Coconut Water in Mead?

I was wondering, if anyone has ever used coconut water in your mead instead of regular spring/boiled water, and what results did you get?

I threw together a little one gallon batch a few days ago of pineapple coconut water mead just for the sake of trying it. I love coconut, and pineapple so I figured why not?

I used 1 32oz of Raw organic fresh pressed pineapple Juice
then 50oz of T.A.S. Coconut Water
about 24oz of Raw Oregon Honey
and a 1/2tsp of Local Bee Pollen for a yeast nutrient.

I just poured all that on old Wyeast dry mead yeast that was still in the carboy when I had made a Cyser a few months ago, to see if it would start back up, and sure enough it did. It started fermenting really strong about 12 hours after I had pitched it in the carboy and has been fermenting fairly strong for about 3 days now, and today has finally slowed down a bit.

I've never tried it but I'm drinking coconut water right now as I type this. Stuff is tasty! So I would be very interested in hearing about your results =)

I've heard that pineapple meads tend to ferment very strongly. Of course, don't quote me on it. Anywhoo, let us know how it turns out! Cheers

Yeah both the coconut water/pineapple juice mix have been fermenting quite strongly. I added somemore coconut water with about a tablespoon of beepollen into it today and it instantly started to pick back up and continue to ferment strong. So we'll see how it turns out in the end!

Meadiator is right about the pineapple. It's high in acid, so it tends to take a little time to mellow out. Never tried coconut water, but the combo should rock. If you can give it 3 months after ferment to age, it'll be great, 6 months out it'll be awesome! Good luck with this recipe!

Very interested in hearing how this turns out

dtfleming said:

Very interested in hearing how this turns out

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Ditto !

Me three. Sounds very interesting. I have a feeling it will be successful too.

Are you using canned or fresh coconut water? I may have to try this one if it turns out ok

Ok, I gave this a shot.

Recipe as follows:

• 1.25 lb Wildflower Honey
• 64 oz. Coconut Juice Blend (has some grape juice in it)
• 32 oz. Pineapple Coconut Juice (also with some grape juice)
• 1 pineapple chopped and lightly mashed
• 1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
• 1 pkg Lavline D47 Yeast
• Water to Approx 1.5 gallon (US)

I mixed the honey and juice and mixed thoroughly. I then added water to about 1.5 gallon.

SG was 1.084.

The must is quite cloudy. Not sure how well this will clear in the end, but we'll just have to wait and see. (tastes really good, though)

Goofynewfie said:

Are you using canned or fresh coconut water? I may have to try this one if it turns out ok

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I used canned coconut water.

Zaffo said:

Ok, I gave this a shot.

Recipe as follows:

• 1.25 lb Wildflower Honey
• 64 oz. Coconut Juice Blend (has some grape juice in it)
• 32 oz. Pineapple Coconut Juice (also with some grape juice)
• 1 pineapple chopped and lightly mashed
• 1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
• 1 pkg Lavline D47 Yeast
• Water to Approx 1.5 gallon (US)

I mixed the honey and juice and mixed thoroughly. I then added water to about 1.5 gallon.

SG was 1.084.

The must is quite cloudy. Not sure how well this will clear in the end, but we'll just have to wait and see. (tastes really good, though)

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Very interesting with the Coconut Juice and mashed up pineapple as well! I have a feeling your is going to be a much stronger pineapple and coconut taste.
Might take more time to mellow out the acidity of the pineapple though.

My mead was really cloudy during fermentation but after it stopped I transferred it to secondary and have been letting it sit and it has clarified quite a bit!

It's pretty much done. Racked today. A LOT of lees.

Tastes pretty nasty now, but I've read that pineapple takes some time to mellow. Its also dry at an sg of 0.996.

I'll let this sit for a while and backsweeten later.

very interested to hear how this turns out... big fan of keeping things all natural

Wow sounds sooo good! As duff said being a fan of keeping things all natural, I am also!!

Keep in mind that most production coconut water has lots of sugar added...that will of course increase your fermentables. Not sure about fermentables levels in natural coconut water, but will definately research...this sounds like a fine idea.

Our favorite cocktail is natural coconut water and rum. Both readily availble here in the tropics...just chop open a coco and add a shot or two of good dark rum.

I have loads of coconuts at my place in Guate, so will definately have to give this a try.

In hindsight, I should have used fresh coconut milk, instead of milk mixed with grape juice. Also, I might have tried making an extract. I had some small success with a pecan mead experiment using an extract. That might be a better way to really push the coconut up to match the pineapple.

Zaffo said:

In hindsight, I should have used fresh coconut milk, instead of milk mixed with grape juice. Also, I might have tried making an extract. I had some small success with a pecan mead experiment using an extract. That might be a better way to really push the coconut up to match the pineapple.

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Keep in mind that coconut milk and coconut water are not the same thing. The water is a clear liquid in the center of a coconut. The milk is extracted from the meat and is white not clear.

Did this with coconut water / buckwheat honey, worked really well IMO.