Looking for a hops recommendation for a Coconut Stout

[Hoochin'Fool]

Basic recipe (for a 3 gallon batch) is:

5 lb Briess 2-row
8 oz Briess Munich 10L
8 oz Brown Sugar
6 oz Fawcett Dark Roast Crystal 85L
4 oz Fawcett Pale Chocolate 180-220L
4 oz Weyermann Chocolate Rye 240L
2 oz Briess Chocolate 350L
2 oz Briess Roasted Barley

London Water profile
Mash at 152F for 60
Magnum @60 for 34 IBU
Kent Goldings @5 for 10 IBU
S-04
OG 1.063, FG: 1.013, ABV: 6.6% IBU: 44

It's quite nice, but the wife says she thinks adding some coconut would be awesome... And I agree! Adding a couple drops of spice aisle McCormick Coconut Extract to a bottle was good, but I feel like maybe something different hop-wise would be in order as well. Maybe dry-hop with some Sabro? Input welcomed!

 

[GlutenFreeCart]

Adding coconut to your recipe sounds like a delicious idea! You could try adding toasted coconut flakes during the mash or boil, or even in the fermenter after primary fermentation is complete. As for dry hopping with Sabro, it could definitely complement the coconut flavor and aroma. Sabro has a unique tropical and coconut character, which could complement the existing hop profile in your recipe. However, keep in mind that dry hopping can add bitterness, so you may want to adjust your hop additions accordingly. It's always fun to experiment and see how different ingredients and techniques can affect the flavor of your beer. Good luck and happy brewing!

 

[RyPA]

Please report back how this turns out. I tried a coconut/chocolate/vanilla stout a year ago and I ended up dumping the keg.

I toasted (possibly not toasted enough) 2 lbs. of unsweetened organic shredded coconut and put it in a muslin bag and put it in the fermenter after a week; the cacao nibs and vanilla beans went in commando. I ended up not getting any of the flavor notes and the beer wasn't worth it's weight (or mass) in keg space so I dumped it. I also bought some of the Apex flavorings toasted coconut extract to try to save the keg but that also didn't taste good to me.

I'd love to find a solid chocolate/coconut stout recipe, preferably imperial.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Please report back how this turns out. I tried a coconut/chocolate/vanilla stout a year ago and I ended up dumping the keg.

Ordered some graduated eye-droppers that should arrive end of next week, so I can start narrowing down amounts to use of various flavor extracts. I don't have much interest in messing around with actual coconut or vanilla beans!

I'd love to find a solid chocolate/coconut stout recipe, preferably imperial.

Me too! Have you seen this recipe?

 

[RyPA]

Ordered some graduated eye-droppers that should arrive end of next week, so I can start narrowing down amounts to use of various flavor extracts. I don't have much interest in messing around with actual coconut or vanilla beans!


Me too! Have you seen this recipe?

I haven't. For the toasted coconut addition mentioned in Additional Items, how far/dark do you toast? In the batch I mentioned in my post above I toasted lightly, and I don't think it was enough. You also have the problem with the oils in the coconut that will kill head retention. With that said, I agree that sticking with extract/flavorings is probably ideal, at least for coconut. Apex has great reviews from those who have used it, it just didnt work for me, maybe I got a bad batch? The extract/flavoring I bought didn't even smell like coconut.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I haven't. For the toasted coconut addition mentioned in Additional Items, how far/dark do you toast? In the batch I mentioned in my post above I toasted lightly, and I don't think it was enough. You also have the problem with the oils in the coconut that will kill head retention. With that said, I agree that sticking with extract/flavorings is probably ideal, at least for coconut. Apex has great reviews from those who have used it, it just didnt work for me, maybe I got a bad batch? The extract/flavoring I bought didn't even smell like coconut.

I've never toasted any coconut, so far I've only been adding a few drops of McCormick Coconut Extract (from the grocery store) to a just-opened bottle of a nice stout or porter -- tastes great, but I'd really like to figure out how much those "few drops" actually amount to in milliliters, so I can appropriately dose a whole batch at bottling time.

