Submitted by Troy Hill Brewer on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 15:37
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I'm a beginner with two home brews under my belt (IPA, Imperial IPA), which both turned out great. Tomorrow I'm going to brew an American Pale Ale, and I was thinking of tweaking my recipe and adding some coffee undertones. My plan is to add a handful of coffee beans when I dry-hop during the secondary fermentation. But I'm not sure if this is a good idea since most coffee-flavored beers seem to be stouts.
So: Is this a stupid idea? In my mind, it sounds wonderful. I'm a hophead and I love coffee. So why wouldn't I like a hoppy pale ale? Any advice/comments?
re: coffee IPA
Flavor could be interesting on that, but I can't see the color working out for you. Since coffee turns things *black* you are going to have a black American Pale Ale. That doesn't sound so good to me. However, maybe it will be like one these "black IPAs" that have been around lately.
My individual taste is that I like both coffee and beer, but I don't see a need to mix those things. How about drinking coffee while you brew beer? That can be fun.
What did you end up doing?
Post your results!