Question. Sanitizing coconut flakes before adding to carboy...

[saeroner]

Do I need to do this? Coconut IPA

I'm at 17 days and recipe calls for adding coconut (i got unsweet organic) for the last 1 or 2 days before bottling -- more than 2 days releases too much coconut flavor.

I was planning on adding them, then immedietly cold crashing for 2 days -- figure it's going to take at least a day to drop in temps to under 40 degrees. In 2 days i will bottle.

Do i need to worry about sanitizing the coconut? Probably

 

[TopherM]

A good way to sanitize them AND improve the flavor is to toast them. Remember that any temp over 168F kills most everything alive, with the exception being ringworm (just my fun fact for the day).

Just preheat a broil in your oven, and it only takes about 90-120 seconds on each side to nicely caramelize the coconut, leading to a richer flavor in the beer.

Another way to do it would be to just soak the coconut in a bit of vodka for a couple days, then add the coconut and infused vodka to the secondary.

You can also add coconut straight to the boil and get a nice subtle addition, then you don't have to worry about doing anything to it, the boil sanitizes it. Pop it in with 10 minutes left in the boil.

I've done all of these methods, and all work just fine! If I want to go subtle, I pop it in the boil. If I want it to be prominent, I toast it. The vodka method works about the same as boiling, so I'd rather just skip the extra work.

Since you're already way past the boil and even past the start of secondary, I think I might go ahead and do the vodka method in your situation.

Good luck!

 

[Hello]

I toasted mine for a couple minutes, threw into a sanitized hop bag, and tossed into the carboy.