Coffee

From layering malts to selecting and infusing adjuncts, Third Eye co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery lays out their medal-winning approach to planning and brewing rich, flavorful stouts.

Coffee is an ingredient, not an additive—that's the view of Julian Shrago, co-owner and brewmaster at Beachwood Brewing in Los Angeles. In this clip from his video course, he lays out their methods for infusion, recirculation, and selecting the right level of roast for a great coffee beer.

From ball bearings to infusion tanks, Maplewood founder Adam Cieslak and special projects lead Adam Smith offer technical advice on how to best extract the flavors from ingredients such as coconut and coffee.

Josh Weikert pulled some levers and turned some dials on his own American stout, and this is the result. This version uses cold-steeped, cracked coffee beans to complement the complex roasted malt and pine notes.

With thanks to Urban South head brewer Alex Flores in New Orleans, here is a sample recipe for their strong, gently tart beer that combines the pleasures of fruit and coffee.

Coffee and fruit flavors complement each other beautifully, yet we rarely see them unite in beer. One brewery leaning into that marriage is Urban South in New Orleans. Here, head brewer Alex Flores explains the method behind their Drip au Lait series.

Here is a homebrew-scale recipe for Wolf’s Ridge Brewing’s foundational cream ale—Clear Sky—plus directions on how to take it further, to brew a beer inspired by their award-winning coffee vanilla cream ale, Daybreak.

At Wolf’s Ridge in Columbus, Ohio, head brewer Chris Davison leads a flavor-forward beer program with roots in experimental homebrewing and a growing pile of accolades.

For the head brewer of Urban South in New Orleans, focusing on tight process, healthy lactic fermentation, and quality fruit is the difference between dull and delicious quick-soured beers.

Ryan Crisp, Alesmith’s director of brewing operations, shares the behind-the-scenes design and technique that make their Speedway imperial coffee stout so iconic.

In this clip from his video course, Weathered Souls head brewer and cofounder Marcus Baskerville digs into adjunct techniques for Black Is Beautiful and other rich imperial stouts—including contact times for various ingredients.

Ohio’s Wolf’s Ridge Brewing took home GABF medals two years in a row, then its Double Chocolate Rum Barrel Dire Wolf made our Best 20 Beers in 2020. In this episode, head brewer Chris Davison digs into barrel-aging, unusual coffee beer, and much more.

Here’s a basic recipe for homebrewed hard seltzer—a blank canvas for an infinite variety of flavorings.

Aslin Beer cofounder Andrew Kelley shares a detailed example of building a beer recipe to mimic the flavors and evoke a specific culinary experience—including specifics on how and when to add coffee.

For 3 Sons Brewing in South Florida, the idea is simple: Make the beer that people want to drink. But that manifests in different ways—from cocktail- and dessert-flavored beers to a barrel-aging program via traditional German styles.

Founder Corey Artanis walks through everything from ingredient selection to process considerations when adding ingredients like coffee, maple syrup, vanilla, and more.

With this recipe, the brewers at Main & Mill are going for imperial character and mouthfeel in a sessionable frame, with this lighter version of their Imperial Breakfast Stout.

Brewing coffee beer isn’t hard—which isn’t to say that it’s as simple as throwing beans into the mash! Pick a good bean, incorporate it conscientiously, and you can turn almost any beer into a coffee beer. Here's a recipe for a coffee stout.

Once you get the process down for your system and palate, you can play around with the amount and type of coffee involved, and you should also start playing around with the styles of coffee beer you brew!

Want to pour your own cold brew coffee at home? If you already have a normal CO2 keg setup, you can level up by adding nitrogen to the mix. That one-time cost will let you satisfy your craving and still be able to put your stout on tap once in a while.