we brewed a coffee stout and left it in the fermenter for 7 weeks. Yesterday we transferred it from the fermenter to another fermenter bucket we mixed 106 grams of brown sugar in hot water left it cool put it into the second fermenter then poured our 5 gal of wort. smells fine and tastes ok. We filled 4 bottles left the remainder in the second fermenter, the reason being that if the 4 bottles tasted bad that we wouldn't bottle the remainder. I presume it is ok to leave it in the second fermenter for a week or 2 ??
Great colour get yourself a bit of tubing to transfer though otherwise cardboard city from oxidation or a big flush of co2 to the bucket, it really doesn't take a lot as I found out the hard way.
The reason you add the sugar is to carb your bottles which will kick off straight away and ferment so in the bottles ASAP otherwise you need to add sugar again and you will end out with a thin drier beer
Bit of a strange way to approach this as when the beer completed primary fermentation the general rule of thumb is to either transfer it to a sealed container that can hold some pressure or bottle it. Transferring it to secondary is OK but adding the brown sugar is usually only when you want bottle it.
I can taste sherry just from looking at it!!! Definitely get some tubing!
You batch primed then only filled 4 bottles so your gonna have some fermentation kicking off again in the secondary. As the lads said before, best just bottle it all or at least just prime the 4 bottles, fill them and test, then get some co2 into the secondary to stop oxidation.
Thanks for all the replies. I just filled all the bottles from the tap as I had no tubing and wouldn't be able to get my hands on it for a few days. smells alot better since yesterday a nice bit of fraught when pouring. I am just going to store in a cool place for a week or two until temptation sets in. I presume there isn't much else to watch for ??????
The tubing was for the transfer to avoid splashing, but a bottle filler is good and cheap to allow you fill your bottles
It won't prime in a cool place..you'll need to leave it at room temp
Thanks, Its been a week since bottling I left bottles at room temperature. I just poured a glass no head whats so ever. There was a small pop when I opened the bottle. Taste is only ok. What are we after doing wrong.
Quote from: beer on September 05, 2016, 09:53:28 PM
What are we after doing wrong.
You opened it after a week! It needs two at least!!
A week ah go on!
It should be min 3-4 at room temp
I will report back in a month just to be safe. Thanks.
almost six weeks since our bottling of the coffee stout. Still no success no head on the beer and doesn't taste great any tips on how we have gone wrong ?
How much coffee & how/when was it added?
Doesn't taste great? Can you describe a few of the aromas/flavours you're getting from it; the more descriptive the better (even the odd ones you don't think of from beer, e.g. toast, chocolate, cardboard, honey, smoke, plastic, etc).
That will make it slightly easy to point you in the right direction.
Quote from: beer on October 04, 2016, 11:57:54 PM
almost six weeks since our bottling of the coffee stout. Still no success no head on the beer and doesn't taste great any tips on how we have gone wrong ?
Has the beer carbed any more?
What was the recipe?
You transferred to 2nd fermenter with 106g of sugar and bottled 4 bottles. When you bottled the rest did you add more sugar?
Also you should transfer to your bottling bucket carefully with a syphon or silicone hose. You surely introduced oxygen into your beer by just letting it flow from the tap like that.
Brown sugar ratios need to be slightly higher in general than white sugat and also the whole bottling day should be done in one go including bottling so as to capture the co2 from the secondary fermentation as a result of you adding the brown sugar , and therefore carb your bottles over the following Coull of weeks. Gl
Thanks for the replies. I have tried a bottle again tonight still no difference in taste. Its a hard taste to describe besides awful. There is a fizzy when poured no head forms and there is no taste off coffee from it. The taste is a bit a bitter and I can't get a distinct taste from it. Would anyone be interested in trying a bottle ? if someone cold pm me I could send a bottle 2 left rest gone down the drain.
Its late, the brain is floating in a sea of vintage port and Gubeen cheese!
So what about:
You make a coffee stout
Also make a milk stout and a brown sugar sweet stout.
Then when you offer a glass of coffee stout to yours guests you can also say "With Milk and Sugar"? ?
