Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Coconut Porter 1st Place in 2nd Round 2011 HBT Comp

[wilfonzo]

I just made this and that's exactly what i did. Tossed 1lb of toasted coconut into a paint strainer bag then into the keg, It's been in there for a week and is delicious already. Just hoping it doesn't clog the dip tube.

 

[sKafifer]

Oh my goodness...just racked into a corny on top of 12oz of toasted coconut...it smells and tastes incredible already...can wait for the next 2 weeks to hurry by so i can start drinking this

 

[formula2fast]

I am going to be brewing a coconut cream ale (AG) and am planning on putting in 1/2lb of toasted coconut in the mash, 1/2lb at flame out, and then 1.5 lbs in the secondary. Do you think that would be too much? I want a fairly strong flavor aroma, but don't want it to be obnoxious coconut flavor.

 

[weirdboy]

2.5 lbs of coconut sure sounds like a lot to me. Also just FYI with that much fruit you are probably going to have a significant amount of absorption...you might want to scale your recipe up to 6 gallons or so.

 

[formula2fast]

I will scale up to account for absorption. I have never brewed with coconut, so I am unsure of how much to use. I read another post of one guy saying he did 2lbs in the secondary and that it was a good flavor but tapered off over long periods of time. I just want to make sure it sticks around. How much would you suggest?

 

[weirdboy]

I had no problem detecting the coconut in my beer months after brewing using less than a pound. It really depends on how much coconut flavor and aroma you are going for. I have no trouble believing that SOME of the coconut is going to fade over time, in the same way that dry hops will fade over time just because the beer gets older. Taste a fresh IPA a week after dry hopping and the same beer again at a month, and it will have much less hop punch than it did a few weeks before.

Maybe start with a pound, see how you like it at that level and keep some bottles around for a few months to try at different stages. Then, use that to determine what you do on the next batch. Personally, I use 10-12oz as I wrote in the recipe. I like being able to clearly taste the underlying style without the beer being overwhelmed by the fruit. A lot of people like their fruit beer to be dominated by the fruit, but that's not really my thing. There is a lot to be said for balance.

 

[formula2fast]

I think i will take your advice and
Start small and add to taste. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[absolutbmc]

Has anyone tried this with a extract? I was thinking about using an extract to control the flavor, absorption, and head retention. Any thoughts?

 

[weirdboy]

Has anyone tried this with a extract? I was thinking about using an extract to control the flavor, absorption, and head retention. Any thoughts?

For what it's worth, I just found a few old bottles of this beer stuck in the back of a closet, and popped one last night to try it out. They are from a batch I made two years ago. Head retention and flavor were absolutely fine.

 

[formula2fast]

I ended up using 3lbs of real coconut and the flavor is awesome. It has only been in the bottles for 2 weeks and
I havent sampled since bottling day do i can't comment on head retention yet, but i have one chilling right now for sampling later tonight. There is a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the bottles though.

 

[absolutbmc]

I ended up making this today. I used 14oz of coconut and added it to the primary rather than the secondary. I did, however, add the all the hops @ 5mins... oops. I think it will be fine though. I will keep all posted

 

[opusx11]

I did a partial mash of this a few days ago, its fermenting away. I ended up using Nottingham as that was what I had on hand. I also upped the toasted coconut, but goofed and threw it in the mash instead of flameout. I figure I can fix in secondary if it needs more..

Coconut aside, the recipe seemed quite tasty, thx for sharing it.

 

[davekippen]

Didnt look like anyone else said it, but congrats on the contest finish!

I will be brewing this as my next batch. Cant wait!!

 

[weirdboy]

Last week, I did another 10-gallon batch of this, with a few tweaks. Instead of my original spec, I used the Thomas Fawcett pale chocolate malt because it tastes so good and chocolatey, and I also added some carapils and a bit of black patent to the grain bill. On the hops side, I only had an ounce of willamette left, and no goldings, so I decided to switch directions and went with citrusy American hops all the way through, with an additional bit of cascade added at flameout to bring out some citrusy hop aroma to (hopefully) complement the coconut. I would also expect that this will increase the perceived bitterness up to something like the 40-45 IBU range, rather than the 35 or so it was at previously. Additionally, I am fermenting half of it with US-05 and leaving out the coconut, and entering it as a robust porter in an upcoming competition, as I wanted a cleaner fermentation and for the roast and hops to pop a bit more than in my original recipe for that category.

