Kona Brewing Koko Brown Ale

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Mmm glad to hear that rwfishbu, that's how I did mine! Just racked it to secondary tonight. I converted yours to an extract w/ a mini mash. The OG came out pretty high, but I doubt that will hurt such a sweet beer. I'll post my recipe and steps once it's kegged and drinkable with a photo.

Next time I'll do the all-grain version since I "just" (today) switched over (making a Mac and Jack clone tonight for my first all grain)... yay me!!
 
Racked mine to keg tonight. See how it is in a couple more weeks.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk
 
What a great thread. We've been working on our own Coco Brown for a couple batches now and I think we've done a great job getting that liquid mounds bar beer. The story about the beer is here: http://powellavenuebrew.com/2011/08/daves-coco-brown/.

A few suggestions after reading the thread. Maybe sub that chocolate for a debittered chocolate and black. This takes away some of the tannic harshness and allows for the coconut to shine through more. Also we've been using Whole Foods shredded coconut (unsweetened) straight into primary. The oil does get EVERYWHERE, but it is oh so worth it.

We've kicked a couple kegs of this now and it's definitely become a house favorite.

*Update - We added a pdf and beerxml of our Dave's Coco Brown to the website if anyone wants to check it out.
 
What a great thread. We've been working on our own Coco Brown for a couple batches now and I think we've done a great job getting that liquid mounds bar beer. The story about the beer is here: http://powellavenuebrew.com/2011/08/daves-coco-brown/.

A few suggestions after reading the thread. Maybe sub that chocolate for a debittered chocolate and black. This takes away some of the tannic harshness and allows for the coconut to shine through more. Also we've been using Whole Foods shredded coconut (unsweetened) straight into primary. The oil does get EVERYWHERE, but it is oh so worth it.

We've kicked a couple kegs of this now and it's definitely become a house favorite.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback! I'll defnitely make some tweaks after I work through the two batches in my kegs.
 
I toured the brewery last Feb when I was vacationing, it is awesome

I think it's a must if you are in Kona. We had a great time there earlier this spring. I was surprised though the Koko brown they brewed at the brewpub wasn't as good as the bottled stuff stateside.
 
I think it's a must if you are in Kona. We had a great time there earlier this spring. I was surprised though the Koko brown they brewed at the brewpub wasn't as good as the bottled stuff stateside.

Definitely. also their food is really good.


I still haven't found a bottle on the east coast, as much as I've dreamed of it every night. (Although in my dreams I'm back in Hawaii) My only experience is from the brewery nearly a year ago, and it was amazing.

I'm going to have to try to brew it myself, although I doubt I could duplicate the hype I've built up. Sounds like from reading through this thread coconut in the boil is the way to go..maybe a little extra in the secondary? I remember it being really nutty.
 
brewing this (well, I adapted the recipe to my own. Extract+grain) right...._now_

house smells like toasted coconut.
 
How are everyone's experiments turning out? Any more tasting notes? Change suggestions?


Mine's been in primary since the 19th. going to check/bottle it next weekend. I put the coconut in the boil. I scooped most of it out, but left some in the fermenter. Wasn't sure what to do there to get the best flavor. I'm going to taste it and if it needs more coconut I think i'm going to toast some more and add to secondary for another week or two. otherwise bottling and hopefully drinkable in January. I modified the adapted recipe in here to my own purposes too, so we'll see how that turns out.

I think i'm calling the beer Mad coco-nuthouse.
 
I bottled and tasted my version. I boiled the toasted coconut for about 15-20 minutes in the boil, and even left some of it in the primary (which was probably a bad idea, bottling-wise). The beer tastes really good, but the coconut flavor is barely perceptible. I only tasted a bit, and thought I detected some of it, but certainly not the powerful taste in the original. Neither of my parents or brother could detect it over the toasted/roasted/coffee flavors of the grain.
 
if i do say so myself, this is delicious. nice malty, but nutty, brown ale. I ended up using this recipe:

6lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
1lb Victory Malt
12oz Caramunich I
12oz American Chocolate

boil 30 mins 1.0 Galena pellet 13.1
boil 1 min 1.0 Willamette 3.4


Wyeast American Ale (1056)

put the pound or so of toasted coconut in the boil for about 15.

I can clearly taste the coconut, although my wife claims she can't. I think she's just used to the nutty nature of brown ales and not noticing. next time I'll perhaps toast it a little longer and maybe add a little bit-post boil or something. It's probably darker than it should be. But whatever.

on a related note, Kona's gonna start distrubting to south jersey/penn/delaware, and the Koko should be available as part of the Spring Seasonal Aloha.
 
I just had this beer over the weekend. Man was it good. After reading through this whole thread i'm wondering if adding .5 lb of toasted coconut to the mash and 1 lb to the last 15 min of the boil would bring out the coconut flavor a little more.
 
