AHS Toasted Coconut Porter

So after doing a bunch of reading on other sites and this one and not being able to find a full rundown on a coconut porter recipe from start to finish I thought I'd go ahead and through in my 2 cents and come up with one. After looking through the info I settled on doing AHS toasted coconut porter (Extract). I don't know if I can post the exact recipe so I'll just give an outline until I get some info as to if it's alright. Seems like a porter recipe with flaked oats for head retention and mouthfeel. Some bittering hops at 60 min. and flavor/aroma at 10min. I used whirfloc at 7min. and got a quick chill down to 72F in about 8min. Did a full boil with 6gallons accounting for boil off. Final volume was 5.25gal OG 1.058-1.060, used a refractometer with a brix of 14.8-15 and came up with that conversion. Some stuff came up and it was either no starter or wait a month to brew. So I picked up 2 vials white lab 007 and pitched. Airlock activity @ 7hr. and I will update as much as possible. My one question is how much unsweetend flaked coconut to use? The recipe calls for 1lb. toasted, however I don't want a light coconut so I was thinking about doing 1.5lb, just worried about head retention by the increase. Hope this can help anyone thinking about making a coconut porter.

I hope you get some good replies on this one. I am doing this same one next and I am also wondering about the coconut.
I plan on putting the co**** in a grain bag into secondary. Just curious how much to use.

How dedicated are you to using actual coconut (as opposed to extract)? My first reaction is (like you suggest) true coconut is heavy in oils, which would, in turn, kill your head retention of the final product. If it were me, my first attempt would be to use an alcohol based extract - might be a safer bet, and easier to produce/reproduce.

well I'm gonna stick with true coconut as that's what the kit and original recipe calls for however I will be going a little heavier on the coconut 1.5lb. instead of the recommended 1 lb. I'll see where this goes and report back. It has been in the primary about 2 weeks at this point and I will let it sit for another 2 weeks before racking onto the coconut in a nylon hop bag a letting it sit for 4days on the coconut. Then into the keg to carb and 2 more weeks and I'll have some more info for everyone.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/when-add-coconut-123382/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/when-add-coconut-123382/

Some threads on this topic. I went way over the top with the coconut and this beer came out amazing. I have a keg on now (1yr 10 mo after brewing) and it is the best beer I have ever made, and one of the best I have ever drank, commercial included.

It does pour with decent head, the first keg poured with almost no head IIRC. Who cares, its just aesthetic.

Ok, I just did my own coconut beer. I loosely based the recipe on a Mackeson xxx stout with lactose. I used a combination of coconut extract and coconut. I used one bottle of the bakers coconut extract that you find in the baking section. For the coconut I used the sweetened kind and toasted it myself in the oven. I used 5 pounds of it. Here is the trick for reducing the amount of oils that get in your beer, put all the coconut in a very fine nylon mesh bag. What I found out was the oils lump together and cannot leak through the mesh. It actually worked better than I expected. Now for the beer, it turned out awesome. It has a very strong taste of cocnut. The interesting thing is you get slightly different flavors from the extract and toasted coconut, so it adds some nice complexity.

with 5 lb. I'd imagine it would be pretty heavy on the coconut, everything I've read on people using it has said some where between 1-3 lb. in the secondary for a 5 gallon batch, now that I'm thinking about it I may just bump the coconut up to 2lb. So real quick anyone know who does the recipe formulation for AHS's kits? I'd just like to talk to the kit maker to see what the final beer came out like following this recipe, so I can make any adjustments as needed. Just a thought, but if I found after kegging and carbing that the coconut flavor wasn't high enough, could I just make a extract with vodka and shredded coconut and add a little at a time till I get my desired flavor??

I brewed the AHS reciepe and used real coconut. It was called the headless horsemen for a while, but just now 6 months later, it's starting to retain some head.

