Coconut Sanitation: Seeking Advice

[dbc5]

I am looking for some advice on an upcoming coconut addition. I have a porter that I brewed up about 2.5 weeks ago that I am planning to rack on top of some toasted coconut flakes. I typically wouldn't be too worried about this, however, I had my first ever infection recently in a brown ale that I racked on top of 1.5 lbs of cashews. I roasted the cashews, then placed them in a bag for a few days prior to racking on top of them in secondary. While the beer initially tasted fine, it was apparent that the bottles were over carbonated after 1 week and this thing is gushing like crazy after 2 weeks. I can't even taste it at this point because the entire bottle turns to foam upon opening. Having only used 3.25 ounces of corn sugar, I don't believe this is an issue of over priming. I suspect that cashews are the culprit as there was nothing else particularly noteworthy with sanitation for this brew.

Given this, I am concerned about my porter. My current plan was to toast the coconut flakes in my oven before racking on top of them. Should I move almost immediately from oven to secondary with the coconut to assure no bacteria is hanging out on my coconut? My instinct is to avoid this for fear of harming the yeast. However, my recent experience has me hesitant to just add cold coconut to my beer. I'm open to any and all suggestions and insights you have to offer. Thanks.

 

[Remmy]

I got some unsweetened coconut from Whole Foods last week and added it to my secondary (made a porter, same as you). Fermentation kicked-off again but I did not have to sanitize the coconut (how the heck would you do this to begin with?). Toasted the coconut, let it cool and added it. It'll be fine.

My secondary has been ok and it's been 5 days already.

 

[LKABrewer]

I like to have my coconut hang out in some vodka for a week or two to extract more flavor. It also sanitizes everything. When you pitch you can pitch the whole thing or just the vodka.

 

[DonLiguori]

The vodka trick definitely works.

Also, take note that the oven-hot coconut will rapidly cool in the beer, and the beer will barely increase in temp; any localized killing of yeast cells will be insignificant to the whole beer.

Additionally, if you don't want to pop in any extra booze, you can pressure-steam-cook ingredients for secondary aging. Toss your adjuncts into a pressure cooker with a steaming bed in it, allow it to cook for ~10 minutes, and voila--nothing will be left alive on it. Add that directly to your secondary while it's still hot and rack right on top.