Recently had this start showing up in Virginia. I picked up a six pack and I've only had one so far. I think the coconut may be a little too much for my tastes. I'll leave a few in the fridge for my wife to have after our baby is born. She loves coconut.
 
I just had this beer over the weekend. Man was it good. After reading through this whole thread i'm wondering if adding .5 lb of toasted coconut to the mash and 1 lb to the last 15 min of the boil would bring out the coconut flavor a little more.

In talking to two different breweries about their coconut (Hale's and Kona through a friend), both say they use the toasted coconut flakes in secondary. They determine how coconut-ty it gets by how long they leave it on the coconut.

In my experiment, we added coconut in three different ways at three different times (read up the thread). We found that by mixing the three beers, we got the best beer overall.

By best, I mean, we had eight tasters; five of them brewers and one (me) a BJCP judge. There was no consensus on which was best unblended, but after blending, we all were in violent agreement that mixed was the best. Soooo... yeah, I'd try it in at least two--if not all three--points in the process to see if a single beer could be achieved.
 
In talking to two different breweries about their coconut (Hale's and Kona through a friend), both say they use the toasted coconut flakes in secondary. They determine how coconut-ty it gets by how long they leave it on the coconut.

In my experiment, we added coconut in three different ways at three different times (read up the thread). We found that by mixing the three beers, we got the best beer overall.

By best, I mean, we had eight tasters; five of them brewers and one (me) a BJCP judge. There was no consensus on which was best unblended, but after blending, we all were in violent agreement that mixed was the best. Soooo... yeah, I'd try it in at least two--if not all three--points in the process to see if a single beer could be achieved.


I'm gonna try and do as I mentioned, 1/2 lb in the mash and 1 lb in the last 20-15 min of the boil. I have a porter lined up next but I will do this one after I keg my hef.
 
What a great thread. We've been working on our own Coco Brown for a couple batches now and I think we've done a great job getting that liquid mounds bar beer. The story about the beer is here: Dave’s Coco Brown | Powell Avenue Brew.

A few suggestions after reading the thread. Maybe sub that chocolate for a debittered chocolate and black. This takes away some of the tannic harshness and allows for the coconut to shine through more. Also we've been using Whole Foods shredded coconut (unsweetened) straight into primary. The oil does get EVERYWHERE, but it is oh so worth it.

We've kicked a couple kegs of this now and it's definitely become a house favorite.

*Update - We added a pdf and beerxml of our Dave's Coco Brown to the website if anyone wants to check it out.
Do you have this in a beersmith file or a way to convert the beer xlm file to beersmith
 
No, unfortunately I don't have a beersmith file. Not sure if there is a good way to transfer the xml into beersmith. I did just brew up a new batch of this yesterday though.
 
No, unfortunately I don't have a beersmith file. Not sure if there is a good way to transfer the xml into beersmith. I did just brew up a new batch of this yesterday though.

I host a LUAU every year with all the bells and whistles...was wanting a good homebrew for the one next summer and I believe this will be it!
 
I picked up a 6er of this yesterday and had one last night. Way too much coconut for my tastes. Tasted like a candy bar. A member of my homebrew club made a coconut porter that was out of sight though!
 
I just tried a sample of mine last night after about 3 weeks in the primary. Its a damn good beer. Here is the recipe I used. I dont have my OG or FG but here it is

8.5 lb 2 Row
1.5 lb Victory
1 lb Munich
12 oz american chocolate
8 oz Carapils

.25 oz Warrior 60 min
.25 oz Millenium 45 min
.5 oz Cascade 10 min
.5 oz Willamette 5 min

I toasted a total of 1.5 lbs of coconut and used .5 lb in the mash and 1 lb. in the last 15 of the boil.

Wyeast 1056 American ale or Whitelabs WLP001 CA ale yeast

The nose is spot on and I can def taste the coconut. When I brew it again i'm going to toast the coconut a little longer so I can hopefully pick up that smokey/toasty flavor in the original. I toasted the coconut till it was a khaki light brown color but I'm gonna do it next time till its dark brown. Great brew and can't wait to get it kegged.
 
Thanks for the help with the recipe. I'm taking a stab at my first AG brew next weekend using the recipe and advice from this thread (and others)...wish me luck!
 
did you strain out the coconut before primary/secondary or did you leave it in throughout fermentation? this looks awesome, i've been wanting to brew this for a while, can't wait to give it a try. thanks
 
did you strain out the coconut before primary/secondary or did you leave it in throughout fermentation? this looks awesome, i've been wanting to brew this for a while, can't wait to give it a try. thanks

I'm not sure if your asking me, but when I added it to the boil I put it in my hop bag. So yes it was strained before going into the primary.
 
