Second Runnings Coffee Ale

Enjoying the smell in the kitchen

I don't plan on this being anything special, considering that I'm not going to sour it. And I was using a sour ingredients list which only consisted of 1 oz of hop. Nonetheless, it's worth noting the procedure because of the coffee addition.


After getting enough wort from the lauter for the first sour beer, I collected a little more than a gallon of second runnings. Original gravity was 1.040 SG, yet another sign of poor mash efficiency (second runnings should never be equal to, or even close to the specific gravity of the first runnings). I boiled the baby beer in the kitchen for about 60 minutes. I added ~.25 oz of Czech Saaz hops at 60 minutes. At about 30 minutes, I decided to steep some whole grain coffee beans. They were 100% Colombian Dark Roast. Nothing else to this beer. Chilled and pitched yeast. The yeast I used was some that I had harvested from Barney's Back secondary. This yeast was tainted with berry juice and the color red. I even washed this yeast 3 times and it is still discolored. Not to worried about off flavors for this 1 gallon batch. I expect 10 bottle or so. I have no plans to sour this, I just want to see what it tastes like with the coffee steep idea.

Coffee beans being steeped

A portion of this yeast, which was harvested from the secondary of Barney's Back, was pitched into this 1 gallon batch.

Brew Day 3/6/2015
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OG: 1.050

Moved to Secondary Fermentation 3/13/2015
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1.013

Bottled 3/16/2015
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I bottled 5 bottles. Should be ready to taste in a few weeks. Coffee is really coming through distinctively. I want to leave one of the bottles sitting until the tasting of the first bottles of sour beer from the flemish red. That'll be a cool comparison. I think if I pulverized the coffee beans a bit and steeped in cheese cloth into a 5 gallon batch that it would give off a similar flavor. I definitely enjoy it. And it gave a noticeable coffee buzz when drinking. "I love drinking a young beer un-carbonized and not hating the flavor. Love the teaser."
FG: 1.010