Coffee oatmeal stout

[rossiski]

I am going to be brewing the oatmeal stout recipe from classic styles in the next week or two. I am planning on kegging the batch except for 2 gallons I want to bottle and infuse coffee. My thought is to cold steep the coffee and add it to the bottling bucket. Anybody have any advice on what kind of roast coffee works best and how much to add to the bucket? My thought was to go with 3-4 ozs of a strong brewed medium roast coffee.

[Ozwald]

My personal favorite is Sumatra. Low oils, low acid content. It also happens to be my favorite kind of coffee.

I would suggest trying with your personal favorite bean/roast first.

[rossiski]

How much would you add to 2 gallons?

[Ozwald]

23 more gallons

I use 3 fl.oz of fresh grounds cold-brewed in 24 fl.oz. of water per 10 gallons.

Scaled down that's roughly 2 teaspoons of grounds in 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of water, per gallon (or 4 teaspoons in 5 fl.oz for 2 gallons). I've never tried it on that small of a scale, so I'm not sure if it's a linear conversion when you get that small.

[rossiski]

I think I might make a larger batch like 12 ozs and just dose with 4 ozs and see if that's enough.

[siwelwerd]

Anybody have any advice on what kind of roast coffee works best and how much to add to the bucket?

Cold steeping is the right way to go. As to how much, the beauty of adding to the keg/bottling bucket is you can do it to taste. Mix up more than you think you need; pull a measured amount of beer, add some measured amounts of coffee until it's the mix you want, and then scale up. I think I usually go with a little more coffee than Ozwald; probably 4 oz by weight in 1 quart of water.

As far as what roast, something fresh and local is probably the way to go. You probably need less coffee with a darker roast, and vice versa.

[Ozwald]

It also depends on how fine you grind it, etc. I've always used the exact same brand/roast/bean at the same setting out of the same grinder. It's a darker roast & a somewhat finer grind, so that's probably why I'm on the lower end. Plus I like my coffee beers to be mostly beer with coffee accents instead of having a bold coffee presence. The roast/chocolate malt flavors in the recipe also play a part in the perception of the coffee.

I would guess that if I changed any of those variables - the brand, roast/bean, the grind or even the recipe, I'd have to adjust my cold brew.

You've got a couple good suggestions on the cold brew. I'd start there, make adjustments until that tastes just right. Then adding drops to a pint would be a good way to figure out where your personal cold brew fits into your recipe, as Drew suggested.

[siwelwerd]

Plus I like my coffee beers to be mostly beer with coffee accents instead of having a bold coffee presence. The roast/chocolate malt flavors in the recipe also play a part in the perception of the coffee.

I'm with you there. I arrived at my method after learning how Schlafly does their coffee stout, which is pretty in your face with the coffee. The first time I did a coffee beer, I made up twice as much coffee (1/2 lb), as I had heard that that was the rate Schlafly used. I was very glad I added to taste, and only used half what I had planned!

You also make an excellent point about the grind. A coarser grind means it's easier to filter and keep the grounds out of the beer, but at the expense of requiring more coffee.