Hi all. My wife has been after me to brew a Coconut Stout. I am planing to brew her a five gallon batch this weekend. My question is how much extract to use and when to use it. Primary? Keg? I appreciate your help!
Add it to taste when you keg the beer. Add a little, taste, adjust as necessary. Alternately, pour 4 2-4 oz. samples of the beer. Dose each with a different, measured amount of extract. Taste and decide which you like best, then scale that amount of extract up to the batch size.
I would do the keg. Start with a measured sample and add drops until you are satisified, then extrapolate that to the full batch and add to the keg.
edit: yeah…what Denny said ( sneaking in under the wire 
)
I do what denny describes. There are 48 teaspoons in a cup and 52 12oz beers in 5 gallons. So I dose 1tsp in 12oz of beer. Adjust up or down, then extrapolate (if you like 1/2 tsp in 12oz, then use 1/2 cup in 5gal). You can adjust the math to dose smaller portions too.
Thank you for the help! Take care!
Make sure you spring for the actual coconut extract and not the imitation stuff. The imitation stuff makes your beer taste like sun tan lotion.
I’ve made a coconut stout before. My solution was to lower the alcohol a bit and add Malibu Rum when I kegged. Came out perfect! I used the whole bottle but you can try blending in a glass to see how much you think it needs.
Interesting Idea! Has anyone else used this method?
I have made my coconut stout twice using the Malibu Rum method. If you do the math in a 5 gallon batch it doesn’t add that much more alcohol. I like a half of a 750 bottle for a more subtle coconut flavor and aroma; but my wife likes the whole bottle. I think she wants to know she’s drinking something with coconut. I tried extracts, but just didn’t get the amount she liked in it. It has made me realize I could use any fairly neutral flavored alcohol (i.e. vanilla vodka) to add a flavor to a beer. I haven’t experimented with any others yet but it is an option. I think you should do whatever you want to get the flavor you are looking for. We’re homebrewers…we don’t need no stinking rules.
Thank you for the information!
Why not add real coconut to the keg?