Coffee

It’s been a few years since I’ve done a stout, and winters coming up, so I thought I’d give it another crack. The last stout I made was a coffee chocolate stout, which used cold-brew coffee and cacao nibs soaked in congac. It was pretty good, but I wanted to do something different this time. I’ll be keeping a similar grain bill and hops (Fuggles), but I’ll be adding lactose to round out the bitterness, and I’ll also be adding cacao nibs and 2 vanilla beans. These should add the vanilla and chocolate notes i’m after.

2022 was a good year for brewing - I definitely got back into the swing of things and was able to brew a lot more beer than in 2021. While there was some dud beers (mostly due to oxidation..), the beers in general definitely improved in quality. I recognised that I branched out in styles as well, experimenting with different spices and yeasts. Of these, the Beglian White Ale (Witbier), Aussie Sparkling Ale and Mango Lassi sour were 3 notable beers that involved new ways of brewing with spices and different hop varietals. While I tend to stick to the same styles, I’m keen to branch out and try new things, mainly to keep things fresh and exciting. I’m also keen to try new methods, improve the efficiencies of my current process, and work on the limitations I’m currently facing.

In 2023, I have a few notable brewing improvements and styles I’m excited to try. In no given order, these are:

Designing the Recipe
This time around, i’m going to be partly designing my own recipe for a coffee stout. This stout is basically going to follow these guidelines:
-ABV between 5% and 7%.
-Grain bill of 80% base malt + remaining specialty grains.
-Between 30 and 40 IBUs from bittering additions of hops, with some at the end of the boil.
-An Ale yeast with an attenuation of approximately 75% (Us-04/05 or wyeast 1056 American Ale)
-A mash between 67c and 69c
-Water chemistry adjusted to add hardness (increased calcium and carbonate)
-2.5 volumes of C02