Coconut mead. Have I created a monster?

Hello everyone,

I am trying to make a coconut mead at the moment. I found a recipe for 'groovy coconut mead' (you can google it). I drilled some coconuts (the new green fresh type), extracted the juice, warmed the juice, mixed it with honey and then added some dry yeast. I then put the mix back into the coconuts and sealed with an airlock (I have two bubble airlocks and one improvised job with a nipple and balloon). I After a week I stopped getting bubbles, and the balloon deflated.

I don't know if I have created a monster. But it tasted alcoholic when I tried some at the point of extraction from the coconuts.

I have now bottled the stuff in a coke bottle. There is a around a liter. I added cloves, pepper, and cinnamon sticks. I am hoping the mix will become effervescent. It is bubbling a little.

Bangladesh is hot, which is an aid to brewing.

I have no idea if I have even created Mead, or how to proceed. What do you think?

I am starting a second thread on what I might brew with limited ingredients and facilities.

Sounds delicious... I'm going to keep a tab on this, let us know how it tastes in the end!

Sounds like you took the concept of Toddy and went the next step. I love that fact that you are using the coconuts as fermenters!

Thanks for your replies. We have many Sri Lankan medical students in Chittagong, where I live. They informed me that some kind of booze was made with coconuts, but didn't know how it was done. I managed to google up this

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...g62b3kSwzEAD4QSQQ&sig2=g8BqIzSjaC976000P6LHbg

Which is not a traditional method. But I had to start somewhere

Using coconuts as fermenters as well as fermenting the coconut... This is THE COOLEST thing I've read all day! It sounds like something you'd see on Gilligan's Island or maybe in a Corona commercial. This is just genius! I hope it turns out tasty. I'd try it myself, but coconuts aren't cheap, or fresh in Montana. Regards, GF.

This is the setup (if the add image works)

This would be cooler if coconuts didn't make me gag and puke.

This is my first time brewing, so perhaps this is normal. To recap, I made a 'mead' by using coconut juice instead of water and adding about 100 ml of honey (so I think far less than normal). Perhaps you won't call this mead. I am totally inexperienced. I mixed three heaped tea spoons with the warmed mix of honey and coconut juice. Then I injected the lot back into coconuts and put on air locks. I fermented the mix for about 5 days inside the coconuts. When the balloon (home made) 'airlock' deflated I took the juice out. It seemed alcoholic.

Now I put the lot into a coke bottle. There was quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. I had to open the bottle a few times to allow some of the build up of gas to escape. After a couple of days I got inspired to add cloves, ginger, cracked pepper. A couple of days after that I foolishly thought I might be done (total inexperience) and transferred the mix, less sediment, to small plastic bottles and shoved them in the fridge.

Just a few hours later, after reading more, I realised it would take months to make anything. So I took the reduced liquid (the sediment, ginger, etc all thrown out) and put it into the coke bottle with the balloon to stop it bursting.

All in all the stuff had only been in the coconut 5 days and in the coke bottle, bubbling away, for another five.

Now things got interesting. The balloon inverted, showing that the mix was eating oxygen but not producing the same volume or carbon dioxide (or whatever). There is a serious vacuum in the bottle. There is a layer of sediment at the bottom. Also about 1.5 inches down there is a layer of sediment. The liquid is otherwise clearing. It is the colour of white beer.

Can anyone tell me what is happening?

I know part of this.

I have made a Bannana,Pineaple,Coconut wine 2 times. Get a load of this. If you use fresh coconut milk the "Stuff at the top". Is coco butter. Oil floats on water.

As for the "vacum" thats a mystery to me.

Thanks for the pic. What I have is more like saturns rings; about 1.5 inches down there is a very thin layer of sediment.

What most interests me is what it means that my brew has sucked up all the oxygen.

Did the vacuum form when you put it into the fridge? If that is the case, I believe it is just a result of the liquid/air cooling.

The balloon was added after the mix got back to room temperature. I am not even sure I took off the cap, and replaced it with the balloon, on the same day. The balloon is inverted, i.e. it is inside the bottle. That is how I am judging the vacuum. It is getting bigger day by day. The vacuum is growing.

I just noticed that the thin layer of sediment has now dropped to about 2 1/2 inches below the surface. This is a fine layer of debris suspended in the 'mead.'

I'm a great fan of science.

Hi, first time poster. Before joining this forum I was inspired by this thread. Reporting the results.

I started two batches of coconut mead simultaneously: one in a gallon jar, adding shredded coconut after racking. The other fermenting directly in a coconut.

Fermentation inside a coconut definitely gives a rich coconut flavor. It also tastes as if it had been heavily hopped. Probably the bitterness results from the coconut shell.

The capacity of an average coconut turned out to be almost exactly one pint.

It makes a fun conversation piece, and the mead-soaked coconut meat was a pleasant side product.

when i did my batch of coconut mead, i bought 4 1lb bags of shredded coconut meat and steep them in enough water to completely submerge it all. I heated it just to pre-boil and then I let it steep for roughly 30 minutes.

While it was steeping I added 1 quart of wildflower honey to my gallon carboy. I let the coconut meat to continue steeping while i cooled it in a sink bath of cold water; and then strained it with a fine strainer.

I decided to use bread yeast on this batch, and so i rehydrated it with 2 cups of semi-warm coconut water.

Then I added just enough water to shake/dissolve the honey, and topped off the gallon with what was left; installed the airlock and it's been sitting for just over two months now, and it's still bubbling away, but has started to clear. it has a long way to go however. The coconut milk is/was/will be very cloudy.

meadmadame said:

Hi, first time poster. Before joining this forum I was inspired by this thread. Reporting the results.
I started two batches of coconut mead simultaneously: one in a gallon jar, adding shredded coconut after racking. The other fermenting directly in a coconut.
Fermentation inside a coconut definitely gives a rich coconut flavor. It also tastes as if it had been heavily hopped. Probably the bitterness results from the coconut shell.
The capacity of an average coconut turned out to be almost exactly one pint.
It makes a fun conversation piece, and the mead-soaked coconut meat was a pleasant side product.

Click to expand...

I'm glad you enjoyed the brew. Mine turned out very interesting. The flavor was really subtle. It didn't taste of honey, or coconut, but it was nice. I think it was a bit like perry.

There is a serious vacuum in the bottle

Click to expand...

This happened with a batch of JAOM that I made using the same balloon airlock technique...

this may help:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/jaom-help-please-mead-pulling-vacuum-252960/

This is a great idea fermenting in a coconut. I just started brewing couple months ago, and that was one of my crazy ideas I didn't try. Now I wish I had tried it. Will have to wait till my next batch.