(Last Updated On: November 29, 2018)

At this time of year, I love to have a nice stout or porter on tap. Since I hadn’t brewed a coffee stout in quite awhile, I figured it was time to get busy!

I approached this recipe a little differently than most. I wanted to try out an all grain recipe kit from Northern Brewer, but I also knew I was going to change it up a bit.

Still, starting out with a recipe kit with good reviews seemed like a good idea, so I ended up choosing the Dry Irish Stout recipe kit from NB as a base recipe.

About Irish Stouts

This is a popular style, with one very well known commercial example most folks are readily familiar with.

Of course I’m talking about Guinness, but my intention with this recipe wasn’t necessarily to make a ‘Coffee Guinness’. Though if that’s what you’re after, this wouldn’t be a bad way to go about it.

The BJCP guidelines define the overall impression of an Irish Stout as follows:

A black beer with a pronounced roasted flavor, often similar to coffee. The balance can range from fairly even to quite bitter, with the more balanced versions having a little malty sweetness and the bitter versions being quite dry. Draught versions typically are creamy from a nitro pour, but bottled versions will not have this dispense-derived character. The roasted flavor can be dry and coffee-like to somewhat chocolaty. –BJCP 2015 Beer Guidelines

Irish Stout History

Today, when most people think of an Irish Stout, they immediately think “Guinness”. And it does seem as though Guinness was the primary innovator of the modern style.

But the history goes back further than you may think.

In the late 1790’s Irish brewers were looking to cash in on the success of the popular London porter beers. We could go on and on about the differences between a stout and a porter, but that’s a subject for another article..

Around 1810, Guinness released a “stouter kind of porter” which featured darker malts, including black patent malt, and later roasted barley.

These malts moved the recipe away from the fuller-bodied, creamier porters of the past towards a drier, more crisp, roasty ale, much closer to what we think of today.

About Coffee Stouts

Coffee stouts have become a pretty popular twist on a classic style in recent years.

It just makes sense that the rich, roasty flavor and aroma of coffee would really compliment a smooth stout in a positive way.

For my part, I stuck mostly to the base recipe provided by the kit, though I did add some two-row pale malt, and of course some coffee!

The extra pale malt was to bump up the OG just a tiny bit without affecting the body too much.

And the coffee was added.. well, for the coffee.

My Coffee Stout Recipe

As I mentioned, this recipe is almost exactly as provided from Northern Brewer, with the exception of the added two-row and coffee.

It’s probably worth talking a bit about the kit as I received it.

Northern Brewer Irish Stout Recipe Kit

I’ve always been happy when ordering bulk grains and other ingredients from NB.

I often order pre-crushed grains and malts from them, and have been very happy with the results. The grains are bagged in plastic, then double bagged in a larger plastic bag. To date I’ve never had a bag break open. No spilled grains here…

The one difference that I noted with this recipe kit was that the grain bill was milled and packaged together, as opposed to separate bags like when I order base malts for my own inventory. Straight into the mash tun it went!

Also included were the expected instructions, pre-measured magnum hops, and the yeast I specified with my order.

There is also an extract version of this kit available.

Brew Day

According to my currently preferred beer recipe creation tool, BeerSmith Mobile, the expected statistics for my Irish Coffee Stout recipe, using my brewing setup, are as follows:

OG – 1.052

FG – 1.013

IBU – 36.0

SRM – 36.1

ABV – 5.12%

Final results may vary depending on the efficiency of your own brewing setup, as always.

Grain Bill

The kit I purchased came with the following grain bill, for a 5-gallon batch:

6.5 lbs UK Pale Malt

1.5 lbs Roasted Barley

1 lb Flaked Barley

4oz Black Patent Malt

To this base, I added an extra pound of US Two-Row pale malt I happened to have on hand.

Hop Schedule

I added the included 0.75 oz of Magnum hops at FWH (first wort hopping) bittering addition.

This style calls for little to no hop aroma, so I was not surprised to see the kit included a single hop addition for bittering only.

I also didn’t want any extra hop nose to interfere with the flavor or aroma of my coffee addition.

Brew Day

The Water

As is my habit, I used Reverse Osmosis water from my home RO filtration system to start with.

