Coconut Rum Stout

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beergorila

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OK, just FINALLY cracked open my 1st bottle of my long awaited version of Coconut Rum Stout.

I used 2 lbs of shredded (thoroughly rinsed) coconut shavings, 2 cans of coconut milk, and 15oz of Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum. The inside top of the secondary was thickly layered in an amazing coconut crust. Coconut filled the air for several weeks of fermenting.

So with the first sip, my only thought: Ummmmm ... where the HELL is the coconut??

There is about ZERO coconut taste or scent. Very little trace of rum. It's a tasty stout, but with the amount of planning, ingredients and anticipation I expected something for the fruits of labor... What the heck?!?
 
How long has it been aging? I found with my Best Laid Plans stout (munich malt based oatmeal stout) that it took 3 months for the roasted flavour to mellow enough for the munich malt flavour to come through.
 
Something a lot of people don't think of when flavoring beer is that yeast will eat most of the sugar, many flavorings we're used to are sweetened and this is the only way we know them so in a beer they will be quite different. It seems like you should have at least a little coconut flavor in there, as an experiment try adding a little bit of sugar to a small amount of this beer and see how the flavor changes and whether or not the coconut becomes what you expected... Although there should be some coconut scent regardless of the sweetness.
 
Yeah, you each kind of reinforce my gut feeling that the yeast cannibalized the flavor since much of that is in fact sugar. It's been in the bottle for only 12 days so I will definitely let it age more to see if the flavor expands in maturation. I know that's not long for aging at 12 days, but the carbonation is already there.

In fact, writing that last line makes me think the yeast is still very active and just went to town on the natural stuff that makes us think "coconut"... I added all coconut to the primary just after the boil & before the aeration.

I guess I should have instead added the coconut right at bottling instead of trying to unlock some complex coconut core! This is my first attempt at the target product, and one I plan to keep plugging away at. I want to make this style a personal flagship.
 
I think it sounds tasty, so keep us up to date. You also might consider lightly toasting it in your oven before adding - that will unlock more of the flavor you're expecting.

I would probably try adding a little bit to the boil and then a lot to the secondary. That would make the most sense to me.
 
I like the toasting Idea.....I think if it were me, I'd toast the coconut a little bit, and then soak it in rum for a couple weeks like you might do with vanilla beans or oak chips, then pour it in the secondary.....the vanilla and/or rum flavors there would back up the coconut, and you might get more essence of coconut that way.
 
I expect you might have a hard time infusing a beer with coconut flavor. The reason is that the main "creamy coconut" flavor is due to delta-nonalactone. It is a slick oily liquid that is insoluble in water (beer in this case). So, I would think that whatever coconut flavor you had was in a thin layer of "oil" at the top of your fermenter.
 
Maybe contact Maui Brewing Company or read up on their coconut porter. One of the best porters out there right now, and it swims with coconut flavor.
 
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