Death by Coconut Clone

[bwible]

With some of the Apex flavorings a little can go a long way. The directions say to start with .1%. So 5 gallons is 640 oz and .1% of that is .64 oz, or 1.28 TBS. That's where I started, but I felt that wasn't enough. So I added that much more, a total of ~2.5 TBS. At that amount it was quite prevalent but not overbearing. Next time I think I'll dial it back to 2TBS or slightly less.

I also use their apricot flavoring in my apricot wheat. Apex recommends .2%, or twice as much as the coconut extract. IMO that's far too much. I used 3/4 of a tsp (teaspoon!!) and I think that's a bit too much.

You did that alot easier than I did. I went the convert everything to liters and ml route and bought little 1, 2, 5, and 10 ml syringes used for dosing pet medicines to measure it out.

I have a toasted coconut from Apex I plan to make a coconut stout with at some point. I do 3 gallon batches and I would love to hear others experience here. My wife likes Death by Coconut.

The only Apex flavor I used so far was their maple flavor in a maple wine. One of our relatives gives us a gallon of real maple syrup every year for Christmas and we never use it all. We had a couple so last year being the fermenting fool I am, I fermented one in a 3 gallon batch. I treated it like a mead. After it fermented out I stabilized it with sorbate and added the maple flavor. Its like pancakes or waffles in a glass. One of the guys in my club said its an “acer”. Whatever that is. I never heard that before.

I have several other flavors from Apex on hand. Berry, Margarita, etc. I was planning to try to make seltzer. My original plan was to just dilute vodka with water to about 5% and use their flavor.

 

[bwible]

Flavored liquers have sugar in them. What I thought was a brilliant idea turned into a bad batch I did in 2019 when I added Creme de Cocao to the secondary in a RIS. First, I added too much. Second, I didn’t let it sit long enough before I bottled it. Way way overcarbonated. I was really worried about bottle bombs and I ended up opening and pouring them all out.

 

[bwible]

Did you use any lactose in your recipe? Sweet stouts usually have lactose in them and I would probably add lactose to a sweet stout I was going to put coconut flavor in.

 

[RyPA]

Yeah 1# of lactose

 

[BongoYodeler]

You did that alot easier than I did. I went the convert everything to liters and ml route and bought little 1, 2, 5, and 10 ml syringes used for dosing pet medicines to measure it out.

I have a toasted coconut from Apex I plan to make a coconut stout with at some point. I do 3 gallon batches and I would love to hear others experience here. My wife likes Death by Coconut.

The only Apex flavor I used so far was their maple flavor in a maple wine. One of our relatives gives us a gallon of real maple syrup every year for Christmas and we never use it all. We had a couple so last year being the fermenting fool I am, I fermented one in a 3 gallon batch. I treated it like a mead. After it fermented out I stabilized it with sorbate and added the maple flavor. Its like pancakes or waffles in a glass. One of the guys in my club said its an “acer”. Whatever that is. I never heard that before.

I have several other flavors from Apex on hand. Berry, Margarita, etc. I was planning to try to make seltzer. My original plan was to just dilute vodka with water to about 5% and use their flavor.

I've used Apex Flavorings for:
Coconut Milk Stout (used the Left Hand Milk Stout clone recipe)
Apricot Wheat
Pecan Porter
Lemon Drop Seltzer (NA)
Cranberry Seltzer (NA)

I've also bought these Apex flavors for future use:
Grapefruit - that I plan to eventually make a grapefruit ipa.
Cacao Nibs flavoring - for a future stout
Chocolate Cherry Custard - for a future dessert stout.

 

[passedpawn]

I've used the Apex coconut, peanut butter cup, and the oatmeal cookie (on tap now!). All good. The peanut butter cup beer is the best one of the bunch. I've made it a few times, and my neighbor raves it's better than Sweet Baby Jesus.

 

[bwible]

For those that have used apex flavorings, which version of coconut did you use? I tried the toasted coconut version and get absolutely no coconut smell or flavor and the beer is just so so over all. I may have used too much, probably the higher side of their recommended volume.

Debating not going with shredded coconut and either using coconut flavored vodka, or trying Apex again. Either much less, or a different flavor, maybe regular coconut.

This is going in an oatmeal stout.

Thanks

So I was messing around with some Apex flavors tonight. I took a milk stout that I brewed and added Apex Chocolate and Toasted Coconut flavors to a 12 oz glass. I went .3% of both which is at the top of what they recommend. I measured it out with my pet medicine syringes, works out to just a little over a ml each added to a 12 oz glass.

I’m going to say I agree I get only slight or mild coconut aroma and flavor at this level. It’s not as much as Death by Coconut. It is like a Mounds candy bar flavor somewhat. It’s always hard to get accurate measures with such small amounts though I do have a 1ml syringe.

I’d have to play some more and think if I’d want to go more on the toasted coconut flavor, maybe up to .4 or .5% before I made this batch.

As an aside I was playing with a couple other flavors in small samples of mead. Mixed Berry at 3% was not very noticible. Black Cherry at 3% had a great aroma but the flavor wasn’t there. I tried some of the spiced rum blend at 3% and that was overpowering, mostly cinnamon. I was thinking of using some of that in the Pirate Strong Ale recipe.

[edited for typos made on my tiny little iphone keyboard.]

 

[RyPA]

I may buy some regular stouts to experiment with it

For my upcoming batch, I am going to use probably 5 lbs of coconut in the secondary, and leave it in until I'm happy with it. Hoping for the best. I really want to find an extract solution as it would be so much easier. Thought Apex was the answer with my last batch

 

[bwible]

Its not bad, just a matter of finding the right amount to use

 

[bwible]

Now my wife just tasted my beer with the 2 flavors at 3% each and says its plenty of coconut. She’s the one who drinks Death by Coconut.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Now my wife just tasted my beer with the 2 flavors at 3% each and says its plenty of coconut. She’s the one who drinks Death by Coconut.

My opinion of the three commercial commercial stout/porter beers I've tried: FW Coconut Merlin, Maui Coconut Hiwa Porter, and Oskar Blues Death by Coconut, I think DbC has the most prominent coconut flavor. I also think everybody's taste perception is different. Some flavors I can barely perceive my wife finds overpowering, and vice-versa.

*Hopefully you meant .3% and not 3%. As I mentioned I used ~.2%, and my entire kitchen had an very strong coconut smell for hours.

 

[RyPA]

@BongoYodeler did you use the regular or toasted coconut flavoring?

 

[BongoYodeler]

@BongoYodeler did you use the regular or toasted coconut flavoring?

Toasted. It had just recently been released around the time I brewed a Left Hand Milk Stout clone, late 2019. Perfect timing.

https://www.apexflavors.com/Beverag...vor-beer-spirits-alcoholic-beverages-TTB~3756

 

[bwible]

*Hopefully you meant .3% and not 3%. As I mentioned I used ~.2%, and my entire kitchen had an very strong coconut smell for hours.

Yes. Missing decimal point