 

[RyPA]

Good to know, thanks, I will pick up a bottle. Agreed, figuring out how to scale the addition can be challenging.

 

[spersichilli]

I wouldn't worry about hops per se, they'll get overwhelmed by the coconut. I'd stay away from the extract if you can, most coconut extract tastes very artificial (very suntan lotion like). I prefer 50:50 toasted/raw coconut into the fermenter post fermentation. I do 1lb per gallon in my big imperial stouts, but for normal beers you can do .25-.5lb per gallon and it should come through nicely

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Thanks spersichilli. That's pretty much what I read, bittering hops are all one really wants, to avoid fighting with the coconut flavor. I did finally get my graduated eye-droppers, so I can accurately measure down to a quarter of a milliliter. I'm still keen on experimenting with extract, from my unmeasured "just dribble a couple of drops" experiments, 4 to 5 drops in 12oz is about perfect, but 7+ drops does indeed start to taste a bit like sunscreen. And I've had commercial coconut stouts (where real coconut was used) that have tasted like sunscreen, so I suspect it's all in the dose.

 

[RyPA]

I wouldn't worry about hops per se, they'll get overwhelmed by the coconut. I'd stay away from the extract if you can, most coconut extract tastes very artificial (very suntan lotion like). I prefer 50:50 toasted/raw coconut into the fermenter post fermentation. I do 1lb per gallon in my big imperial stouts, but for normal beers you can do .25-.5lb per gallon and it should come through nicely

How dark do you go with toasting the coconut? Do you have an imperial stout recipe you can share? The beer I am working towards is an chocolate/coconut imperial stout.

 

[Wrendelar]

Have you looked at HB 472? The aroma of HBC 472 has been described as "oak, bourbon barrels, coconut, vanilla, citrus, and sweet fruit." It is also known to have the characters of Caramel Cream. if thats not to your liking there is HB-630 or Sabro .. any of these might give a nice flavor and complement the toasted coconut.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Ordered some graduated eye-droppers that should arrive end of next week, so I can start narrowing down amounts to use of various flavor extracts. I don't have much interest in messing around with actual coconut or vanilla beans!


Me too! Have you seen this recipe?

A few years ago I brewed the Left Hand Milk stout recipe, here and racked it to a keg on top of some Apex Toasted Coconut flavoring. I did a blind tasting with mine, Maui's Coconut Porter, and FW's Coconut Merlin milk stout. While I was able to correctly identify all three, I thought mine held up very well to the other two. I was quite happy with how mine turned out, and wouldn't change a thing. I took some to a Christmas party and it went over very well.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Ordered some graduated eye-droppers that should arrive end of next week

Sorry for the late followup, had to wait for last batch to finish up! I made a slight change to recipe: bumped the 85L Crystal from 6 to 8 oz, and added 1 oz midnight wheat.

Anyways, it's still flat and warm, but the missus and I both agreed, between 0.25 and 0.3 ml per 12 oz beer is the sweet spot, and matches my earlier observation that "four to six drops" per beer is great. I'm going to add the coconut extract per-bottle (instead of the bottling bucket), so I do some with and some without the coconut.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Turns out dosing bottles by eye-dropper is really tedious (and easy to make mistakes). For my palate, 0.2 ounces of (McCormick brand) Coconut Extract PER GALLON OF BEER is perfect, and so much simpler to just mix it all in the bottling bucket.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Turns out dosing bottles by eye-dropper is really tedious (and easy to make mistakes). For my palate, 0.2 ounces of (McCormick brand) Coconut Extract PER GALLON OF BEER is perfect, and so much simpler to just mix it all in the bottling bucket.

Just in case anyone follows up on this, I used a shot-glass (with ticks at 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, and 1.50 ounce), so that was technically a VOLUME measurement for the extract. I think the 0.50 level corresponded to 0.355 oz (on a small jewelry scale).