Coconut Cream IPA

[Rogue_Atom87]

Been wanting to do a coconut beer and since I have spike plus coming this week I figured now is time to do it

Plan to do a pressure fermentation and slowly increase throughout fermentation to 12psi

2.5gal batch
4# pale ale malt
12oz crystal 2 row (40)
8oz honey malt
8oz wheat red malt
8oz lactose

.5oz Denali 15min
1oz El Dorado 175F hopstand 25min
.5oz Denali dry hop
1oz El Dorado dry hop

WLP080
plan to use coconut halfway through fermentation. I have read many reviews saying coconut flavor didnt come thru and should have used more. I would like a good amount of coconut flavor and am debating between 1.5-2lb coconut

 

[Navy Guy]

I've done a pineapple coconut IPA a few times now. I used about 2.5 lbs of coconut for a 5 gallon batch added around 9 days after fermentation starts and left for about a week. The coconut came through clear without being overpowering.

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Was able to get this brewed yesterday but had to make modifications due to volume needed in flex and got new Anvil kettle

had to increase to 3gal as that is minimum needed to keep thermowell submerged. This prevented full mash BIAB volume in new 5.5gal kettle. Did 4 gal with top up. Had to add .5lb crystal 40 to make up for difference as well

SG 1.044
OG 1.064

Really like the anvil kettle and spike flex. Temp set at 68 for now but will drop to 66 tomorrow

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Are these coconut shreds toasted too much?

 

[FromZwolle]

In my experience, which is pretty limited, you need to murder that thing with coconut to really get the flavor through. Even then, the flacor with fade with time similar or even quicker than hop flavor.

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

I agree. Read a lot of posts that said you needed to add more than thought to get flavor to go through. Also worth noting that in future if I use coconut I will probably do at start of fermentation as it is a royal PIA to drop a hop sock full of 2lb of coconut thru 4in hole while trying to maintain control of cooling coil. Not to mention trying to keep everything sanitary.

In process I also added 1.5oz each of Mosaic and El Dorado. Been cruising at 12psi and gravity is at 1.024 currently. May be different as need to let carbonation get out to get accurate reading. Leaving town on Friday so unsure if I should cold crash then and transfer when I return or let it site through weekend and cold crash next week. Friday will be 7 days after pitching and fermenting under pressure

 

[Dgallo]

You could also just use Sabro hops. They are extremely coconut forward, especially if using the LUPOMAX or Cryo version. With this hop you really might not need any coconut

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Sabro was the original plan but LHBS didnt have them. I could have ordered online but rather give them the $. I decided to go with more citrus which may get more of a pina colada flavor.

 

[FromZwolle]

Are these coconut shreds toasted too much?

View attachment 705369

Looks perfect to me. If you go darker than that you start getting unpleasant bitterness.

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Took gravity reading last two days and its 1.022. Both sample were degassed. I was expecting 1.017 so not sure whats going on. Temp has maintained 66avg since last Sat. Thoughts?

 

[FromZwolle]

Took gravity reading last two days and its 1.022. Both sample were degassed. I was expecting 1.017 so not sure whats going on. Temp has maintained 66avg since last Sat. Thoughts?

What's it taste like? you could have a bit of unfermentable stuffs from the coconut.

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Took gravity reading before coconut and dry hops so couldnt be coconut. Tasted day after and needs more hop flavor but coconut. Def there

 

[FromZwolle]

Took gravity reading before coconut and dry hops so couldnt be coconut. Tasted day after and needs more hop flavor but coconut. Def there

did you hit your og?
what mash temp?
where did you get your predicted fg?

 

[Dgallo]

did you hit your og?
what mash temp?
where did you get your predicted fg?

He used 8 oz of lactose in a 2.5gal batch... that is a minimum of 7 GU tht are unfermentable. That puts his true final gravity to 1.015 which is absolutely typical with the amount of crystal and honey malt he used. @Rogue_Atom87 you finished what would truly be expected by using that amount of lactose. The program you are using did not correctly calculate the amount of unfermentables in your wort

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Used brewfather with lactose factored in and gave me FG of 1.017. I hit my OG of 1.064 with temp control at 66F

 

[Dgallo]

Used brewfather with lactose factored in and gave me FG of 1.017. I hit my OG of 1.064 with temp control at 66F

What I’m getting at is their math is wrong. That would say your true fg would be 1.010 which is extremly implausible with your grainbill and yeast strain unless you mashed for excessively long or at 146-148

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Mashed at 152 for 80min then 10min at 170. Due to mill size from LHBS I have to do this to keep efficiency in mid 70% range

 

[Dgallo]

Mashed at 152 for 80min then 10min at 170. Due to mill size from LHBS I have to do this to keep efficiency in mid 70% range

That’s not good. You should ask them to tighten their gap then or have them double/triple mill it then if they are that bad at crushing grain. And if they won’t, find a new shop, use a solid online resource, or get your own mill. Sorry you have that issue. It’s gotta be annoying. All tht said your still within your strains standard attenuation and with the lactose you right on target

 

[Jag75]

You could also just use Sabro hops. They are extremely coconut forward, especially if using the LUPOMAX or Cryo version. With this hop you really might not need any coconut

my experience with sabro wasnt great taste wise . I got really good coconut aroma in the kettle but didn't get any coconut flavor. I used pellets, so maybe thats why.

 

[Dgallo]

my experience with sabro wasnt great taste wise . I got really good coconut aroma in the kettle but didn't get any coconut flavor. I used pellets, so maybe thats why.

I granted I’ve only have gotten 3 different batches of Sabro, but they’ve all been coconut forward. The cryo was certainly the most coconut forward. But the pellets were to but also had done cedar and lime notes. All 2019 though

 

[Rogue_Atom87]

Well this turned out be total flop. Spike wont fit in keezer for cold crash so need to use spare keg for this. Pressure transferred to keg tonight to cold crash but ball lock kept getting clogged even with racking arm pointed up. Of the 3 gal I was able to get out 1.5 gallon. Once done I opened fermenter and the bag holding coconut was blocking racking arm and preventing anything from getting out. Also noticed some unusual material floating on top. Samples tasted a touch bitter so not sure if had infection. We will still see how turns out but based on this looks like I need to have a secondary fermenter for any bulk flavor additions and permanent second keg for cold crash