• 11 lbs. dry amber malt extract
• 1/2 lb. chocolate malt
• 1/2 lb. roasted barley
• 5 oz. Northern Brewer – boiling
• 2 oz. Cascade – finishing
• 1/4 tsp. Irish Moss
• 1 quart double-strength french press dark-roasted coffee in the secondary fermenter.

Bring two gallons of water up to 150 degrees. Steep grains a half hour. Remove. Add malt extract and boiling hops – boil vigorously for an hour. Be careful! This wort is very likely to boil over when you’re not looking.

Add finishing hops and Irish Moss, boil 15 more minutes. Sparge into 3 gallons of cold water, top up to 5 gallons if necessary. Primary ferment and rack to the secondary, adding the hot double-strength coffee. The temperature shouldn’t rise appreciably from the quart of coffee you add. Give it a few days in the secondary and bottle as usual. This beer can stand up to age – and I wouldn’t touch it until at least a month in the bottle.

If you don’t use hop bags, now is the time to start. Nobody wants to scoop and sparge 7 ounces of hops.

Notes

Coffee Imperial Stout. This beer was one of my entries (along with Maple Brown Ale) in the Sam Adams “LongShot” contest. I didn’t win. Sob. But both beers are well worth the effort, especially this one. Malty, smooth, a bit of a residual bitterness from the coffee and a bunch of interesting flavors. Nice. This one leaves a taste on your lips.

I used Ethiopian coffee from my client Dean’s Beans at a full city+ roast. You could probably get away with any darker-roast coffee, but do use the good stuff. You’re already spending $45+ on the malt and hops, don’t skimp on the finisher – good coffee.

I think it’s important to add the coffee to the secondary fermenter, as boiling coffee is a great way to lose a lot of the flavor notes it contains. The coffee oils probably interfere with head retention. . . but no worries. The head looked fine to me.

This is an excellent beer – I know I’ll be brewing it again.