Maui Coconut Porter

Doing a collaboration brew with a friend for an upcoming baby shower. The mother to be's favorite beer is Maui's Coconut Porter, so we're trying to do a clone, and we'll save half for when she's able to drink again. I searched for clone recipes and didn't really find much, so I've been researching to try and make something close. I listened to the Maui Brewing interview on the basic brewing radio podcast, and it had some great info on coconut amounts and such. Here's a rough idea of where we're at, and we'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance-

Coconut Porter
Robust Porter


Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 11.84 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: 3 Keggle HERMS V1.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
16.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 71.11 %
2.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.89 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.89 %
1.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4.44 %
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.44 %
0.50 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.22 %
0.75 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 18.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
0.75 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 7.1 IBU
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
0.75 lb Coconut (toasted) (Mash 1.0 hours) Misc
0.75 lb Coconut (toasted) (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
2.00 lb Coconut (toasted) (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
2.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (Chico) (DCL #S-05) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.87 %
Bitterness: 30.3 IBU
Est Color: 31.5 SRM


Mash at 155 for 60 min
Double batch sparge


Research and pre-brew notes-
Maui uses only toasted coconut that they roast themselves for the coconut flavor, no coconut milk or extracts at all. It looks to be a med-light toast from pics of the Maui/Kona collaboration brew with stone. From interview; "Toasting should be just enough give a nutty flavor and denature the head killing oils." They use just over 200# of coconut for a 20bbl batch, which comes out to roughly 1/3# per gal. "Some goes in the mash, some goes in the boil, the majority goes in a hop-back, and some goes in the brite tank." Without a large hop-back, we should probably add the majority of the cocnut as a whirlpool addition, which is how it seems the collaboration brew was done at Stone. Uses 6 malts, and from descriptions it sounds like there's definately some chocolate malt and black patent. Looks to be on the darker end of the scale for robust porters, I'm guessing at least 30 SRM. Seems to have a higher FG and comes in at ~5.7 abv. Mouthfeel described as thick, rich, and creamy, and with the higher FG it definately needs some cara-pils and a med-high mash temp. Maybe even some flaked grains for body/mouthfeel? IBU's estimated at 30, and uses only cascade and columbus hops. Hopping is in the American style used at bittering, flavor, and aroma additions. Yeast selection is somewhat clean but may also be playing up the maltiness. Maybe try a cleaner english yeast like S-04? Probably split to two fermenters and try S-04 in one and S-05 in the other to see which one is closer.
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I'd personally cut the amount of coconut in the secondary down to .25 ls or less. I did a 5 gallons coconut IPA with .75 in the mash, .75 at knockout, and .25 lb in the keg as a "dry hop" addition. It was a nice, smooth coconut taste until the "dry-hop" addition, as which point it got a little overwhelming. My thinking is that the alcohol extracted the flavor fairly well.

I did leave it in for 11 days though, so you could just taste and see how it's progressing.

Just my thoughts.

Basic brewing has the recipe on their website. This was my second beer I ever brewed and it turned out great. Good luck.

sativen said:

I'd personally cut the amount of coconut in the secondary down to .25 ls or less.

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Even for a 10 gal brew? Or less than .25# per 5 gal?

kramerica said:

Basic brewing has the recipe on their website. This was my second beer I ever brewed and it turned out great. Good luck.

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I saw that one, but it's not the actual recipe, just a listener recipe inspired by the beer. Looks like it would be tasty, but not really much like the beer I'm trying to clone.

JuanMoore said:

Even for a 10 gal brew? Or less than .25# per 5 gal?

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I can't comment on the addition to a porter, but I would just go a little bit at a time. If you can taste it along the way, I'd do that.

So... how did it turn out ? How did the coconut flavor come out with the additions you listed ? What would you change about the recipe ?

i have been wanting to try this brew out... i also want to hear your feedback and how it compares to the commercial beer.

JuanMoore might be dead, so here are what his notes were when he replied to my private message 3 weeks ago...

The coffee flavor was not near as strong as the Maui version, but the coconut, hopping, and other malt flavors were really close.

The grain bill definitely needs some tweaking to up the coffee flavor. Looking at the notes I had a little issue with mash temp since it was the first brew on my new system. It started at 153 and dropped to 151-152. I think mashing at 154-155 would have resulted in a closer FG and mouthfeel.

Sorry for not responding. As PtotheL said, it was lacking the coffee flavor of the commercial version, and was a little thin due to issues with mash temp control. The coconut flavor was spot on, but has since grown slightly stronger. It seemed to be a hit at the baby shower it was brewed for.

JuanMoore said:

Yeast selection is somewhat clean but may also be playing up the maltiness. Maybe try a cleaner english yeast like S-04? Probably split to two fermenters and try S-04 in one and S-05 in the other to see which one is closer.
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Which yeast did you think gave the better result? Did you make this again and compensate for the coffee flavor issue?

Anguslow said:

Which yeast did you think gave the better result? Did you make this again and compensate for the coffee flavor issue?

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The S-04 was closer to the commercial example IMO. Haven't brewed it again yet, but might need to give it another go soon.