Sweet Coconut Stout

Hey ya’ll

My in-laws bought me a Big Mouth Bubbler Deluxe starter kit and I have my first homebrew fermenting as we speak (Irish Red Ale). I’m already feeling pretty hooked but I have a lot of questions so please be gentle I am a newby to this. My mom-in-law recently went to a local microbrewery in FL and had Coconut Milk Stout and requested that I try to make a batch. The brewer was nice enough to give her his recipe but he’s obviously working with whole grains and I’m working with extracts. He’s already agreed to letting me work with him when I visit over Christmas. HELL YEAH!!!

My question involves about adding coconut flavor to a brew. I’ve read and watched a lot about how to add coconut to your brew (To know what I know, just search “coconut” in the forums. There’s A LOT of people doing this many different ways and with mixed results.). I have come to conclusion that I need to toast the coconut to remove excess oils from the coconut and allow for better flavoring and to put the coconut in a muslin bag to make it easier during siphoning.

My question is two-fold: 1) Can I just simply add coconut to the NB Sweet Stout Recipe?

  1. When should I add the coconut and how much? I was thinking about 1lb unsweeted, toasted for ~20-30min and dabbed off with paper towels. I’ve read that the coconut oil can kill the head of a pour.

Thoughts?

Bump

Considering the lack of comments, sounds like you’re in uncharted territory. Lots of flavor additions appear to be added in secondary. Some folks also soak the flavoring stuff in vodka or whisky, then add the liquid at packaging to taste. I’ve never added anything but hops after primary, so take my guesses as guesses.

Buy toasted coconut add 4 oz to boil 60 minutes 4 oz 10 minutes and another 4 oz in secondary for 5 to seven days. Worked great for a coconut Porter I made.

Thanks! I was wondering about adding to the boil or not. If it would ruin the fermentation process…

I’ll be sure to report back with what I come up with. Should be fun!

Thanks again!

Fermentation tends to be pretty forgiving. In general, here are my guidelines for additions.

Early boil: Bittering hops, maybe straight sugars like invert sugar, etc…

Late boil: Aroma/flavor hops, other additions that are a little volatile, but pretty stable. Honey, coconut, etc.

In fermentor: stuff with volatile oils that would dissipate in heat. Fruit, herbs, peppers, tinctures, wood, etc.

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