around.

By the way - you mention Guinness - that stuff doesn't get through my front door, never mind past my lips! Evil, bland nonsense!

Now, foreign export is another matter. The Guinness in the supermarket here is 8% and far from bland.

I agree - the stuff brewed for the Belgian market is great, as is the Nigerian Foreign Extra.

I reviewed the Nigerian stuff here on my blog -

http://stonch.blogspot.com/2007/01/guin ... style.html

And also the dreadful swill Diageo inflicted on the UK market this year, Guinness Red -

http://stonch.blogspot.com/2007/03/guinness-red.html