For Jzak90 what did you think about the coconut flavor using the recommended 1 lb.? Was it enough or would you have gone heavier? I decided to go heavier and went with 1.5lb. got a good toasting to all of the coconut and it will be 4 days on coconut on tuesday so will have a tasting when transfering to the keg soon.

I'm looking forward to hearing how this turns out.

hey, yea I would go heavier, I also probably would have put the coconut in a hop bag or something as well, or just be super careful racking off of it (I wasn't very patient with it and ended up stirring up a bunch of the coconut). I popped a bottle this past weekend... I was eating it. Tastes good though

I started mine last night.
I think I am going to toast 1.5lbs of coconut and put them in a hop bag.
How long did you leave coconut in secondary before you bottled?

Here's my update thus far. I followed recipe to the letter except stepped up the coconut from the recommended 1lb. to 1.5lb. I toasted it all to a golden brown so I had no untoasted coconut. I let that cool down, put it into a nylon bag, and then racked the beer onto the coconut. I allowed it to sit on the coconut for 4 days. The beer sat in my primary for 4 weeks prior to the secondary and coconut. I racked the beer on day 4 out and into my keg. It smelled a little sour at first, I think mainly due to a mixture of the coconut and CO2 left in the bucket. Once I got about half way through the transfer the coconut really came through, smells amazing! The keg is in the fridge as we speak carbing to a set it and forget it method. Will see how it tastes and is carbing this coming Tuesday and report back. I think it will probably be best at about 3-5 weeks from now, but I'll let everyone know.

I've got some toasted almonds sitting in some vodka right now. I was intending on adding it when I bottled this brew when I do it. Good or bad idea?

can't say for sure one way or the other, on one hand you might think it would add to the coconut and make it similar to an almond joy, on the other I've never used almond and not sure what kind of flavors it adds. I'd say take half the amount of extract you planned on using and use that half way through bottling, that way you can decide which you prefer for future batches.

SevenFields said:

I started mine last night.
I think I am going to toast 1.5lbs of coconut and put them in a hop bag.
How long did you leave coconut in secondary before you bottled?

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I left at least a week, probably more than that. I'm blessed with procrastination, which I too often hear is a rarity in homebrewing.

Jzak09 said:

I left at least a week, probably more than that. I'm blessed with procrastination, which I too often hear is a rarity in homebrewing.

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just a heads up, from what I've read, the longer the beer sits on the coconut the drier it will end up being. Just what I heard.

On a side note, me being super impatient I decided to try it today and see how it was carbing, this after only a day and a half in the keg. Smells strong of coconut and taste is evenly balanced. Has an upfront coconut fading to a smooth malty roasty porter, finished by a slightly bitter toasted almond coconut. Awesome all around right now, can't wait to see how it turns out in a few weeks, if it lasts that long.

Bump! So did it last more than a few weeks? I'm planning a similar recipe and wondered if you were still happy after it aged a bit...

machinelf said:

Bump! So did it last more than a few weeks? I'm planning a similar recipe and wondered if you were still happy after it aged a bit...

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I brewed this in April, racked onto 1.5# of toasted unsweetened coconut for 7 days.

It's been in the bottle about a month and a half, and while it seems to have lost most of it's upfront coconut aroma (compared to the sampler bottles I tasted a week into carbing) it's still a solid porter.

The flavors, very slight coconut seemed to have blended well into the beer, and the coconut flavor I've noticed seems to be more noticeable when eating a meal.

The coconut taste does fade with time. Next time I make it, I will be using more coconut. Still a great beer!

machinelf said:

Bump! So did it last more than a few weeks? I'm planning a similar recipe and wondered if you were still happy after it aged a bit...

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yep only lasted about a week and had to make another batch I think more than 1.5 lb. is too much and would over power the beer but that's just me. Made the second batch and again the kegged kicked in about a week. Great beer it will be in constant rotation for sure.

Bringing this one back, so how much coconut was decided the best amount 1.5 lbs.? Also how much chocolate flavor does the included kit yield from the 1lb. of chocolate malt?

Anything? I'm brewing this saturday!