# A coffee wine



## mkjennison (Feb 26, 2014)

Hello; I've taken a bit of a hiatus from winemaking for the past year since things have been busy in life - we bought a house (a fixer-upper), so that's been consuming a lot of my time.

I finally got around to making up a batch of coffee wine that I've had the ingredients on hand for about a year now! The below is simply to document what goes on with this wine and avoid issues by more experienced makers. I've read that this can be quite finnicky and the batches can turn out horribly quite easily.

I followed Jack Keller's recipe pretty closely (3 gallon batch):
-Brought 3 gallons spring water to boil and dissolved 4 pounds of dark brown sugar and 2 pounds of light brown sugar in the water; removed from heat.
-Stirred in 22oz of freshly ground Eight O' Clock French Vanilla whole bean coffee and continued to stir for 4-5 minutes; no heat.
-Transferred liquid to primary through a double layer of coarse straining bag and double layer of fine straining bag. I did this by stretching across the top of bucket and securing with a bungee cord.

*note: it would be easier putting it actually into the bags and allowing to drain into the primary... that would have worked fine too.

Temp: ~120 degF
-Added the following:
--1/8 tsp Kmeta
--4 1/2 tsp acid blend
--2 tsp yeast nutrient
--3/4 tsp tannin

Cooled to 73degF.
SG: 1.089
TA: inconclusive... I still can't seem to get this test right...
pH: 4.0 - 4.2

Pitched yeast starter sol'n: Lalvin ICV D47

The taste is very sweet; a little astringent. Sort of like... cold sugar coffee... heh. There is quite a bit of *very* fine coffee dust that settles out in a glass after a few minutes. I can't wait to rack off of that powder - I am figuring that leaving it on that dust will force the wine to the bitter edge of the spectrum.

Well, we'll see how it goes!
-Mark


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## the_rayway (Feb 27, 2014)

I'm still interested in making a coffee wine - keep us posted on how it goes!


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## BernardSmith (Feb 27, 2014)

I am no expert so take what I say with two or three grains of salt, but I am a little surprised that even after adding 4.5 t of acid blend the pH is above 4. I would have thought that coffee is more acidic than your meter suggests. Is the "astringent" taste caused by the tannins or the acids in the coffee? I would have thought acids. Tannins affect the moisture in your mouth but acids are what results in "bitterness"


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## mkjennison (Feb 27, 2014)

I agree completely. I was surprised it was above 4 as well. I am just using the basic wine-range pH strips with the color indicator; I don't have a meter right now. 

Because of the color (dark hazy brown), I couldn't get a TA reading by titration against phenolphthalein at all. Tried diluting with water to lighten the color but even then it was difficult.

Any suggestions are welcome! Since I am following Jack's recipe, I am hoping it comes out as it should. Can a pH above 4 introduce issues in a low-nutrient must like this?

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## mkjennison (Feb 27, 2014)

I thought I'd go ahead and upload some pictures.

22oz of ground coffee. It was actually a large bowl even though it looks small here.






Brown sugar in water (sorry about the blur)





Coffee floating in the sugar water





Straining into primary through coarse/fine mesh bags





Just chillin' (to room temp)





And today I came home to a creature trying to escape from the deep!


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## mkjennison (Mar 16, 2014)

*Update - infection?*

I was wondering if anyone else had a bit more experience with the situation I am having with my coffee wine. Not sure if this is normal or if something has gone terribly wrong. The wine has been racked once off the gross lees; the yeast are dropping out still and I have a 1/4" layer on the bottom of the carboy. Considering racking again ASAP but thought I'd ask opinions first =)





Wine is below 0.996 s.g. and still has slight bubbles rising. Fermentation is nearly finished for sure. It is a kind of scummy, acrid foam which taste reminds me a lot of nasty beer foam. Haven't tasted the wine itself yet; but I will after I take a SG reading later on.

Any thoughts?


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## jensmith (Mar 17, 2014)

Normel.

Coffe is weird. Smells great. Taste nothing like it smells. As a wine it is kinda the same. There is a fair amount of skummyness and nasty flavors the first few rackings. Mine eventually settled down and cleared. Now it taste like cold coffe with a "bit 'o Irish" in it. I did backsweeten mine a tiny bit with agave syrup. Maybe a splash of home made coffe extract as well. I did not follow any recipie. I used leftover coffe and followed standard wine making habits. I has aged over a year now. Maybe I should sample again


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## Runningwolf (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm not a coffee drinker but I love the smell of it. Is this anything that could be enhanced by infusing chocolate into it?


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## mkjennison (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm planning on bottling one gallon semi sweet, the second gallon sweet, and the third gallon after adding 3/4 cup of chocolate syrup and aging longer. Hopefully one of them will turn out!

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## photoactivist (Apr 28, 2014)

mkjennison said:


> I'm planning on bottling one gallon semi sweet, the second gallon sweet, and the third gallon after adding 3/4 cup of chocolate syrup and aging longer.



If you haven't already added the chocolate syrup, I might suggest you use Dutch Process Cocoa instead. It has less acidity than normal cocoa, and to me, has better chocolate infusion flavor than syrup (which is usually mostly preservatives and additives). I once tried using chocolate that I then melted for wine... It was not pleasant. Dutch process cocoa produces an easier integrated in liquid fine powder as well as a lower bitterness substance.
Of course, this will cause more lees, and thus require longer fining times. But it might just be worth it.

Recipe sounds super cool, can't wait to hear about the outcome!


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