Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Coconut Porter

just picked up a 4 pak of Maui Coconut Porter....and needed to revisit this thread. My coconut porter turned out so-so, very low on carbonation, everyone loved the taste. I thought the coconut was a bit weak, will up the amount next time and not soak it in bourban.

My first batch took a *long* time to carb up, but it was also pretty cold in my apartment during April. It was fine after a few extra weeks. I'm hoping the batch I just bottled for my wedding will finish faster if I keep it around 70-5º F.

I agree that the coconut fades quickly in this recipe. While you could up the content, that might unbalance things in other ways. I'd recommend you just treat it like a dry-hopped beer and plan to finish it within 4-8 weeks after bottling. I listed my own (admittedly rough) estimates for how best to time that in an earlier post.

What fermentation temperature would you recommend?

I try to ferment most ales around the yeast's lower limit, usually about 63-65º F.

Are you guys just throwing the coconut in the fermenter (or bag) without sanitizing it? I do that with my dry hops, but have gotten an infection with chocolate. Just wondering if it is normal procedure to just toss it in like dry hops or if it should be sanitized in some way.
Thanks!

D_Nyholm said:

Are you guys just throwing the coconut in the fermenter (or bag) without sanitizing it? I do that with my dry hops, but have gotten an infection with chocolate. Just wondering if it is normal procedure to just toss it in like dry hops or if it should be sanitized in some way.
Thanks!

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I have done both with great results
you can always boil the hop bag if you are woried

This recipe looks fantastic... very excited to give it a try!

A couple questions:

PoconoParadiso said:

2 lbs for 5 gallons (.5 to the mash, .5 to the boil, 1 in secondary) yields a very subtle coconut flavor.

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When did you add to the boil?

And for those of you who have used vanilla beans, how did it turn out?

Thanks!

paulquinn said:

This recipe looks fantastic... very excited to give it a try!

A couple questions:



When did you add to the boil?

And for those of you who have used vanilla beans, how did it turn out?

Thanks!

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i add all mine in during secondary only and i get a good coconut flavor

Just a quick follow up for mine, I used 1 lb of toasted coconut in my beer, not sure if I would toast it again. It has an overpowering smell of toasted coconut, and not necessarily in a good one (I used it in a pale ale so a porter may be different). Next time I use coconut I think i am going to skip the toasting part.

D_Nyholm said:

Just a quick follow up for mine, I used 1 lb of toasted coconut in my beer, not sure if I would toast it again. It has an overpowering smell of toasted coconut, and not necessarily in a good one (I used it in a pale ale so a porter may be different). Next time I use coconut I think i am going to skip the toasting part.

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Toasting the fruit won't affect the flavor in that way. At a homebrew club fundraiser last year, I made a porter with toasted coconut and another member made one with fresh. The two tastes were entirely different--hers actually had more "coconut" flavor than mine did. If anything, I'd say that fresh coconut comes off more like the aroma that many sunscreens are going for, albeit in a good way, while the toasted coconut has a warm, roasted flavor from the caramelized sugars that makes it more like a chocolate-dipped macaroon. Both these flavors are good, it's just a question of what you want. Scaling back might be a better choice: I use 12 oz of toasted coconut and it comes out tasting fantastic.

I also wonder whether you might have used sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened? This could make for a big difference in flavor.

cottagebrews said:

Toasting the fruit won't affect the flavor in that way. At a homebrew club fundraiser last year, I made a porter with toasted coconut and another member made one with fresh. The two tastes were entirely different--hers actually had more "coconut" flavor than mine did. If anything, I'd say that fresh coconut comes off more like the aroma that many sunscreens are going for, albeit in a good way, while the toasted coconut has a warm, roasted flavor from the caramelized sugars that makes it more like a chocolate-dipped macaroon. Both these flavors are good, it's just a question of what you want. Scaling back might be a better choice: I use 12 oz of toasted coconut and it comes out tasting fantastic.

I also wonder whether you might have used sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened? This could make for a big difference in flavor.

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I definitely used unsweetened, and based on your description, I should not gave toasted it as I was going for the sunscreen smell, not the macaroon smell (which I got). Your description was spot on!

cottagebrews said:

At a homebrew club fundraiser last year, I made a porter with toasted coconut and another member made one with fresh. The two tastes were entirely different--hers actually had more "coconut" flavor than mine did. If anything, I'd say that fresh coconut comes off more like the aroma that many sunscreens are going for, albeit in a good way, while the toasted coconut has a warm, roasted flavor from the caramelized sugars that makes it more like a chocolate-dipped macaroon. Both these flavors are good, it's just a question of what you want.

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How do you think a mix of fresh and toasted coconut would turn out?

Planning on brewing this early next week and the more I think about it, I may play around with some coconut in the mash/boil/secondary... still working on ratio, but probably something close to 1:1:2.

