Lime on de Coconut

Sounds strange doesn't it. Did this for a groupbrew/swap on another site. It's actually very good. Only 6 months old but already quite tasty.

LIME ON DE COCONUT
3 Gallon Batch:
OG = 27 Brix (1.117)
FG = 12 Brix (1.006)

1 Coconut
Lime Juice
Lime Peel, Zest
16 oz Coconut Milk
8 oz. Coconut Shreds (Nature's Flavors)
.25 oz Coconut Extract (Nature's Flavors)
9 lbs Clover Honey
1 lb 8.0 oz Mesquite Honey
1 lb Craisins
1 PkgsLalvin D-47

Notes
1. Cook 1# of rice in 1qt of water for 5 minutes and drain off liquid to a bowl.
2. Open coconut and drain the liquid into rice water.
3. Split the coconut and bake at 150F for 20-30 minutes to soften it up.
4. Remove coconut "meat" and shred. Add to hot rice water and soak/mix then strain off the milk to a jar.
5. Finish cooking rice in another quart of water.
6. Drain hot rice water onto coconut and soak/mix then strain off the milk to a jar.
7. Set coconut milk jar aside in fridge until secondary.
8. Take 1/2 of the coconut mash and toast it in oven. Add the toasted and raw coconut to the primary.
9. Add honey, water and zest of 3 limes. Add campden.
10. Next day, pitch yeast and nutrients. Aerate well.
11. Ferment for a week or so. Add nutrients as needed, especially of there is a sulfur smell.
12. Transfer to secondary and add coconut milk, zest of 3 limes and the juice of 6 limes.
13. Keep an eye on pH. Add Potasium Bicarbonate if pH < 3.0.
14. After 30-45 days, rack onto Craisins and coconut shreds. Add juice of 6 limes and coconut extract.
15. Rack in 45-60 days. Adjust lime or coconut if necessary.
16. Rack again in 45-60 days and bottle if clear.

I'm only on my second batch of mead, so I'm not entirely sure what the rice is for. Explain please?

Apparently it's a common process when making coconut milk. Got it from Jack Kellers website

Lime on de coconut. Why not! Let us know how it turns out

Well I finally sampled one of my bottles of de Lime on de Coconut mead tonight. I had bottled some of these carbed and some still. I carbed some with honey and some with carb tabs. I added a few specs of champagne yeast to these bottles. Good news and bad news.
First the bad news. I opened a bottle of carbed mead. The one I opened never carbed! The good news is, it was really good mead! I can smell and taste the coconut and can taste and good amount of lime. I am quite happy with this. I usually like my wines and meads on the dry side. Obviously since this did not carb up its a little sweeter. Not much but enough. Maybe this little bit of sugar helped balance out the acidity of the lime. I won't know until I try a carbed or still bottle. Will keep you posted.

Procedural question:

Poobah58 said:

1 Coconut
Lime Juice
Lime Peel, Zest
16 oz Coconut Milk
...
4. Remove coconut "meat" and shred. Add to hot rice water and soak/mix then strain off the milk to a jar.
5. Finish cooking rice in another quart of water.
6. Drain hot rice water onto coconut and soak/mix then strain off the milk to a jar.
7. Set coconut milk jar aside in fridge until secondary.
...
12. Transfer to secondary and add coconut milk, zest of 3 limes and the juice of 6 limes.

Click to expand...

At step four, you say strain off milk, but you don't say to add the coconut milk in the recipe. Are you making the coconut milk, or do you add it from a can somewhere in here and I'm just missing it?

I am making my own coconut milk. It gets added to secondary (step 7 & 12).

No problems with oils from the coconut impacting the yeast? Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

No problems with oils from the coconut impacting the yeast? Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

No problems at all. I did roast the coconut then wiped off some of the oil with a paper towel before shredding. I also added the milk to secondary after the yeast was pretty much done.