Coconut Light Ale

[OffCourse]

I am new to home brewing and am about to bottle my first batch, a Magic Hat Clone. I am stepping out of a kit and going to try my own recipe for a light ale. I am trying to match a beer I tasted while in the Florida Keys by the name of Big Rod. It was a coconut blonde ale and it was amazing. It wasn't overly coconut tasting but had a great after note of the coconut.

I have a question for all of you on this forum. I am planing on topping off my primary with some coconut water, and using a good quality coconut extract at bottling. I guess my question is would you guys use actual coconut at some point and would you add the extract at a different point in fermentation? Any input on this would be awesome.

 

[chromakey]

A recipe i saw on here once (coconut porter) used organic flaked coconut in the secondary, kind of like a dry hop. The coconut was roasted before it was added.

 

[daksin]

I don't know about coconut water, having tasted it I don't think it's going to give you the right flavor for your beer. It may just make it taste salty or fatty. Toasted coconut is how I go, 1lb toasted brown in 5 gallons, but I definitely would not be opposed to using a good quality coconut extract.