Anyone have any insight or guesses in how toasted/raw coconut might work in the different stages of this brew?

Many thanks to those who have weighed in with comments thus far, especially OP!

Unsure how the two flavors would go together, but coconut ought to go with coconut. My recommendation would be to add fresh coconut at flameout and toasted coconut to secondary. It might also be worth splitting this into a few smaller batches and trying it different ways so you can pinpoint what you like best. 2 gallon buckets can be bought cheap!

If using Safale yeasts, should I use S-04? Or 05?

EDIT, Am I reading this correct that the coconut only goes in during secondary? Has anyone tried adding coconut into the boil as well?


Edit #2, Perhaps I missed it, but what should my FG be approximately?

I've actually produced a coconut porter with toasted coconut added into all three phases of production, in the mash, in the boil, and in the fermenter. This is similar to how Maui Brewing Co. produces their CoCoNut porter from what I understand. Ratios are 6-7 oz in mash, 6-7 oz. in boil, and 12-14 oz. in secondary fermenter (KEG). Turned out awesome!!!

Perhaps this was already covered, but what happens if you use sweetened Coconut? That was all my grocery store had available. I figure I just have to be careful that the sugars in it don't caramelize and burn when toasting the coconut? I'm planning to add the toasted coconut into the mash/boil. Will the sweetened coconut increase my OG?

Check at your local heath food store or trader joes. I got a pound of unsweetened for $3.50

Let me rephrase my question; I already bought the sweetened coconut and am planning to brew today. Local health food store won't be open today anyway due to the holiday.

So with that being said, can I use sweetened coconut in the mash/boil?

I would say yes to mash and or boil.

Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and brewed a partial mash version of this recipe using sweetened coconut. I'm going to try to find unsweetened coconut for when I do the secondary. I used 7oz in the mash and 7oz in the boil. When I baked the coconut, I also added some brown sugar. My OG came out to 1.060. I'm pretty excited to see how this beer turns out.

I just did a 6 gal batch of this and it came out great. Thanks for the recipe! Its almost bottle conditioned and ready for the fridge. Next time definitely use a weighted down bag since the coconut all floats on the top.

Looks like s simple tasty recipe

Sorry to bump this, but I made a Coconut Porter recently and was wondering if any of you have done 1 week of the coconut in the primary/secondary instead of two weeks. Just wondering if there's really that much difference between letting the coconut sit in there one vs. two weeks. Thanks.


Rev.

Sorry but I have always done the 2 weeks in secondary, so I cant tell you what the difference would be.

Has anyone had a problem with head retention? The oils seem to be affecting mine. Tastes great though

I just made this so I don't know the final results yet but I did only do one week coconut, and I did it in the primary and I could still taste it in there pretty decently. I only had the sample that I used at bottling so take that with a huge grain of salt but I'm really excited about it. (I also infused a vanilla bean in some yamazaki whisky and put all that in there as well.) I can't wait to see how it all comes out in the end!

let us know how the one week on coconut works

this is again on my list to brew in the near future

alaskantuff said:

Has anyone had a problem with head retention? The oils seem to be affecting mine. Tastes great though

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Head retention is a bit of an issue here, due to the oils as you say. Since I brew this one extract with lots of specialty grains, I don't have much wiggle room to correct the issue. If you're brewing all grain, a small addition (about 8 oz.) of flaked wheat and/or flaked oats ought to improve things on that front.

I haven't had a problem with head retention.
Make sure the coconut is toasted to a good dark brown color.
if you are worried then as said in previous post adding some flaked wheat or oats cant hurt.
See picture below of the toast I use on my coconut.

So I just put it in the fridge after two weeks in the bottle, and I'm not sure what happened but it seemed to not really be carbonated. There was no head but I'm 100% sure that's because I didn't toast the coconut well enough. Anyways, I got pretty much no coconut flavor. It was still quite good and I'm going to make it again but this time I'll keep the coconut in longer and add more.
Also; I highly recommend adding scotch or scotch style whisky, just a little bit.

Update: I had it finally finished tonight, after bottle conditioning and refrigerating. Some more coconut came through but still not enough. Still delicious with the scotch style whisky but definitely gonna add either more coconut next time keep it in longer or make a tincture of coconut vodka to really get the coconut flavor stronger.

I dud a week, and I think it's enough but I would add more coconut next time. I put 200g fur 9L

I always do 2 weeks in secondary with toasted coconut and get a nice coconut taste.
can't say anything about adding whiskey.

personally I like the almond joy chocolate coconut flavor you get from this recipe.

If you want to change it, up to you but it is good as is.

