Chocolate coconut stout!

Going for my first stout after a string of 8 ales! I've been looking to make this recipe since I started brewing. Here's what it's going to look like:

7lbs - 2-row base malt
3lbs- flaked oats
2lbs- English chocolate malt
1lb- English black malt
1lb- Nocturnal grain blend from northernbrewers.com

1oz- Fuggle aroma hops (15 mins)
1oz- UK first gold bittering hops (60 mins)

Safale S-04 yeast (dry)

5oz priming sugar for bottling

Also adding:
4oz - cocoa nibs to secondary for 7 days
1 bar of bakers chocolate adding to boil
10oz toasted coconut shavings to secondary for 7 days.
1 Whirlfloc tablet last 15 mins of boil

Bottled for two weeks and sampled it for the first time...it was delicious! I changed parts of the recipe:

1) I did not add cocoa nibs in the secondary.
2) I added 1oz of coconut extract before bottling.
3) also added 1/8 of almond extract before bottling.
4) unfortunately I did not taste any coconut from toasting the 20oz of flakes and adding to the secondary.

Overall the beer is delicious!! If I had a better efficiency I could see how it would enhance the flavors even more!

My porter is very similar if you would like me to post? I am using 1 lb. toasted coconut and 8 oz. chocolate nibs in 2ndary.

I do a similar beer that comes out as more of a brown ale (and it's much more hopped).

If your coconut is the shredded sweetened stuff from a normal store, try unprocessed, unsweetened coconut flakes from a bulk or health food store. It made a world of difference. Look at the nutrition facts on the label, and the shredded stuff has a ton of fat removed, which also probably pulls out a lot of soluble flavor as well, at least I've had a much more palatable coconut flavor and a good aroma from using the unsweetened stuff.

I normally use 1lb in secondary, but due to requests I will be doubling or tripling it in the batch I make next week.

How did the almond extract go over? I've also thought about adding that, but I worried it would overpower the other flavors.

plankbr said:

My porter is very similar if you would like me to post? I am using 1 lb. toasted coconut and 8 oz. chocolate nibs in 2ndary.

Click to expand...

By all means post the recipe I'd love to check it out and maybe improve on my recipe with ideas from yours!!

opqdan said:

I do a similar beer that comes out as more of a brown ale (and it's much more hopped).

If your coconut is the shredded sweetened stuff from a normal store, try unprocessed, unsweetened coconut flakes from a bulk or health food store. It made a world of difference. Look at the nutrition facts on the label, and the shredded stuff has a ton of fat removed, which also probably pulls out a lot of soluble flavor as well, at least I've had a much more palatable coconut flavor and a good aroma from using the unsweetened stuff.

I normally use 1lb in secondary, but due to requests I will be doubling or tripling it in the batch I make next week.

How did the almond extract go over? I've also thought about adding that, but I worried it would overpower the other flavors.

Click to expand...

I did get the unsweetened coco flakes from a whole foods store. Maybe I didn't toast fully through or maybe I added to much. When I added to the secondary it was just floating on top for the remaining days after I poured the wort on it. But again I won't rule out not sampling a big enough sip in order to determine if the coconut was present.

The coconut extract did work really well for giving that extra flavor or coconut.

I did not use an exact measurement for the almond extract. It came in a 1oz bottle and I dropped just a small amount in to hopefully balance the coconut flavor, which I believe it did very well!! Ill post a picture of it later tonight hopefully if I don't forget.

Because of the chocolate bar the beer does not have any sign of a foam head on retention. That's the only bad sad I've noticed..that and some coconut flakes made it through my filtering system l!!

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Chocolate Coconut Porter

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Robust Porter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.25 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.047
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 5.46%
IBU (tinseth): 26.85
SRM (morey): 31.36

FERMENTABLES:
10 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (78.4%)
1 lb - United Kingdom - Brown (7.8%)
1 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 80L (7.8%)
12 oz - American - Chocolate (5.9%)

HOPS:
1.5 oz - Fuggles, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 25.18
0.5 oz - Fuggles, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 1.67

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 lb - Coconut, Type: Flavor, Use: Secondary
8 oz - Cocoa Nibs, Type: Flavor, Use: Secondary
0.5 oz - Vanilla Extract, Type: Flavor, Use: Bottling

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 F
Fermentation Temp: 63 F
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
152* mash 1 hour
Boil: 60 min.
Toast 1 lb unsweetened coconut @ 325* for 20-25 mins.
Add coconut and cocoa nibs to secondary 1 week.
1/2 oz. vanilla extract @ bottling.

There she is..no head at all :-(