Adding Coconut, Cacao Nibs and a Vanilla Bean

[YouEnjoyMyself]

In the most recent issue of Zymurgy, they had a recipe for an English Porter with Coconuts, Cacao Nibs and a Madagascar Vanilla Bean. I brewed the porter yesterday. I have a few questions for adding stuff to the secondary after fermentation.

How would you suggest adding the coconuts to the secondary?

How would you suggest adding the cacao nibs to the secondary?

How would you suggest adding the vanilla bean to the secondary?

Do you think it matters if I use Sweetened Coconuts instead of Unsweetened Coconuts?

Thanks!

 

[YouEnjoyMyself]

This is the recipe. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/choconut-brown-porter/

 

[Grod1]

Add it all to a little bourbon and dump it in.
The coconut would benefit from a toast on top of paper towels to soak up some oil.

 

[YouEnjoyMyself]

Add it all to a little bourbon and dump it in.
The coconut would benefit from a toast on top of paper towels to soak up some oil.

Just spread the coconut out on paper towels and put on baking sheet and into the oven? How long? Temp?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Toast the coconut @ 300° for about 15 minutes until it turns a nice golden brown. Keep an eye on it, once it starts to brown it will go fast and will burn before you know it. I burnt a batch that I set for 20 minutes and had to toast some more. 15 minutes worked for my oven, but yours might be different. To add to the fermenter, I usually just dump it in loose and then when it comes time to keg, I will line the fermenter with a sanitized paint strainer bag to keep the coconut from getting sucked up in the syphen. I've also added it straight to the keg, but I use a hop sack to keep it all contained. You can also use a hop sack for the fermenter addition if you want.

Same as above with the cacao nibs. Pre-toast just like the coconut unless the nibs are pre-toasted out of the package.

Vanilla beans you can split, scrape out the beans, and cut the left over pods in about 1" pieces and put the whole mess in some vodka to sanitize. I usually just create the extract as I just described (letting it soak for a few weeks) and then filter out and discard the solids and add the vanilla flavored vodka to the keg at packaging. If you don't want to go that way, you can toss the whole mess into your fermenter once it's been sanitized for a few minutes.

Also, unless you are really enamored with the idea of transferring to secondary, there's really no need. All of this can be done in primary.

 

[YouEnjoyMyself]

I am toasting flaked coconuts and cacao nibs tonight to add to my English Porter. After toasting the coconuts and cacao nibs in the oven, do they have to be sanitized before adding them to the secondary? I have been reading some forums and getting mixed reviews.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I soak the nibs in vodka to draw out a lot of the flavor, and then both the nibs and vodka go in the beer. However, the only nibs I use are already toasted; if you're toasting them yourself and immediately adding them to the beer, then sanitizing is probably not necessary, as the heat from the oven should take care of any nasties.

After toasting coconut, I will sanitize the hop sack if I use one before adding the coconut, but not the coconut itself. Like the nibs, I figure the toasting process should be sufficient to sanitize as long as you put it right in the beer soon after taking out of the oven.

Theoretically, the alcohol and hops in the beer should provide enough protection from infection as long as what you're adding isn't teeming with bacteria, though it never hurts to add more layers of protection.

 

[Pintabone]

I’m looking to brew this recipe next week actually. My question though is around transferring to a secondary vessel. I’ve always used one vessel in all my batches. Is it imperative to rack to a secondary vessel to condition on the coconut and cocoa? Has anyone just added to the primary vessel?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Adding the nibs and coconut to primary is fine. I've done it many times. See both of my posts above for tips to keep them out of your keg or bottling bucket when the time comes to package.

 

[YouEnjoyMyself]

As you can tell, this is a learning process for us. We made a vodka tincture for the Madagascar Vanilla Bean, after scraping out the inside and cutting up the outside. We let it sit for a few days. A few days later, we toasted 1 lb of coconut flakes for 9 minutes at 350. Then we toasted the 2 oz of cacao nibs for 3 minutes at 300. Then we transferred the beer off the yeast into a secondary bottling bucket. Then we put the coconuts, followed by the cacao nibs and ending with the vodka and bean pieces into a large hop bag, tied it up and dropped it in. We are planning on letting it sit for 6-10 days. We tried it at 2 days, and the coconuts and vanilla were present already, not much chocolate. It has been 4 days so far. We'll try it again tonight.

 

[bobbrews]

Unsweetened toasted coconut

 

[Pintabone]

Adding the nibs and coconut to primary is fine. I've done it many times. See both of my posts above for tips to keep them out of your keg or bottling bucket when the time comes to package.

Thanks for the advice! Have you ever used one of the stainless steel hop filters for the coconut? I'm guessing a lb of toasted coconut likely isn't going to fit into the stainless mesh filter.

 

[Pintabone]

As you can tell, this is a learning process for us. We made a vodka tincture for the Madagascar Vanilla Bean, after scraping out the inside and cutting up the outside. We let it sit for a few days. A few days later, we toasted 1 lb of coconut flakes for 9 minutes at 350. Then we toasted the 2 oz of cacao nibs for 3 minutes at 300. Then we transferred the beer off the yeast into a secondary bottling bucket. Then we put the coconuts, followed by the cacao nibs and ending with the vodka and bean pieces into a large hop bag, tied it up and dropped it in. We are planning on letting it sit for 6-10 days. We tried it at 2 days, and the coconuts and vanilla were present already, not much chocolate. It has been 4 days so far. We'll try it again tonight.

Any update how it turned out? I’m planning to make the coconut cacao and vanilla additions within the next day or so to the same beer.

 

[YouEnjoyMyself]

Any update how it turned out? I’m planning to make the coconut cacao and vanilla additions within the next day or so to the same beer.

Sorry for the delayed response. It was great. The body was a bit thin, so I entered it into a competition as an English Dark Mild base under SHV. It got a 39, won the category of 25 entries and got 3rd place BOS out of over 200 entries.