Coffee Wine

[the.fee.fairy]

I know that a couple of people here have made coffee wine. Can someone give me the recipe please? I've found a couple on google, but they're american, and i'm not sure what they're on about...

I bottled my mead tonight (see other post!), so i now have 3 demojohns sitting empty, just waiting to be filled again!

[chadspad]

Heres the one Ive followed from Luath.

4tbsp instant coffee
1 gallon boiling water
2 1/2 lbs sugar
yeast

Dissolve the coffee in the water in a fermenting vessel, add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cool to blood heat, then add activated yeast. Cover closely, leave in warm place 4 days or so, then transfer to demi-john and ferment out. Improves with age, keep a bout a year before trying. Can turn out quite strong.

Mine has cleared nicely but the SG is still too high. All my wines seems to have stuck which is annoying. Ive used a restart yeast but thats done nothing either. I have 5 that are stuck

[ina]

Can't say I find that idea very enticing... I think I'll stick to wine and coffee separate - that way you get two drinks instead of one!

[the.fee.fairy]

Thanks for the recipe!
I bought 3 demijohns the other day with the idea of starting off some coffee wine. At least i won't have to make the recipe up now!!

[burek]

coffee wine?? what does it taste like? does it have to be made with instant coffee?

[the.fee.fairy]

started this on Sunday - its bubbled through the airlock twice already!!

[the.fee.fairy]

coffee wine?? what does it taste like? does it have to be made with instant coffee?

From what i can gether from other people, it comes out like Tia Maria (may need fortifying if you want it to be hthe same strength).

I would imagine you can probably make it with real coffee, it would need a lot of straining to get the grounds out though.

[magnuscanis]

I would imagine you can probably make it with real coffee, it would need a lot of straining to get the grounds out though.

The other issue would be to figure out how strong to make the coffee. Here goes with a rough calculation...

When I use instant coffee I put about 1 teaspoon in a normal sized mug, which holds perhaps half a pint (I'm guessing here, as I don't have any measuring equipment to hand). That would mean a tablespoon should do a pint and a half, so four tablespoons would make 6 pints of coffee. IIRC a gallon is 8 pints, so you're looking at slightly weaker than normal (depending, of course, on what you take to be normal :)) but not incredibly weak.

I guess you could just brew up 3/4 a demijohn's worth of coffee, add sugar and top up with water, then leave to cool, strain carefully and proceed with the given recipe. Alternatively, if the sugar doesn't get completely dissolved it might be better to strain the coffee before adding sugar so you don't lose too much in the straining process.

I must get my last batch of homebrew cider bottled so I can free up a demijohn and give it a shot.

- Magnus

[the.fee.fairy]

It might depend on the type of coffee you use too. I used whatever instant was about the yhouse, but if you use specifically espresso coffe, then you might need it weaker etc.

might depend on how coffee-ey you want the wine to taste.

[magnuscanis]

It might depend on the type of coffee you use too. I used whatever instant was about the yhouse, but if you use specifically espresso coffe, then you might need it weaker etc.

I'm sure it would depend to an extent on the coffee type. As far as I can tell with espresso coffee, however, the extra strong coffee results more from using a very fine grind and a lot of coffee beans per cup and forcing steam through it at high pressure than from using especially strong coffee (although I know you can get beans sold expressly for the purpose).

might depend on how coffee-ey you want the wine to taste.

Definitely. Just like people vary as to how they like their coffee (if at all), tastes will vary when it comes to coffee wine.

- Magnus

PS I had a narrow escape when making myself a cup of coffee at work yesterday morning. I'd left the light off to save electricity so the kitchen was a bit dingy and I picked up the decaffeinated coffee jar instead of the real one. Fortunately I realised in time.

[the.fee.fairy]

Phew!

Thankfully i don't have decaffeinated coffee in the house or that very reason!

[magnuscanis]

I don't even have instant coffee in the house as a general rule.

However, I'm not in control of the office kitchen so there's not a lot I can do about apart from learn to read the label.

- Magnus