pina colada mead

I really assumed this had been tried before, but research turned up nothing so i'm going to post my experimental recipe.

12# wildflower honey
1# Blackstrap molasses
one pinapple
meat and water of three coconuts
enough water to bring to 5.5 gallons
Two packets lavlin 71b-1122
That's the primary. I'll add some nutrients on day two and three of fermentation.
In the secondary i'll add another pinapple, two vanilla beans, some more coconut water, and shredded coconut. Not fresh, because collecting coconut water and meat is hard. Near the end of aging I'll add some rum that's been sitting on oak cubes.

I did something like this. Posted results in another thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/coconut-water-mead-405832/

So far, the pineapple in mine is really strong and sour. From what I've read on GotMead and this site, pineapple takes a little time to settle down. After I let mine age a bit, I may go back and add some coconut flavoring (maybe make an extract). Using rum and molasses is a neat idea. I think I might add a little buckwheat honey to mine (to me, buckwheat honey tastes similar to molasses).

One note: You may not need much nutrient with pineapple. I added none to mine, and the fermentation was nearly explosive. Had I done my primary in a carboy, I would have had quite the mess.

Good to know. Mine's in a 6.5 gallon carboy, so it should be fine, but I'll keep an eye on it. Buckwheat does have a similar taste and color. I think the results will be kind of similar. Molasses is also packed with nutrients though. I always age at least six months. Do you think this one's going to need a year?

I can never be sure how long they'll take, but the meads I've made so far are ok at 3 months, better at 6, really nice at 9. Most don't make it a year

It's been a week and it's starting to settle down. There is a color differential in the liquid at the top of the carboy. I assume this is oil from the coconut. Does this need to be separated out during racking?

dios_es_un_tortuga said:

I assume this is oil from the coconut. Does this need to be separated out during racking?

Click to expand...

Yes, oils can go rancid during fermentation & aging.
Regards, GF.

Little update this is four months old now. I did add extra coconut and pineapple to the secondary. Shredded coconut clogged my siphon, even when I put a hop bag around it. As such I had to keep pumping the siphon and I'm worried it might oxidate a little, but it's good now. The rum and molasses combined to give this a real tawny color. Acid was a little intense so I added some potassium bicarbonate and that smoothed it out. The flavors are melding together mostly nicely, although the oak is definitely prominent. I'm gonna let it sit another couple of months and then bottle.

I did a lemon lime coconut last year...JOAM style. I toasted the coconut to remove some of the oils pre fermentation. I still needed to remove the oils with benonite coming out of secondary...and the coconut taste was very faint at best. From what i learned i would just use an extract to get the coconut flavor a month before bottling. It was still a great drink although i would cut back 50 percent on the lime...really stong flavor up front.