King Damara's (Coffee) Imperial Stout

Source: Nuggethead Brewing Co.
Recipe added: 03/09/01
Email: contactscottdavis@hotmail.com

While making this beer, we decided that we could take advantage of having a screen that we could filter the wort through and decided to put the coffee grains in with the wort instead of making the coffee ahead of time using a french press. However, while we were pouring the wort into the carboy a pile of coffee formed on the screen. The next thing we knew, the funnel let out a burp and sucked all of the coffee into the carboy. In short, the coffee grains that were sucked into the carboy sat with the beer for the first 9 days. They were probably left behind with the sediment when we trnsfered the beer to the secondary fermenter. The beer came out great. However, instead of having a classic russian imperial stout with a subtle coffee flavor, we got a 50-50 coffee-stout beer that packs both an alcohol and a caffiene buzz. Even though I tried to compensate a little for the extra coffee flavor by adding some vanilla extract before bottling, the vanilla flavor and scent is almost undetectable. If anybody tried this recipe and dosen't screw it up like I did, please let me know how it turns out.

Specifics

Recipe type: Partial Mash
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Starting Gravity: 9.75% potential abv
Finishing Gravity: 2.75%abv
Time in Boil: 60 min
Primary Fermentation: 9 days
Secondary Fermentation: 11 days
Additional Fermentation: Bottle Conditioning

Ingredients:

1/3 # Gourmet Espresso Coffee (coarse grained)
6.6 # Dark Malt Extract (syrup)
1 # Extra Light Malt (dry)
3/4 # Chocolate Malt (grain)
1/4 # Black Patent Malt (grain)
2 # Dark Malt Extract (dry)
2 Whole Sliced Vanilla Beans
3/4 oz. Vanilla Extract
3/4 oz. Nugget Hops (20 min. into boil)
1 1/4 oz. Cascade Hops (10 min. from the end of the boil)
1 # Carapils (grain)
1/2 # Damara German Brown Sugar (in the wort)
1/2 # Damara German Brown Sugar (priming sugar)
2 Tablespoons of Yeast Nutrient

Procedure:

1)Heat 3 Gallons of Wisahickon purified water to 130F 2)Steep the chocolate malt, black patent malt, and the carapils for 30 min. 3)Raise the temp. to 150F 4)Add dark malt extract syrup, the extra light malt extract, and the dry dark malt extact. 5) Boil the wort for 60 min. -At 20 min. add the nugget hops -At 50 min. add the cascade hops, the irish moss, the yeast nutrient, the coffee, and the damara german brown sugar 6)Pour the wort into the carboy and top it off with wisahickon water that was put in the freezer and was beginning to freeze. 7)Chill to 68F in a tub of ice, pitch the yeast (prepare a starter ahead of time), shake the carboy like hell, and pop on the airlock. 8)Wait for bubbling to slow, and transfer the beer to the secondary fermenter. 9)Wait for the secondary fermentation to stop, add the damara brown sugar which was dissolved in a quart of purified water and the vanilla extract. 10)Bottle the beer and try to wait.

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