Coconut toddy?

Well, this is not about wine so it's off-topic but, some islanders in the south Pacific brew coconut toddy. Apparently they pour coconut water (from a green, immature coconut) into a hollow bamboo section, and let it ferment in the sun for awhile. After a day you get a strong tasting juice, longer than that and apparently you get an extremely strong alcoholic toddy.

I can buy green drinking nuts (although, at around $4 each, if I needed more than a few of them it would become a rather expensive project), and I'm a bit of a coconut fan and would love to try something like this. Hell, I live in Japan so I can even easily get the bamboo. (Mind you, home brewing is illegal here )

Any thoughts on what the process would be? No tropical sunshine beating down here.

I have no direct advice. I would just do it the simplest, most basic way I could and experiment from there.

You could become the EdWort of Coconut Toddies!!!! :rockin:

Heh. How available are green coconuts in the States and Canada? Japan is close to south-east asia as well as islands in the south pacific, so they are fairly easy to find. When I lived in Canada, I believe I have only ever seen brown mature coconuts.

Mind you, perhaps those too would be usable.

Oh crap. This project is over before is starts.

From: http://www.fao.org/WAIRdocs/x5425e/x5425e08.htm

Toddy is made by binding and cutting a newly formed coconut flower bud in a special way. The top is cut off and shaved twice daily until the sap starts to drip out. A coconut shell or bottle catches the sap. Toddy is collected twice daily. Fresh, it is excellent for babies. It is drunk fresh, used as a flavouring, or saved for other uses. If allowed to ferment, an alcoholic beverage is made.

Too bad. Coconut water is fairly sweet though. I'm sure SOMETHING could be made from it.

From http://pca.da.gov.ph/tol.html

Infloresence

Out of the bud of the coconut tree's infloresence is a juice called coconut toddy or tuba. The fermented juice is the common alcoholic drink in the coconut region. The fermented tuba would be a good drink even to those who enjoy the finer things. The principal uses of the toddy are: as fresh beverage; for producing alcoholic beverages; for producing vinegar; for making sugar; and as a source of yeast for making bread.

Coconut toddy, after being left for five days then distilled, produces an alcoholic spirit known locally as lambanog which is more or less 98% proof. In its taste, sweet toddy is a liquid containing essentially 12 to 18% sugar (sucrose).

98% proof! :cross:

yaeyama said:

Coconut toddy, after being left for five days then distilled, produces an alcoholic spirit known locally as lambanog which is more or less 98% proof.

Click to expand...

Proof is not a percentage. I'm assuming they actually meant 98 proof since a stable mixture of 98% alcohol is impossible due to ethanol's hygroscopic properties. So, 49% ABV, fairly standard for a distilled beverage.

Most references that I found on the web state that 80-90 proof is the normal range for this to be drunk at, though I did find one account of a tourist's encounter with 170 proof lambanog.