 

[opusx11]

After 9 days on the lower side I'm at 1.020. I'm going to stop adding ice bottles but keep it in the swamp cooler as room temp is still fairly high. I tasted the sample though and its already delicious!! The roastyness is there and so is a hint of coconut on the finish, should get better after secondary.

 

[forcabrew]

Anyone ever put some coconut into the boil?

 

[formula2fast]

I put 1lb in the mash and then used 1/2 gallon of coconut water in my boil. Then put 3lbs in secondary. It came out awesome.

 

[Heatonk]

Going to brew a coconut Stout this weekend. Anyone think about adding a vanilla bean to the secondary also?

 

[weirdboy]

I have done that a couple years ago, and it tasted really good for a month or so. Then for some reason the vanilla faded away leaving only the coconut behind. It still tasted great, but the vanilla flavor wasn't there anymore.

 

[Sween]

Bumping this thread because I just ordered the ingredients to make a batch...

Any other notes on recent batches? Any improvements or tweaks?

 

[weirdboy]

My last batch did pretty well in a competition I entered into a few months ago. Basically the same scores it has gotten when I entered previous batches...39/40ish. I still have about half a keg of the "straight" version of this recipe (no coconut) on tap in my kegerator, so not planning to make another batch for a while just yet. My club is trying to get at least one beer of each BJCP style category on tap for the Southern California Homebrew Festival coming up at the beginning of May, so I might do another batch for that, although I'm thinking about doing something with bananas for my next fruit beer.

 

[Sween]

Just pitched.... Added some toasted coconut to the boil and also gave it a little extra lme kick... Sg was 1.068!

Wyeast 1056 American ale. Also dumped the rest of my toasted coconut into some vodka to make an extract.

Had to make it my own!

 

[Sween]

Just a note on this... I am second guessing my decision to add coconut to the boil for fears that the oils will destroy head retention.

That said, I toasted 12 oz of coconut and added it to a bottle and filled it with vodka. (I'm up to almost an entire bottle of vodka to cover it as the flakes keep sucking up the vodka) I plan on letting that steep for a week while the beer is in primary.

After fermentation is done I plan on using a nylon bag over a bowl to squeeze the vodka back out of the toasted coconut flakes. I think I will then freeze the infused vodka in the hopes that the oil will congeal on top and I can skim off the oils. I will then add it to the secondary as an extract.

I really think I want to avoid adding the flakes directly to the secondary for fear of oils and/or infection.

Will update....

 

[weirdboy]

I have never had a problem with infection from adding the toasted coconut directly. However, in my experience you probably DO want to put it in some kind of container (I use a fine mesh nylon bag) to keep the flakes from getting all over the place in your wort, just because it can be sort of a pain to rack off of the coconut otherwise.

Regarding head retention: I didn't have too much of an issue with my last batch, which I had cut back my caramel 60 and pale chocolate to about 6.5% each of the grist, and added about 4% carapils and 2% black patent to make up the difference. Judges comments from a competition remarked "decent" head retention with good lacing.

 

[brewdude25]

Does anyone know if adding coconut water would be a way to increase the coconut flavor? Although, the sugars in the coconut water would likely ferment out.

 

[formula2fast]

I used 32 ounces of coconut water in the boil of mine and it was awesome. I can not pinpoint if the coconut water fermented out or what would have happened if I did not add it, but I tasted a friends coconut beer that he brewed that was very similar to mine only without coconut water, and my coconut flavor was much more pronounced than his.

I used Harmless Harvest coconut water from Whole foods. I tasted a whole bunch of different ones before I used them and this one was the best. This is also one that is not boiled to pasturize it, so it retains a lot more flavoring.

 

[Sween]

I used 32 ounces of coconut water in the boil of mine.

This is also one that is not boiled to pasturize it, so it retains a lot more flavoring.

...but either way it was boiled.

Wondering if a late addition of coconut water would work too in secondary.

 

[tre6mafya]

I have wanted to do a coconut porter and this sounds perfect!! So what's the verdict of adding coconut water at flameout and about 1lb of toasted coconut to the secondary of this recipe has anyone tried that? Results??

 

[Sween]

I bought some coconut water... I opened it and it smells like piss. Not putting that crap in my beer. I stuck with toasted flakes in nylon bags and made my own extract with vodka.

In secondary now.

 

[tre6mafya]

Sween, I don't enjoy the smell or taste (long story) of piss so I'm gonna stick with the toasted coconut flakes and maybe extract at the secondary. Thanks for your advice!