Beer Forum

I brewed the Terrapin Wake N' Bake Stout about 2.5 weeks ago. For a big beer this young, the beer is tasting incredibly good. I would even brew this recipe without coffee. My question about the coffee part is about sanitation. What is the best way to avoid introducing any bad bugs that could be on the Coffee? I'll be adding it soon and don't want to F' up my clone brew

Also, I went by the recipe all the way and ordered the Jittery Joes coffee. For anyone who brews this recipe, the coffee is cheaper through Terrapin due to the high shipping prices from Jittery Joes. I'm sure a local roaster could take care of you as well if you gave them an idea of the blend that you want but I wanted to try the Jittery Joes coffee.

I just throw the coffee in. I was paranoid when I first did it but I have had no off flavors. I have dried beaned about 5 times now. You can add a little bit of vodka to the beans to do a sanitize or the other route you can go is to cold brew your coffee and add it in. If you listen to the Terrapin CYBI again Spike just throws the coarsed ground coffee in to the fermenter for 48 hours and then takes it off, I don't believe he sanitizes.

Cheers

LocalBrewer wrote:I just throw the coffee in. I was paranoid when I first did it but I have had no off flavors. I have dried beaned about 5 times now. You can add a little bit of vodka to the beans to do a sanitize or the other route you can go is to cold brew your coffee and add it in. If you listen to the Terrapin CYBI again Spike just throws the coarsed ground coffee in to the fermenter for 48 hours and then takes it off, I don't believe he sanitizes.

Cheers

+1, also keep in mind the batch is now beer and not wort so the alchohal in the beer may help as well. Just think of it as dry hopping.
Sounds awesome.

Thanks for the quick responses.

I guess I'll just course grind the beans and dip my sack in the keg for a couple of days........what?

Larkin W. wrote:Thanks for the quick responses.

I guess I'll just course grind the beans and dip my sack in the keg for a couple of days........what?

A trick if you are sacking ( ) your keg. Sanatize your sack, a stainless fitting and some fishing line. Add the stainless fitting and coffee to your sack. Knot your sack and then tie the fishing line around your knot. Place your sack in the keg and the weight from the fitting will allow your sack to sink. Go down about halfway and then tie the end of the fishing line around the keg handle. Put the keg lid on and you are done. Taste your beer each day and when you have the desired coffee flavor take your sack out. I do this when I want to add fresh hops to my keg it is a fruggle hop infuser. Good luck and cheers.

I'm curious about the grind of the coffee. Did you order it from Jittery pre-ground or will you be doing that yourself? My worry is that even a coarse grind will need to be filtered and I don't filter.

I was thinking I would have to brew the coffee and add to taste to avoid having to filter.

atomicpunk wrote:I'm curious about the grind of the coffee. Did you order it from Jittery pre-ground or will you be doing that yourself? My worry is that even a coarse grind will need to be filtered and I don't filter.

I was thinking I would have to brew the coffee and add to taste to avoid having to filter.

I get the coffee whole, and use a food processor to crack the beans. Think of it as you would crushing your grains. You don't want powder just want to crack the husk. Same for the coffee bean, just crack it enough to break it apart no need for any filter. Also it is good to cold crash (if you hav ethe means) with the beans. Most of the beans will settle to the bottom and the ones that don't float on the top.

My prefered method was cold brewing the coffee and adding to taste. I tried the cold steeping and chucking the beans in the fermenter for 48 hours, suggested by Spike on the Terrapin CYBI and had great success. You get so much more coffee flavor and aroma with this method compared to the cold brewing and adding to taste. Hope this helps, cheers.

LocalBrewer wrote:

atomicpunk wrote:I'm curious about the grind of the coffee. Did you order it from Jittery pre-ground or will you be doing that yourself? My worry is that even a coarse grind will need to be filtered and I don't filter.

I was thinking I would have to brew the coffee and add to taste to avoid having to filter.

I get the coffee whole, and use a food processor to crack the beans. Think of it as you would crushing your grains. You don't want powder just want to crack the husk. Same for the coffee bean, just crack it enough to break it apart no need for any filter. Also it is good to cold crash (if you hav ethe means) with the beans. Most of the beans will settle to the bottom and the ones that don't float on the top.

My prefered method was cold brewing the coffee and adding to taste. I tried the cold steeping and chucking the beans in the fermenter for 48 hours, suggested by Spike on the Terrapin CYBI and had great success. You get so much more coffee flavor and aroma with this method compared to the cold brewing and adding to taste. Hope this helps, cheers.

I brewed this a couple of years ago based on the interview he did on the Sunday Session, and I cold steeped the coffee, like he did at the time. Everytime I have added coffee to a beer afterward, I have cold steeped it. It's like most other things in brewing, a combination of good luck the first time, habit, and fear of bad juju from another method.