Coconut stout

[Dirty Harry]

Hey guys,

Does anybody have experience with adding coconut milk to a stout? I'm envisioning some type of "almond joy-esque" beer, possibly also with an almond extract and chocolate malt.

Has it been done? Am I completely nuts? How bad could it be?

Thanks for the opinions

[mookow]

Originally posted by Dirty Harry
Hey guys,

Does anybody have experience with adding coconut milk to a stout? I'm envisioning some type of "almond joy-esque" beer, possibly also with an almond extract and chocolate malt.

Has it been done? Am I completely nuts? How bad could it be?

Thanks for the opinions

I dont have any experience with that, but I can tell you that for some time now I have been considering brewing a pineapple stout.

[threecb]

A search for "coconut" on BA comes back with 4 Coconut Porters, so it sounds like it's totally possible. Sounds interesting. I'd like a Mounds beer myself.

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.

coconut porters on BA (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/index/?searcht=beers&search=coconut)

[Dirty Harry]

Cool! Thanks for the input. I think I'll devise a recipe here pretty soon. I'll create SOMETHING, I'm sure it will at least be drinkable.

Dustin

[markaberrant]

None of this sounds appealing whatsoever, but you can't knock a creative mind. Good luck!

[danno]

the decent coconut stouts/porters that I've tasted all used unsweetened coconut, then toasted it. you need a lot of coconut flavor to find it's way through the roasted malt, and this seems to be the only successful method I've seen applied... I'd be worried about the other ingredients in coconut milk and the effects on my beer...

[Dirty Harry]

The toasted coconut is a good point. I've done a little more research and they all had toasted coconut.

As for this idea being completely unappealing, well I've seen worse (turkey flavored soda). Of course the Turkey soda was a hideous concoction that shouldn't be consumed by anyone. I do appreciate the encouragement though.

Thanks
Dustin

[Bruno_78]

Sorry for my delay in posting here. I haven't been around in a while!

Coconut stout is actually one of the beers that I've made most! Got a keg in the fridge as we type!

What I've done in the past is use ONLY a fresh coconut. In fact, I use 2 of them for a 5 gallon batch. It's just barley enough coconut to come through though, so start with that, and maybe add more in a later batch. I think I'm going to bump up to 2.5 or maybe 3.

Anyway, crack the coconut, take the meat off of the shell in as big of pieces as possible. I use a hand shredder, like for making hash browns, and shred it all up. Spread it out on a cookie sheet as thin as possible, and bake it in the oven on a low temp until it's toasted. Then add this to a secondary conditioning vessel. I usually let mine sit 2-3 weeks like this. The coconut floats at first, then sinks later. When you rack, you can use a cheese cloth to filter out the flakes, but I usually just rack into the keg and be very careful. I have had some of the flakes get stuck in the post on my keg though.

Hope that helps. If you like coconut, it IS very appetizing, and very doable.

[chazwicke]

I opened a Legend Chocolate Porter this evening. I if they could figure a way to add a bit of coconut to that one it would be excellent. I actually quite enjoyed the Porter and it goes a long way to restoring the Legend Porter reputation of old.

[Dirty Harry]

excellent! Thanks for the ideas. Perhaps I'll give this thing a try sometime soon!

[mookow]

Originally posted by Bruno_78
What I've done in the past is use ONLY a fresh coconut. In fact, I use 2 of them for a 5 gallon batch. It's just barley enough coconut to come through though, so start with that, and maybe add more in a later batch. I think I'm going to bump up to 2.5 or maybe 3.

Got a question in reference to the statement "just barely enough coconut to come through": how "stout" is the stout you are using for this recipe? Would you mind posting the vital stats (by that I mean OG, FG, IBUs, and amounts of dark malts) for the stout in question?

[brewmonkey]

One thing to remember when using something like coconut contains oils that can cause head retention issues when used in beers.

[Bruno_78]

I will definitely look for the coconut stout specifics. It's on an old computer that I never turn on anymore.

Brewmonkey, interestingly enough, I've never had any head reatention problems with mine. don't know why.