I will brewing this one again Next.

drumuglyknuckles said:

I dud a week, and I think it's enough but I would add more coconut next time. I put 200g fur 9L

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I have my own recipe and use 2lbs of shredded coconut in a fine mesh bag. I put it in my primary for only one week and it comes out with an awesome coconut flavor. I also don't lose much beer since as I'm draining into the keg when the volume in my fermenter gets down low enough I push down on the top of the mesh bag with my fist inside a sanitized (outside of course) measuring cup. This squeezes out a good amount of the soaked in beer. I got 4.5G from my 5 gallon batch doing this.


Rev.

Rev2010 said:

I have my own recipe and use 2lbs of shredded coconut in a fine mesh bag. I put it in my primary for only one week and it comes out with an awesome coconut flavor. I also don't lose much beer since as I'm draining into the keg when the volume in my fermenter gets down low enough I push down on the top of the mesh bag with my fist inside a sanitized (outside of course) measuring cup. This squeezes out a good amount of the soaked in beer. I got 4.5G from my 5 gallon batch doing this.


Rev.

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after being in bottle for a month this beer is very good. but like i said next time i wll put more coconut. also, there is no head retention for this beer and it must be from the coconut because it was a split batch. in the other half i made a coffee stout and the head retention is good.

drumuglyknuckles said:

also, there is no head retention for this beer and it must be from the coconut because it was a split batch. in the other half i made a coffee stout and the head retention is good.

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That's because of the oils in the coconut. Mine pours with a good head, as seen below, but yeah the head does settle a little quicker than on my other beers. Being I'm not really a fan of the foam to begin with it doesn't concern me really. Plus, in a competition I'd hope judges would know that the oil in coconut reduces head retention. Outside of filtering I don't think there's much that could be done. Personally, I think the coconut oils create a very nice mouthfeel, and it's not like you can see the oil in the beer. I'd rather have that than a filtered coconut porter. By the way... do you find your coconut porter gives you more gas than usual? Could just be the yeast but I have a feeling it's the coconut oils lol.

Rev2010 said:

That's because of the oils in the coconut. Mine pours with a good head, as seen below, but yeah the head does settle a little quicker than on my other beers. Being I'm not really a fan of the foam to begin with it doesn't concern me really. Plus, in a competition I'd hope judges would know that the oil in coconut reduces head retention. Outside of filtering I don't think there's much that could be done. Personally, I think the coconut oils create a very nice mouthfeel, and it's not like you can see the oil in the beer. I'd rather have that than a filtered coconut porter. By the way... do you find your coconut porter gives you more gas than usual? Could just be the yeast but I have a feeling it's the coconut oils lol.

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wow, looks great. i did not get that much head. do you keg? i bottle and i have trouble getting a nice frothy head with anything that doesnt have wheat or rye.

i did like the coconut oils and didnt notice the extra carbonation. i think next time i will try toasting the cocnut slightly. The Bruery doesnt toast their coconut at all for their beer, so i thats what i tried first. always good to experiment. also i didnt mention that i mashed oats with this. so the body feel is great.

drumuglyknuckles said:

wow, looks great. i did not get that much head. do you keg?

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Thanks man Tastes even better!! I finally tried Maui's Coconut Porter on my most recent trip to Hawaii (7th time) and was sorely disappointed. IMO, and not to boast I was just really surprised, mine blows theirs out of the water. I do keg, and I'll tell ya... I wish I started kegging sooner! Not 3 1/2 years later lol.

drumuglyknuckles said:

i bottle and i have trouble getting a nice frothy head with anything that doesnt have wheat or rye.

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You aren't by chance cleaning them with dish washing detergent are you?

drumuglyknuckles said:

i think next time i will try toasting the cocnut slightly. The Bruery doesnt toast their coconut at all for their beer, so i thats what i tried first.

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I toast mine somewhat lightly. What I mean is I toast it for about 7 minutes, pull it out of the oven and stir it up, put it back in another 7 minutes and repeat, etc. I don't think I really do more than 21 minutes total and just go for a sort of 50/50 mix between browned coconut and still white coconut. The reason is because the bottom browns the most obviously. Mixing it up is a bit difficult as I use shredded coconut and it's very easy to spill it over the edges of the pan I use. Attached below is a photo of my toasted coconut mixed up and cooling down before adding to the beer.

drumuglyknuckles said:

also i didnt mention that i mashed oats with this. so the body feel is great.

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Aah, now that's something to note. I've used oats a few times in my belgian wit's, as is pretty common, and each time I did I had *zero* head retention. I looked it up online and read from several sources that the oils in oats kill head retention. However on here I've read many state it helps head retention. Well, not in my experience. I dropped the oats and since then all my Wit's have great head retention.

Rev.

great stuff Rev! ya, i was also thinking that my beer tastes much better than the maui brew. cheers to you my friend. and i will def do your version of toasting the coconut next time, which is probably in the fall since it it now time to move onto crispy fresh summer beers.