My coconut beer nightmare

[Corey_SS]

I had a very recent learning experience (this was obviously my first fruit beer) and I feel like I should share it:

So I brewed up a milk stout on Oct 2nd, and left it in the primary for 8 days. On the 10th, I toasted 3lb of coconut flakes and added them to a sanitized carboy (which was hard enough, I had to make a ghetto "hopper" out of a tupperware bowl because my funnel was too thin). Next I siphoned my beer onto the coconut, which proceeded to float to the top. I thought "Hmm, that's weird," but I'd read about that so I didn't worry. It sat in the secondary for 2 weeks, and during that time I tipped the carboy ever so slightly a couple times when I realized CO2 was trapped underneath the coconut layer.

The real horror came at bottling. As soon as I started siphoning, a tremendous amount of bubbles came through the hose which disturbed me because I thought I had a hole in the line or something, but no. I checked the line and realized it was more CO2. I started getting really agitated at this point because it was causing the beer to splash when it entered the bottling bucket, but I figured "Oh well there's nothing I can do about it now," and kept siphoning.

Then about halfway through, the auto siphon gets stuck. I can pump it to push a little more beer out, but eventually even tipping the carboy and moving the siphon around aren't helping. The coconut is just gunking up everything despite my putting cheesecloth over the siphon tip. At this point I'm really pissed off and decide to just bottle what I got, which was almost exactly half the batch. The bucket even has some small coconut particles in it.

So I end up with 1 case of probably oxidized coconut beer. If I do this beer again, I'm definitely using weighted bags for the coconut as well as a bucket fermenter instead of a carboy.

Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[unionrdr]

These are the precise reasons I use ale pales,& my Cooper's micro brew FV's. Plenty of room to work in. And I learned the hard way after 2 batches of loose raw hops in the boil to go back to using muslin bags. Way easier to rack over with no gunk getting into everything.

 

[weirdboy]

Yeah this is why I use a bucket for all secondaries on beers where I am adding hops, fruits, spices, etc. I also always use a fine mesh bag to contain whatever I am adding so that it doesn't get all over the place. It makes racking and cleaning up MUCH easier.

 

[eastoak]

your beer will not be oxidized unless you are planning on storing it for months.

 

[Doomsday]

Yeah this is why I use a bucket for all secondaries on beers where I am adding hops, fruits, spices, etc. I also always use a fine mesh bag to contain whatever I am adding so that it doesn't get all over the place. It makes racking and cleaning up MUCH easier.

I read that buckets are not good for secondaries since they are permiable to oxygen. What kind of bucket do you use? My last batch I did the secondary in a bucket and then read about it, so I was a little worried. Any insight would be greatly appriciated.

 

[unionrdr]

The only time I used my bottling bucket for secondary was when I racked my dark ale onto bourbon soaked oak for 8 days to infuse it. I had 6G in a 7.9G pale. So that amount of time,at least,is ok.

 

[bottlebomber]

Your beer is fine. The shredded coconut floated because it has a high surface area to weight ratio, and a high oil content. Next time, sanitize a nylon mesh bag like one for hops and a rubberband or zip tie, zip tie the hop sack to the bottom of your autosyphon so you can filter out the junk as you syphon.

 

[osagedr]

Two words:

coconut extract

 

[bottlebomber]

Two words:

coconut extract

Hey! There ya go

 

[unionrdr]

I've found myself musing about flavor extracts myself lately. Might be easier,might be better tasting used in priming solution. We decided to try these crystallized lemon & lime 1tsp packets in a big juice box size carton from the baking needs isle. A couple tsp of the lemon crystal in the 2C priming solution for her SA summer ale clone she's fermenting now.

 

[weirdboy]

I read that buckets are not good for secondaries since they are permiable to oxygen. What kind of bucket do you use? My last batch I did the secondary in a bucket and then read about it, so I was a little worried. Any insight would be greatly appriciated.

Well plastic buckets are more permeable to oxygen, but you're not letting it sit there for a year so it's a moot point. If you are planning to age the beer in there for several months, then maybe think about using a carboy, barrel, or keg. If you are just adding some fruit, spices, dry hops, etc. then a plastic bucket is fine. In fact, just leaving it in primary and dropping in a mesh bag with your stuff works pretty well, although I personally prefer to rack off the trub at each stage.

 

[unionrdr]

Very true from my own experience. Even the Cooper's PET bottles were said by their brew tech to be good for some 6 months or more. But he did say for extended aging,as in big beers like barley wines & the like,to use glass. So,applying that to the ale pales,some 6 months with a tight fitting lid & a good airlock would likely be fine.
But I prefer to age in the bottles after I'm done with whatever I'm doing in secondary for more flavors/aromas. Feels better/safer to me that way.