Beer Forum

I thought some people might be interested in an experiment I did recently with cold-brewed coffee. In short, I prefer cold-brewed coffee because it doesn't impart the bitterness or astringency of hot-brewed coffee. What I dislike about adding it while bottling or kegging is sanitizing everything (i.e. risking infection with the transfer). So, I decided to see what boiled cold-brewed coffee tasted like.

Here's a quick summary for those of you who don't want to read the entire experiment article at my site:

Cold-brewed coffee and boiled cold-brewed cofee do not taste the same. In comparison to normal cold-brewed coffee, boiled cold-brewed coffee is fuller and stronger, but still has very little bitterness or astringency. It has a slight caramelized and roasted taste to it.

My wife describes it as such: "It tastes like coffee smells." – Mrs. Hop.

Boiling cold-brewed coffee produces a solution that tastes unlike both cold-brewed coffee and normal hot-brewed coffee. It is quite delicious indeed, being both bolder than cold-brewed coffee and less bitter than hot-brewed coffee. I will certainly be introducing boiled cold-brewed coffee to my next batch of porter or stout.

For those who do want to read everything I did in the experiment, check it out here: Experiment: Boiling Cold-Brewed Coffee

can you be more specific?
I truly am interested but your description reminds me of cold coffee that Ive nuked to warm up.
Ive tried cold steeped coffee, brewed coffee, and high quality espresso shots, Ive had the best luck with the shots but Im also lucky enough to be near a shop that was willing to work on the bean that would best suit my beer.
Have you ever used the bean dry hopping method? thats the one im really curious about

Yep, I've used coarsely-ground coffee beans. I actually talked about it in my first post on the cold-brewed coffee subject (Adding Cold-Brewed Coffee to Your Beer), assuming that's what you mean by "bean dry hopping method."

In fact, I just bottled a beer yesterday using that method. I used about 8 oz of coarsely-ground coffee and put it in my secondary for a week. I tend not to recommend putting it in for that long, but I'm experimenting a bit to see what happens. Also, putting a muslin bag with as much stuff as I put in secondary (1.5 lbs total) is a royal pain in a carboy when it comes to getting it out (I had to pull it through and cut it, then work out the contents before getting the bag out successfully).

Anyway, I tasted my Hazelmocha Cream Stout (Dry) when I bottled it and it's at once harsh and delicious. I don't think I'll significantly suffer from leaving the coffee in the secondary for 7 days after it ages for a month or two, but we'll see. In my next incarnation of the Hazelmocha Cream Stout (it's my favorite beer I make), I'm using cocoa powder instead of cacao nibs, hazelnut extract instead of hazelnuts in the secondary, and boiled cold-brewed coffee instead of normal cold-brewed coffee (or, this time, coffee in the secondary). I also usually make what is essentially a dry stout and add lactose and reduced bitterness, but this next time I'm switching to a sweet stout base for what I'm calling Hazelmocha Cream Stout (Sweet). I'd give out the recipe, but I'm stingy with specifics.

Okay, regarding adding coffee beans to the secondary, here's what I described in the post I linked:

Hop wrote:There are really two ways to cold-brew coffee for your beer. The first is to brew it in your fermentor. To do this, you’ll need to wait until primary fermentation has completed (to be safe, wait a couple days after all the bubbling has quieted down).

Then, you can add coarsely ground coffee beans directly to your secondary in a muslin bag. Be sure to sanitize the coffee (you can do this with some cheap vodka, but ditch the liquid before putting the beans into the secondary). The longer you leave it in secondary, the more likely you are to get astringent flavors and smells from the coffee, so it’s probably best to leave it in for one to three days.

Another way to sanitize the coffee is givethe stepping bag a quick soak in Hydrogen peroxide and water and then add the bag to the fermeter .Hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water and oxygen so its safe in beer .

[quote="matthendry"]Another way to sanitize the coffee is givethe stepping bag a quick soak in Hydrogen peroxide and water and then add the bag to the fermeter .Hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water and oxygen so its safe in beer .[/quote]


Oxygen is safe in beer? Secondary? I guess it wouldn't matter if you ditched the water before you add the coffee as described above as well.

Hop,

What is your recipe for Hazelmocha Cream Stout? I'm very interested. Just brewed a coffee porter tonight with the cold/hot process. Added 1 cup of molasses with 7 minutes left on the boil, just before the 1 oz of cascade hops. Also going to add a bit of coco (unsweetened, 6 oz, boiled with the corn sugar) before I bottle. Very excited on how it turns out.

Bec

Hop,

Have you read the article on using coffee in beer in the BYO issue a couple months back? Seemed to me like the authors concensus was that brewing your coffee correctly (ie using the correct temps and steeping time) and adding it to the finished beer was the best route to go. The author argued that this was the best way to get optimum mixture of dissolved solids and essential oils in solution.

Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience using coffee in beer so I was curious to your thoughts on this?

I'm so glad you posted this. I will be making a coffee stout next week, and I will be cold brewing the coffee. I was woried about adding it at bottling because of a infection risk, so I was thinking of adding it at flameout. It's nice to know it won't destroy the flavor.