A teaspoon of Calcium Chloride was added to the water to help round out the mouthfeel and flavor, hoping to enhance the smoothness of the finished beer.

The Mash

I mashed this recipe a bit low temperature (shoot for around 148) for the standard 60 minutes in order to (in theory) produce a wort with a medium light, drinkable body.

A lot of stouts (especially a milk stout or sweet stout ) are mashed higher, to leave more residual sweetness and body, but this is a dry stout recipe. Therefore, a crisp, drier finish is called for.

The Boil

I used a standard 60 minute boil this time around.

Just add your FWH addition when you begin sparging into your boil kettle.

The Chill

I pretty much always use my trusty copper immersion chiller. It’s simple, dependable, and it chills wort.

That’s what a wort chiller is for, after all.

Check out my Wort Chiller Comparison article to learn more about the pros and cons of different wort chiller designs.

Fermentation

The Yeast

White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast was chosen for this beer.

There are other good Irish ale yeasts out there, but I’ve had good luck with this strain before, so if it aint broke…

Anyway the specs from White Labs on this yeast are as follows:

Attenuation : 69.00-74.00

: 69.00-74.00 Flocculation : Medium to High

Alcohol Tolerance : Medium – High (8 – 12%)

Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65.00-68.00 F In the words of Chris White, of White Labs:

The Coffee

I left this beer in the primary ( sitting in a trusty Big Mouth Bubbler ) for about 3 weeks. The yeast had compacted nicely, and racked pretty clear beer into the keg, skipping the cold-crash this time around.

There are a number of ways to go about adding coffee to a recipe. Some brewers simply brew up a pot and add some amount to the finished beer.

Some add whole beans or grounds to the mash or boil.

I prefer to cold-steep my coffee for a number of reasons.

I’ve got a full article in the works about adding coffee to beer, so make sure you subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss that one!

Cold steeping the coffee seems to lead to a smoothers, less acidic brew than actually using a coffee maker. I think this is due to increased tannic extraction when the coffee is brewed with heat.

I have to assume the same thing happens when adding coffee to the mash or boil.

I use this cool tea infusion-pitcher we have around the house for my cold steeping. It’s got an infusion filter cone with a very finely perforated steel screen inside, where you add the tea (or coffee in this case).

The cone attaches to the lid, so it is suspended in the water. When done, you can simply pour out the coffee, leaving the grounds behind.

I’d imagine a french press would also be a good option for this, just using cold water instead of hot.

Either way, I make sure to sanitize the pitcher and use bottled water so that I don’t introduce any bacteria to the beer. This is important to remember, because I add the coffee AFTER the beer is done fermenting.

Adding the coffee to the finished beer allows me to add to taste. Better to need more than add too much…

Making the coffee

I started off with about six tbsp of medium-coarse ground dark-roast coffee, along with about a quart of water in my steeper-pitcher thingy.

After 24 hours on the kitchen counter, I had a nice, dark pitcher of cold-steeped coffee to work with.

I added the whole thing to the beer after kegging it, then gave it 24 hours to homogenize (without resorting to swirling or shaking the keg).

I definitely got some coffee notes, but I wanted more, so I repeated the process again, using half the coffee this time.

Keep in mind, the coarseness of the grind, the amount of coffee, the darkness of the roast, etc will all impact how much coffee you will want to add. Let your taste buds be the judge.

Also important to note, if you are adding coffee or anything else to a finished keg, make sure to purge it with CO2 each time you re-seal the keg. This helps avoid oxidation.

Carbonation

As always, I used my trusty burst carbonation method and carbonation calculator to get this coffee stout quickly carbonated to a nice 2.5 volumes of carbonation.

My Impressions

I find this to be a dry, crisp beer with great roasty malt flavor. The coffee adds a bit more roast and richness. I definitely get a subtle but noticeable coffee flavor, especially in the finish.

I kind of wish I would have split the batch so I could compare the coffee-dosed version against the base recipe, for science. The bitterness level is spot on as it stands, and I wonder how much the coffee contributed to that.

Either way, I really enjoyed the simplicity of using the recipe kit as my starting point, and I think my additions really make it shine.

It’s a delicious beer. I hope this article inspires you to make a coffee stout of your own!

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