Beer Forum

I read and took to heart the previous coffee in beer thread that a lot of you took the time to post on, but after tonight's show, I thought I'd be a little more specific. I'm having a competition soon with my brother with a coffee stout where we brew the same stout recipe and add coffee at different times. It was the consensus that he adding whole beans to the boil at flame out would be his undoing. I, on the other hand, plan on a cold steep to be added at kegging, but worry about diluting my beer. Then, someone mentioned a vodka tincture. Let's do this. Please explain, because I'm down.

Soak grounds in vodka. Strain. Add liquid to beer.

Amounts? Depends.
Time? Depends.
Effectiveness? Depends.

We need a Chris White smiley-thingie.

Are you suggesting a coffee tincture Oz?

I just had a brown ale that was way too sweet, so I poured a not yet carbonated beer into my sterilized french press, added 4 ounces of coarsely ground coffee - cold steeped for 48 hours, then just poured it right back into the keg.

Turned out fantastic - slight coffee taste, huge coffee aroma and bittered the beer to quite an enjoyable brown coffee ale

EDIT: The vodka method would still dilute taste (slightly) and is certainly less worry about infections... but I just wanted to cold steep beer, it's homebrewing, I had fun and it turned out great

Ok. I'm going to play with this a lot until I get the result I want. If anything at all is clear, is that nothing is clear when it comes to adding coffee and a lot of other adjuncts either. But I love hearing so many different opinions and processes. It really gives me some great ideas. So, I'll let everyone know what I did and how I think it turns out when I actually pull the trigger on it. This storm really screwed up my plans to do it this weekend because I ended up having to work today.

BleedingSaynt wrote:Then, someone mentioned a vodka tincture. Let's do this. Please explain, because I'm down.

brewinhard wrote:Are you suggesting a coffee tincture Oz?

No. Just answering the last sentence.

I've tried just about every way possible to add coffee to beer. For me, adding cold-brew to the fermenter has always given me the best results.