Quote from: beer on August 29, 2016, 01:34:48 PM
we brewed a coffee stout and left it in the fermenter for 7 weeks. Yesterday we transferred it from the fermenter to another fermenter bucket we mixed 106 grams of brown sugar in hot water left it cool put it into the second fermenter then poured our 5 gal of wort. smells fine and tastes ok. We filled 4 bottles left the remainder in the second fermenter, the reason being that if the 4 bottles tasted bad that we wouldn't bottle the remainder. I presume it is ok to leave it in the second fermenter for a week or 2 ??
A few things spring to mind but I would start by posting your recipe? I would expect that your problem is related to a few factors but unwound confirm the following.
What was your mash temperature? If you mashed too high you may end up with too much unfemrentable sugar.
What was your original gravity and what was your final gravity after fermentation? If it finished high it would point towards a mash temperature problem?
Why did you ferment for 7 weeks? It could be that it's a high alcohol beer and your yeast is knackered? What type & how much yeast did you pitch initially? If you under pitched a yeast then it maybe that there is insufficient yeast to card the beer.
How are you cleaning your bottles? They should be cleaned with cleaning agent to remove the dirt with hot water, then washed out to remove the residual cleaning agent & the sanitised with something like star San. I had this exact beer behaviour & it was a combination of poor bottle hygiene & insufficient yeast. Residual cleaning products can interfere with the yeast and also kill the head.
Suggestion is to transfer some of the beer to a plastic bottle so that you can observe the carbonation by squeezing the bottle.
Shanna
Quote from: beer on November 03, 2016, 08:48:42 PM
Thanks for the replies. I have tried a bottle again tonight still no difference in taste. Its a hard taste to describe besides awful. There is a fizzy when poured no head forms and there is no taste off coffee from it. The taste is a bit a bitter and I can't get a distinct taste from it. Would anyone be interested in trying a bottle ? if someone cold pm me I could send a bottle 2 left rest gone down the drain.
So my 2 cents, a coffee stout is a semi advanced style, I've been brewing for about 3 years and still would not feel confident putting one together. Not trying to put you down but going by some of the things you posted (priming with intent of bottling weeks later, using brown sugar, emptying fermenter free fall into bottling bucket) suggests to me you might want to try going back to basics. Review your process, try something more simple and nail that before getting into coffee additions etc. I think you'll be happier in the end.
+1
My head is sore reading this thread.
If it tastes ok, drink it. If not, dump it, lesson learned.
Sent from my Samsung Note Sev... Fire! Fire!
Need full information of exactly what you did from the start as otherwise we are only guessing and speculating, beer not carbonating revolves around too little sugar, too little temperature and or too little yeast in suspension.
Join NHC as well as your local club also for tasting advice as well.
Quote from: Paul B on November 04, 2016, 09:02:40 AM
Quote from: beer on November 03, 2016, 08:48:42 PM
Thanks for the replies. I have tried a bottle again tonight still no difference in taste. Its a hard taste to describe besides awful. There is a fizzy when poured no head forms and there is no taste off coffee from it. The taste is a bit a bitter and I can't get a distinct taste from it. Would anyone be interested in trying a bottle ? if someone cold pm me I could send a bottle 2 left rest gone down the drain.
So my 2 cents, a coffee stout is a semi advanced style, I've been brewing for about 3 years and still would not feel confident putting one together. Not trying to put you down but going by some of the things you posted (priming with intent of bottling weeks later, using brown sugar, emptying fermenter free fall into bottling bucket) suggests to me you might want to try going back to basics. Review your process, try something more simple and nail that before getting into coffee additions etc. I think you'll be happier in the end.
I'd agree with that. If you want to make a good coffee stout I think you should make a good stout first. Get that right and then you can worry about adding the coffee a bit down the line. I know the impulse is to go straight to something amazing, I remember planning a coconut brown ale as one of my first beers but I gave up on it before I brewed it. Now over 2 years later I'd still have to do a load of research before addiding coconut. Get your process sorted before you start adding anything thats not water, malt, hops and yeast.