A Cuppa Beer: Using Coffee in Your Homebrew

Originally published in the March/April 2010 issue of Zymurgy magazine. When homebrewers want to venture away from Reinheitsgebot­ approved ingredients or traditional beer styles, one of the first places many turn to is another favorite beverage: coffee. Coffee shares many of the roasted flavors found in dark malts and is a natural choice to add complexity to a porter or stout, or to add a new dimension to a lighter beer style. But before you go throwing your morning cup of joe into a fermenter, there are a number of things you need to consider to end up with a quality coffee­ infused beer. Type of Coffee As we all know, a beer will only be as good as the ingredients we put into it, and this is certainly true when using coffee. Luckily for us a specialty coffee…

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