Planning (and very excited) to use rwfishbu's recipe for this Koko Brown but need to convert to Extract. Thinking of using 7 lbs. Pale LME - any thoughts? Thx in advance
 
Planning (and very excited) to use rwfishbu's recipe for this Koko Brown but need to convert to Extract. Thinking of using 7 lbs. Pale LME - any thoughts? Thx in advance


I used 6lbs of light DME. I'm sure 7 would be fine. (Was going for a lighter ABV) (http://hopville.com/recipe/956532/american-brown-ale-recipes/mad-coco-nutz)

I really enjoyed my recipe but I used too much of the chocolate malt and maybe too much of the others as well. Came out a little more 'stout'y than I was aiming for, and masked the coconut a little. When I make it again I'm going to drop the Chocolate to 8oz and go up to 20oz of coconut and probably toast it a little more than I did.
 
I'm not sure if your asking me, but when I added it to the boil I put it in my hop bag. So yes it was strained before going into the primary.


I should've done that. I used a strainer and grabbed most of it out of the top of the kettle. Probably 2-3 oz went into the primary for a month.
 
Finally tasted this after a week in the bottle(this guy isn't patient) and compared it next to a koko brown my MIL brought me from Florida. Not too far off, other than clarity of course. I went with 1/2 pound of coconut in the mash and a pound at 15 mins left in the boil and it has just the right amount of coconut for the wife and I. Now we've got our celebratory beer for our first born that should finish "belly conditioning" in a couple weeks! Thanks for the recipe!

image-1359191222.jpg
 
Just want to say thanks for everyone's replies to the clone issue. Just got back from Maui--loved it and love the beer. I was trying to google the recipe when this site came up--shoulda looked at it first. At any rate I'm stoked to try some of these recipes.
:ban:
 
Hmmm. 2 weeks in the bottle, still minimally carbed. Tasted one last night. Smells wonderful, tastes great initially but then has this lingering bitterness that just stays with you, very strange. We were careful on sanitation as always and I cant think of any one thing that would have caused an issue in that arena, but I guess you never know. Any thoughts on this bitter aftertaste (BTW I'm a total hophead and this is not THAT kinda bitter...almost a medicinal bitterness)

Before we bottled this beer (2 weeks ago) tasted amazing, I drank a warm pint and loved it :) Pretty bummed and hoping it mellows out in the bottle as it carbs up the rest of the way.
 
Hmmm. 2 weeks in the bottle, still minimally carbed. Tasted one last night. Smells wonderful, tastes great initially but then has this lingering bitterness that just stays with you, very strange. We were careful on sanitation as always and I cant think of any one thing that would have caused an issue in that arena, but I guess you never know. Any thoughts on this bitter aftertaste (BTW I'm a total hophead and this is not THAT kinda bitter...almost a medicinal bitterness)

Before we bottled this beer (2 weeks ago) tasted amazing, I drank a warm pint and loved it :) Pretty bummed and hoping it mellows out in the bottle as it carbs up the rest of the way.

My experience with bottling is let it go for at least 8 weeks. I have tried rushing my brews and the results were varied but overall I find carbonation and flavors don't stablize untill then, especially when doing fruit beers or in this case the coconut.

I have been following this forum for some time and I am going to brew it soon. I will most likely take a little from each of you who have tried it and a few ideas of my own. I will post my plan of action and my progress when I get the chance to start.
 
So, I made this ( the recipe on the first page) for the first time on sat. The only changes I made were I only used warrior for the 60 and 45 min bittering and cascade for the 10 and 5 min. I also used 1lb of toasted coconut at 15 min (I plan on dry hopping with more coconut when I rack into secondary if there is not enough flavor) my adjusted og was 1.058. This is my first brew ever so I'm really hoping this turns out good. I'll keep u posted how its going.
 
Correction from my previous post, I used the recipe from the top of page 3 posted by Rossi43. I racked it into secondary last weekend and will be bottling this weekend priming to 2.5 volumes of co2. My corrected OG was 1.058 and I'll take a FG when I bottle.
 
Well, bottled today. It looked good with a nice dark amber color. A little higher on the FG than I would have liked (1.018). But good flavor, a nice dark roasted coffee flavor with a hint of sweetness. Can't wait to taste what it's like when it's carbed up.
 
sounds good to me! The version I made (a while back now) had that creamy coconut undertone, but I think i overdid it with the roasty/coffee type malts so it got obscured a bit. keep meaning to make it again though.
 
Can't wait to brew this!!! Had some of this over the past few weeks and loved it!! Was thinking man, I need to find a recipe for this and WHAM! here it is!!! Thanks!!
 
Awesome thread! I LOVE koko brown, but hate its a spring-winter seasonal beer :'( this is ganna be my first brew, but ill have some help from my brother who's done this a bunch... I like to coconut flavor a lot and less bitterness, so I might adjust the recipe a tiny bit, or maybe just add coconut and subtract hops later on when I know what I'm actually doing... But REALLY excited to do this... Hopefully its ready to drink by my birthday in September! :)
 
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