My First Extract Brew - Coconut Brown Ale

[jbergen]

Here's the recipe that I put together from some research and help from my LHBS. A lot of coconut beer recipes I read were saying that they could barely taste the coconut, so I used the method I found that used a lot of coconut.
It was a little rushed, but I was excited. And since the entire keg is already gone after 2 weeks, I think all my friends liked it as much as I did.


Recipe:

Brew Method: Extract
Batch Size: 5 Gal
Boil Size: ~3 Gal (I think, haven't measured my brew pot, but it's not big enough)
OG: 1.050 FG: 1.012 SRM: ?? IBU: ??

Fermentables
3.75 kg Dark LME
0.07 kg Roasted Barley
0.54 Crystal 60

Boil Additions
0.50 oz Chinook 60min
0.50 oz Cascade 30 min
0.50 oz Cascade 10 min

Yeast
American Ale Wyeast 1056
Notes / Brew Schedule
Steep grains for 30 mins, boil for 60.

Fermentation
Primary: 1 week
Secondary: 1 week on top of 2 kg toasted unsweetened shredded coconut
Keg Condition: 1 week in keg carbing with CO2

 

[pieman396]

How much did the coconut cost? This looks kinda like my coconut porter recipe, just brewed it last night and I need to go buy some coconut! Did you shred and toast it yourself?

 

[jbergen]

How much did the coconut cost? This looks kinda like my coconut porter recipe, just brewed it last night and I need to go buy some coconut! Did you shred and toast it yourself?

I spent $10 CAD on 2 1Kg bags of unsweetened shredded coconut. I toasted it myself in a frying pan, it took about 5 or 6 batches to do it all in a pretty big pan. 2Kg is more than you think!

 

[pieman396]

Awesome! Did the coconut suck up a lot of beer?

 

[jbergen]

Awesome! Did the coconut suck up a lot of beer?

Yeah, it did. I didn't measure how much though. I'm in the middle of a second batch of this (although a little different, LHBS didn't have dark LME when I went back) and I'll see if I can estimate.

Also, I filtered the beer through a strainer into the keg, which I know is frowned upon, but I didn't want a bunch of coconut bits in my kegs.

 

[pieman396]

I was thinking of putting my coconut into a nylon grain bag and racking onto that to contain some of the mess. I wasn't really thinking about losing beer to the coconut so I only did 5 gals, hopefully its not too much loss. My recipe is a coconut chocolate coffee stout. So base 7% stout, 0.75 lbs lactose, putting 1.5-2lbs toasted coconut into secondary with 4oz cacao nibs and some cold brewed coffee. Aiming for a Mounds chocolate bar type beer. Let me know what kind of loss you have, cheers!

 

[jbergen]

That sounds incredible.

I took a look and mine is still fermenting away in the primary, so I won't be adding coconut for a few days.

 

[jbergen]

I was thinking of putting my coconut into a nylon grain bag and racking onto that to contain some of the mess. I wasn't really thinking about losing beer to the coconut so I only did 5 gals, hopefully its not too much loss. My recipe is a coconut chocolate coffee stout. So base 7% stout, 0.75 lbs lactose, putting 1.5-2lbs toasted coconut into secondary with 4oz cacao nibs and some cold brewed coffee. Aiming for a Mounds chocolate bar type beer. Let me know what kind of loss you have, cheers!

I added the beer to the secondary with coconut last night. So in a week, I can let you know how much I get back. The lower temp in my brewing/laundry room, caused this to ferment a lot slower. It's been in the 60's F.

I tasted it and so far, it's much hoppier than last time. I didn't change the hops, so that's a bit strange.

 

[jbergen]

I was thinking of putting my coconut into a nylon grain bag and racking onto that to contain some of the mess. I wasn't really thinking about losing beer to the coconut so I only did 5 gals, hopefully its not too much loss. My recipe is a coconut chocolate coffee stout. So base 7% stout, 0.75 lbs lactose, putting 1.5-2lbs toasted coconut into secondary with 4oz cacao nibs and some cold brewed coffee. Aiming for a Mounds chocolate bar type beer. Let me know what kind of loss you have, cheers!

So from 5 gal going into the secondary with 2 Kgs of coconut, I got about 4.5 gal back.

 

[pieman396]

I just bottled my own coconut porter today and got very similar results, 5 gallons/2 lbs coconut gave me 4.5 gallons to bottle. Not bad.