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Chocolate Espresso Stout

Started by ABeerZale, October 09, 2014, 05:33:20 PM

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Ash

I did a coffee oatmeal stout last year that did well in the nationals. I cold brewed about 250mls of coffee and added it when bottling. I only bottled around 5 litres though. The rest went into a cornie unadulterated. Unfortunately mine is not easily repeated as I toasted the beans in a frying pan and ground them with a pestle and mortar so my control over the coffee wasn't great.

It took a few months for the bottles to peak. Cold brewing the coffee will extract less acidity from the beans giving a slightly sweeter coffee flavour.

ABeerZale

Well we did it this morning. Everything going fine, then I look on the table and see the Chocolate Malt, Crystal 20 and Roast Barley!!!

WTF???? Mash is practically done by this stage. So, after some cursing, run off a load and put in the boil pot. Heated up the remaining 16L of water to 70°C,mixed in the 3 grains set had left out  with the already mashed grain, closed her up and let it sit for 30 mins while gently heating the first run off.

Not ideal but a mistake was made and well hopefully we have saved the beer.

After 30 mins run off done more wort added to the first one in boil pot and boiled for 60 mins doing the additions as indicated in the recipe.
Wort looks good, tastes chocolatey but we were well off our OG. Should have been 1082, ended up with 1060. Ended up with 4 litres more than we should, at least everything came from the boil pot.

Fermenting now, so if it can get down to 1.010 it'll still be strong, 6.6% more or less. The lower it goes the better.

Too much chit chat at the start and not paying attention to detail. We'll see what happens, fingers crossed.

ABeerZale

Just took a density reading and we're down to 1017, gonna give it a few more days, see if it changes. 5.64%ABV at the minute,my as strong as I wanted, but I can live with that!!

oconn

I'm planning an espresso stout too would like a nice coffee taste. maybe also choc and black malt. No idea of proportions yet

Qs

Quote from: GrahamR on October 11, 2014, 11:18:23 AM
I made a 5 litre batch of coffee stout earlier in the year. Siphoned off my base stout recipe into a demijohn with 1 lungo  sized nespresso coffee and it turned out great. Nice smell and taste of coffee without being overpowering.

Did you just brew the coffee through the nespresso machine?

Shanna

Quote from: ABeerZale on October 12, 2014, 03:23:46 PM
Well we did it this morning. Everything going fine, then I look on the table and see the Chocolate Malt, Crystal 20 and Roast Barley!!!

WTF???? Mash is practically done by this stage. So, after some cursing, run off a load and put in the boil pot. Heated up the remaining 16L of water to 70°C,mixed in the 3 grains set had left out  with the already mashed grain, closed her up and let it sit for 30 mins while gently heating the first run off.

Not ideal but a mistake was made and well hopefully we have saved the beer.

After 30 mins run off done more wort added to the first one in boil pot and boiled for 60 mins doing the additions as indicated in the recipe.
Wort looks good, tastes chocolatey but we were well off our OG. Should have been 1082, ended up with 1060. Ended up with 4 litres more than we should, at least everything came from the boil pot.

Fermenting now, so if it can get down to 1.010 it'll still be strong, 6.6% more or less. The lower it goes the better.

Too much chit chat at the start and not paying attention to detail. We'll see what happens, fingers crossed.
Time for a checklist. I had the same problem over and over again where either through inattention or inexperience with my new equipment I would miss some step. I also started to look at my process & strip out as many steps as possible that could be done the night before cleaning sterilizing tubing, connectors, pumps, fermenters and even grinding grain & weighing out hops. I also take the opportunity to check as fitting , taps, as drains & stuff are working & clean. I find that this allows me to get through stuff quicker on brew day & have less errors as the more complicated stuff is already done. It also prevents me from having problems with some piece of equipment either not working or being missing as I have a day to sort something out. All obvious stuff I know but somebody might benefit from the experience shared. Hope your brew still works.

Shanna
Cornie keg group buy organiser, storeman & distribution point
Hops Group buy packer
Regulator & Taps distribution point
Stainless Steel Fermenter Group Buy Organiser
South Dublin Brewers member

ABeerZale

I think it's safe, fermented quite well, tasted right too, it wouldn't be brew day without some hiccup along the way.

GrahamR

Quote from: Qs on October 18, 2014, 09:10:13 PM
Quote from: GrahamR on October 11, 2014, 11:18:23 AM
I made a 5 litre batch of coffee stout earlier in the year. Siphoned off my base stout recipe into a demijohn with 1 lungo  sized nespresso coffee and it turned out great. Nice smell and taste of coffee without being overpowering.

Did you just brew the coffee through the nespresso machine?

Yep and let it cool and siphoned the stout onto it. I have some cocoa beans in the press. Was planning to crack them for nibs and add them to secondary. Anyone tried that before
Lifes Too Short To Not Make Beer

Fermenter 1 - Turquoise Lunar Showing

Fermenter 2 - Vitalift Cider

ABeerZale

So here it is 2 months later.  I like it a lot, still very strong coffee flavour, I suppose it will mellow  with time. Ended up at about 6.5 %ABV, nice beer to sit over at the end of the day

auralabuse