Coffee stout - how to add coffe? What kind?

[Marek2200]

I am going to brew coffee stout soon. It will be my first coffee stout. I'd like to ask when do I have to add coffee? At the end of boiling or to the fermenter after week or so on secondary fermentation? What kind of coffee do you usually add? 500g or more?
Thanx

[DEMPSEY]

A simple question I know but the answer is more tricky. To use real coffee or not and how much. As you probably know you can get a coffee flavour from malts alone and I would suggest you go that route because real coffee can ruin the head retention of your finished beer and it can also fade  over time. I remember tasting a great porter once that had a great coffee taste and the brewer used 10% brown malt to achieve this.

[Marek2200]

Thanx Dempsey. That's interesting but actually I don't want to change a recipe at this point of my brewing "career". I have brewed just few beers so far. Do you think that adding coffee definitely doesn't work? Have you ever brewed stouts with real coffee?

[Cambrinus]

As Dempsey already pointed out that this simple questions has many answers and much discussion.
If you don't want to change the recipe to go the brown malt way (interesting!) I would opt for the cold extraction method and add the coffee to the secondary. Question is how much to add.
My guess would be that between 150-200gr of good coffee should do it. Again many discussions ongoing. Experiment and enjoy!

[nigel_c]

If you keg, make a nice batch of coffee , and add just as you
Keg. If you bottle, add to bottling bucket.
You can add to taste and adjust.

[dcalnan]

Just searching coffee on the forum will bring up loads of results, the main way people do it is adding coldbrew coffee to the fermenter in secondary. I've added slightly ground beans in my batches so far, I find you need a really nice body to complement the coffee, I tried Dungarees coffee and oatmeal stout recently and wasn't impressed, it had a really light body and the coffee wasnt balanced in my opinion.

[auralabuse]

I did a coffee stout before, it was all bottled. The night before bottling I cold brewed 300g coffee to a 20litre batch of stout. Added to the bottling bucket, batch primed as per the recipe. I let it condition for about 3 weeks and it was lovely. The coffee flavours do mellow out as it ages though.

[DEMPSEY]

This brought me to the fridge where I had a bottle of "Black coffee IPA from brown paper bag project and "A beer called Rwanda" from Wicklow Wolf. First up the BC IPA,the beer is very much an IPA but more of a roast flavour like a stout. The coffee was balanced and not too dominant.  Head held up as I drank it. Next the Rwanda,A brown ale so little to no hop
aroma a just about the right bitterness. I would have preferred more maltyness for a brown but it is a bit lite on the body. the coffee is suptle but you will get the roast from it as you drink and the smell of the coffee comes through as well. Head was good a first but quickly dies off which is what you can expect with the oils in the coffee. Not a bad beer if that is what you are after.  

[Marek2200]

I see that there are a lot of ways of adding coffee Some of you said that you add coffee to the fermenter in secondary or just before bottling. What about contamination? I suppose it is safe because it is already brewed but I am not sure. Have you ever had your stout contaminated because of that?

One more thing. What kind of coffee do you add?
Thanx for help.

[dcalnan]

The type of coffee you use is entirely up tomorrow own taste, I wouldn't use any French/Italian roast as they have a higher oil content and will reduce head retention and can be very bitter, medium roast is what I've used to good results in the past, and then you can go into where the beans come from, a Columbian coffee will have notes of caramel and nuts, whereas an Ethiopian coffee will have berry and floral notes.
I had a big talk with a local coffee roaster when I was making my last coffee stout. I think I went for a Guatemalan coffee the last time.

[Marek2200]

Ok, so I see that many things up to me. I just don't want to ruin my stout Thanx

[molc]

I know how much my normal coffee costs me; not a chance I'll put a bag of it into my beer on the off chance it'll work

[Leann ull]

Like the cider or the mead adjuncts pour yourself a half pint and keep adding that until you hit your sweet spot, then scale up that way you won't waste entire batch!
https://byo.com/bock/item/316-brewing-with-coffee-techniques

[ac13]

I did a coffee stout recently, Its still conditioning in the bottles but I had a taste at the weekend.

I put an entire bag of Aldi coffee beans into the primary near the end of fermentation and left them there for a week. I was looking for a strong coffee taste on this hence the amount of beans. It definately worked well for flavour but if you don't want the taste to be pretty overpowering i'd say 1/4 bag or less would be plenty.

[DEMPSEY]

Instead of making a pot of hot coffee and then cooling it would be better to make a cold steep pot as you will have less astringent and tannin tastes.