Hello again. Since we last posted, I brewed a beer and we are tasting this Vanilla Coffee Stout in the video below.
Although it sounds like a well planned out and complicated beer, it started simply. I was only trying to brew a beer with coffee from the Lanna Coffee Company. What happened along the way called for a little improvisation and some luck.
See what I am talking about by watching this episode from our YouTube channel.
Beer Notes and Information
If you are big fan of coffee, take a look at what the Lanna Coffee company is doing. The bag of coffee they sent me was fresh and made a good cup of joe.
What I really wanted to know is how it would taste in a beer I brewed so I put this recipe together.
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Ingredients:
13.75 pounds of Maris Otter Pale malt
1.25 pounds of Roasted Barley
1.25 pounds of Old Fashioned Oats
1.25 pounds of Chocolate Malt
1.25 pounds of White Wheat Malt
2 ounces of Fuggles hops (45 mins)
1.5 ounces of coarsely ground coffee beans (Flame out)
1 vanilla bean
Yeast: 2 packets of Safale 04
Instructions:
Mash grains for 60 minutes at 154° F.
Boil for 60 minutes. Chill to 68° F and ferment for two weeks. Rack to secondary and let the beer sit on a vanilla bean cut down the middle for 3 weeks. At the end of three weeks, keg or bottle and carbonate to 2 volumes of CO2.
Predictions:
Starting Gravity: 1.074
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV: 8.0%
Bitterness: 37 IBUs
SRM 32°
All right – this beer was my first attempt at brewing with coffee. I tend not to like those beers anyway. After fermentation was done, the beer wasn’t great in my opinion. I decided to add vanilla to the flavor so that it would calm the coffee taste down a bit.
Since the beer rested on a vanilla bean for three weeks, the coffee harshness was calmed a bit and blended nicely with the vanilla.
I think the addition of all the foam positive grains made for a silky mouthfeel. After 3 weeks of drinking this beer, I definitely want to brew this again next winter.
Brew on!
Darrin Taylor
Do you sell liquid malt for this recipe or know where I can find it?
John
Hi Darrin – no, we don’t sell any of the ingredients but you can find online stores that do. A Google search will help you.
Joe O'Horan
I’d love to brew this. What amounts of grains would you recommend if I used 6 lbs of Breiss malt extract as well?
John
Hi Joe – the Breiss malt extract can replace 8 pounds of the Maris Otter malt if you are going to do a partial mash for the other grains.