Yeah I know I have to stop naming my beers after songs or lines in a song. If you know me, I love stouts with Coffee in them. So for my next batch I went on a search for a nice all grain recipe for a stout. Since I’ve never done one, I looked on the internet for one that someone came up with. What I found was a recipe for more of a porter. This porter would be eventually be racked with Cacao Nibs, Vanilla Beans, and Cold Press Coffee. So here’s the base recipe for the Porter
11.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 71.5 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6.5 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt (Dark) (20.0 SRM) Grain 6.5 %
0.75 lb Caraaroma (130.0 SRM) Grain 4.9 %
0.44 lb Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
0.44 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
1.02 oz Tettnang [4.30%] (60 min) Hops 14.1 IBU
1.02 oz Tettnang [4.30%] (30 min) Hops 10.9 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [3.60%] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)Hops -
0.75 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose) (15 min) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.9 %
1 Pkgs German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029)
Brew day went pretty well. I was off by two degrees of my rest and on my sparge, no matter what I do I can’t get used to this cooler =) I wanted to hit 152 for the rest and 170 for the sparge but instead I believe I hit 150 and 168. I left this brew sit in the primary for 2 weeks. It was a very healthy fermentation process as my airlock blew off and made a nice huge mess in my chest freezer. Must invest in a blow off tube =) Temp was a stable 68%. Once the gravity was nice and stable, I racked into a secondary.
In the secondary I added 8oz of Cacao Nibs that I got from Northern Brewer. The day before I added them, I soaked them in some vodka and let them sit. Vodka is used to sterilize the nibs and help bring out the flavor. If you’ve ever put your nose up to some nibs, you’ll know just how amazing they smell. Seriously I could of just sat there and smelled these things all night long. I did the same thing with the Vanilla Beans. The recipe called for 1 Vanilla Bean. Instead I did 1 and 1/2. I wish I would of stuck to just 1, Vanilla Beans are very strong. The nibs and beans sat in the secondary for 2 weeks with the beer.
The day before kegging I did a little taste test between two coffees I bought the day before. I wanted a nice dark roast. I love coffee. Strong coffee that is. So like I said I did a little taste test. Once I picked what coffee I wanted (more like the fiance picked =) I did the cold press method. I filled up a gallon jug with 1/4 coffee grounds and 3/4 water. Let it sit over night on the counter. When the next day came around, I filtered out all the coffee grounds and added the coffee to the keg with the brew. By itself, the coffee was nice and strong with no bitterness. Cold Pressing coffee totally gets rid of the bitterness because no hot water is involved.
Once kegged I took a little sample of the brew. The coffee wasn’t there yet. The beer was overpowered by Vanilla. The chocolate sweetness came through pretty nicely. Obviously it wasn’t carbonated yet. So fast forward to yesterday. The beer is now fully carbonated and it’s a totally different beer now. The vanilla has died down a lot. Chocolate sweetness now comes though most with the coffee there and mixed in well with the chocolate. It really is a nice smelling beer and the taste is pretty damn good too. It’s changing everyday. I can’t wait to try it a week from now to see how it goes. If I had to change something about this beer, well I wouldn’t make a porter this time around. I’d put more roasty malts in the recipe, cut down the chocolate a bit and add more coffee. I added about 24oz of coffee, I would easily bump it up to 30-35oz. What can I say I love my coffee. But for the first time making this beer, I’m happy with it.
