Coffee Stout

Source: Tod Billings
Recipe added: 11/03/98
Email: tod@ipa.net

The finer details of this recipe are unimportant. I have provided the most basic method of preparing this particular brew. The amount and type of coffee is the important factor. Make whatever stout you desire, whole grain or extract, whatever suits your taste, but I'd recommend strongly a sweet stout as opposed to a bitter stout. Don't even think of using "Folger's" or some other grocery store brand coffee (I have found that these varieties produce off flavors). Visit your local coffee shop for some gourmet coffee. A chocolate variety is highly recommended, as it will go best with a stout. The coffee shop will of course grind the beans for you, and you should ask for the finest ground they can provide. I have experimented with different amounts of coffee, and I've found that a half-pound is the best amount to use.

Specifics

Recipe type: Extract
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Starting Gravity:
Finishing Gravity:
Time in Boil: 1 hour
Primary Fermentation: 7 days

Ingredients:

8 lbs of a sweet stout extract
1/2 lb of of finely ground coffee beans
1 packet of yeast
3/4 cup of corn sugar

Procedure:

Add your ground coffee to one gallon of boiling water. Stir vigorously until coffee grounds have been dissolved. Add your extract and boil for one hour. Transfer to primary fermenter and add water to get five gallons. After the mixture cools to 70 degrees, add the yeast. Let ferment for seven days (and then of course transfer to a secondary fermenter if you so desire). After fermentation is complete, bottle the brew, adding the corn sugar for conditioning. Let the brew age for at least three weeks. If you drink it before the stout has time to age properly, you will be drinking a bottle of what is basically cold coffee, and it won't be pleasant! After three weeks however, the stout will be fully aged, and the coffee taste will have weakened, and you will have a wonderful coffee stout.

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