A subtle love affair with all things coffee inspired my desire to brew a coffee stout. Not wanting to rely on spurious AG recipes on homebrew forums, I chose to brew the sweet stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. I used whirlflocc this time but the beer may be too dark to notice clarity. I plan to split the beer into a few smaller carboys after fermentation to try different techniques for adding coffee to the stout. Within 12 hours I was getting blowoff in the primary, which is a first for me. Hacked together a blowoff assembly using an old S-airlock and some racking hose. Smells delicious so far - makes me wish I had a beer gas kegerator...
Recipe: Triple-X
OG: 1.060 (as brewed 1.064)
FG: unknown
ABV: unknown
English Pale Ale LME 7.2 lbs
Lactose Powder 1.0 lb
Black Patent Malt (525 L) 1.0 lb
Crystal (80 L) 0.75 lb
Pale Chocolate Malt (200 L - though I used 350 L) 0.5 lb
Kent Goldings 5% AA, 1.5 oz - 60 min
Fermentis Safale S-04
Currently fermenting at 74-76 F.
UPDATE:
2 week gravity reading and taste test show I likely messed up the steeping portion of the brew as my attenuation is very low - it's sitting at 1.034 when it should be in the low 20's. Tastes very sweet but very good, with an unexpected layering of flavors. In order to boost the alcohol content and perhaps add another couple flavor layers, I've added 12oz of turbinado sugar and 2oz of Wild Turkey 101.
UPDATE (10/10/11):
I kegged this batch and had plenty of problems including sucking beer into my gas line and breaking the low-pressure valve. Hopefully my next kegging attempt fares better. This beer had promise but was cloyingly sweet (can't recall the FG if I even measured it) to my taste, and only about half the beer was consumed before I noticed oxidation flavors that were unpleasant enough to convince me to dump the rest.
