beer fat floating in bottles

[gurkgurkgurk]

I'm brewing a coconut porter which required almost a pound of shredded toasted coconut in the secondary, I racked it to a tertiary just to get most of the stuff out. But now a new problem has arisen. I appears i have little rings of coconut fat, and little coconut particles in the bottles. I opened up a bottle to taste, you do get some good coconut-y flavor, but theres a little sour in it as well. Is this something that will go down the more i age it? Its only been in the bottles for about almost a month. or should i just scrap this beer and drink it?

 

[chris41]

Interesting.....I made the same last year but used fresh grated coconut. I can't taste any coconut, but my Asian nephew can. The coconut oil may inhibit the beer head a bit. Age it a couple of more months. I don't have any fat rings or sourness, but I did use a bag to hold the coconut in the secondary.

 

[audger]

thats why you use coconut extract instead of actual coconut. i bet your beer will have zero head on it just because of how much oil is in there. the sour could be the oil turning rancid, which oil does over time and in the presence of acid (CO2).

 

[WilliamWS]

I appears i have little rings of coconut fat, and little coconut particles in the bottles. I opened up a bottle to taste, you do get some good coconut-y flavor, but theres a little sour in it as well.

That ring in you're bottle may very well be from a lacto infection, not the coconut. Lacto will sometimes produce a waxy looking ring in the neck of the bottle. I wouldn't think that coconut would make your beer sour at all (none of the coconut porters I've had have been sour and I've never eaten coconut that tasted sour).
With all that moving around to different containers you may have picked up an infection and if it is lacto it's not going away-it will only get worse.

 

[JuanMoore]

I'd also guess that the rings and particles are from some sort of infection and not coconut "fat". If done properly, the toasting should have denatured the coconut oils so that they don't cause any issues. Even if you didn't toast it enough, the coconut oils wouldn't coagulate into anything solid or cause a sour taste, they'd be more or less invisible and simply kill the head on your beer.

 

[chris41]

I used fresh grated coconut and the beer taste fine after 1 1/2 years in the bottle.

 

[LKABrewer]

thats why you use coconut extract instead of actual coconut. i bet your beer will have zero head on it just because of how much oil is in there. the sour could be the oil turning rancid, which oil does over time and in the presence of acid (CO2).

Disagree. When I made my coconut porter, I tried coconut extract; it tastes like someone threw suntan lotion in your beer. Not nearly as pleasant/complex as real toasted coconut. I added 1# of coconut in 5 gallons, toasted and in a hop sack. Never had any problems with head retention.

 

[JuanMoore]

Disagree. When I made my coconut porter, I tried coconut extract; it tastes like someone threw suntan lotion in your beer. Not nearly as pleasant/complex as real toasted coconut. I added 1# of coconut in 5 gallons, toasted and in a hop sack. Never had any problems with head retention.

Yep, coconut extract is nasty, and toasting real coconut denatures the oils that create head retention problems. I use ~3.5# of shredded coconut /10 gal for my Maui Brewing coconut porter clone, and it's always had good head retention.

 

[audger]

Disagree. When I made my coconut porter, I tried coconut extract; it tastes like someone threw suntan lotion in your beer. Not nearly as pleasant/complex as real toasted coconut. I added 1# of coconut in 5 gallons, toasted and in a hop sack. Never had any problems with head retention.

immitation coconut extract tastes like that (bad). i am talking about taking ground coconut, putting it in grain alcohol, and removing the oils.

and toasting real coconut denatures the oils that create head retention problems

i cant find any decent reference to this anywhere online. actually everything i can find (though not extremely reputable sources, but...) that references denaturing coconut oil says that its extremely difficult or impossible to do, unlike other oils. care to share your source?

 

[JuanMoore]

i cant find any decent reference to this anywhere online. actually everything i can find (though not extremely reputable sources, but...) that references denaturing coconut oil says that its extremely difficult or impossible to do, unlike other oils. care to share your source?

I just remember reading it several times while researching for my Maui clone recipe, so probably not reliable sources. It's likely that denature is the wrong word, and it could be another mechanism at work, I don't really know. What I do know is that toasting the coconut does something that eliminates the head retention issue. Maui brewing puts huge quatities of toasted coconut directly in the mash, boil, hopback, and brite tank, and doesn't have any issues with head retention or rancid oil problems. Several other commercial breweries also use actual coconut instead of extract without issue. Myself and many others have experienced the same thing on the homebrew level. If you prefer extract, that's your choice, but toasted coconut works just fine for me.

 

[gurkgurkgurk]

ill see if i put up a picture, but I did indeed toast the coconut beforehand, and I'm also very careful to keep everything sanitized. Should i scrap this beer? or wait it out for another couple of months and crack it open and see what its like?