Coconut bag it or free float

[Squirrels]

I'm planning on adding 28oz of sweetened coconut to a 10 gallon batch of cream ale. My fermentation vessel is a spike unitank. Question is: should I bag the coconut? Or, let it free float?

Float Pros:
- no additional equipment
- can funnel through the 1.5 port
Float cons
- maybe a PITA to clean?
- coconut in the keg is likely
Bag Pros
- no floaters
- easy clean up
Bag cons
- need to open my 4" with coil
- more equipment

Any other thoughts? I'm using the sweetened coconut to get a head start on carbonating.

 

[TallDan]

Don't cage your coconuts! Make all the things free! Free the hop pellets in the kettle! Free Willy! Free the dry hop in the fermenter! Free Kevin! Free the coconut in the fermenter! Free ball (or breast) while brewing!

 

[TallDan]

Not sure how sweetened coconut will work though, double check that the only ingredients are actually coconut and fermentable sugar.

 

[Squirrels]

Don't cage your coconuts! Make all the things free! Free the hop pellets in the kettle! Free Willy! Free the dry hop in the fermenter! Free Kevin! Free the coconut in the fermenter! Free ball (or breast) while brewing!

Went ahead and let them free float. Holy coconut flavor after a day! Off to coconut dream land soon!

 

[Squirrels]

Not sure how sweetened coconut will work though, double check that the only ingredients are actually coconut and fermentable sugar.

So far, so good. It had coconut, sugar, and metabisulphite as a preservative (no worries about that).

 

[TallDan]

Nice! make sure you update the thread once the beer is finished and let us know how it worked out! My experience was that shredded coconut soaked up a lot of beer, but was easy to deal with otherwise.

 

[czmkid]

I have a 7 gallon Ss unitank and kegged a death by coconut clone. It called for 2# of coco nibs and 1# of toasted coconut. After about a week I dumped both into the tank no bags. Nibs were ok I have done them this way before but the combo of the nibs and coconut caused lots of frustration when it came to a pressurized transfer to the keg. This is even after a 3 day cold crash to 36. Beer is amazing, but I will never dry hop coconut out of a bag into the tank again.

 

[chickypad]

I have a 7 gallon Ss unitank and kegged a death by coconut clone. It called for 2# of coco nibs and 1# of toasted coconut. After about a week I dumped both into the tank no bags. Nibs were ok I have done them this way before but the combo of the nibs and coconut caused lots of frustration when it came to a pressurized transfer to the keg. This is even after a 3 day cold crash to 36. Beer is amazing, but I will never dry hop coconut out of a bag into the tank again.

I had the same experience recently with my first try at coconut. As you say, it doesn't compact down like hops with cold crashing so the dip tube got clogged. I tried a mesh bag with stainless washer tied around a siphon tube as I've seen others do, that kept clogging too. So far the beer doesn't seem obviously oxidized but I'm worried about aging. Bags for me in the future too.

 

[Squirrels]

So, I just kegged this. The coconut flavor is amazing. I agree 110% that the pressurized transfer sucked. I think that next time I'll want to put a mesh filter to filter out the coconut.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Am i the only one that wants the verb "coconut bag it" to be a thing now? Don't know what it would be a euphemism for, but i know i want it to be a thing.