Four Sons brewing in Huntington Beach CA brews an Imperial Amber Ale with Coconut called King Coco. The beer is very “creamy” with very little hoppy character. I know from experience that they don’t use extracts so will plan to use toasted coconut for the coconut. Any ideas about a good all grain recipe for something like this?
There’s a few things I would plan on including if I was trying to create a beer like you’ve described. I would just run a search to find an Amber ale recipe that looked good to me. Then I would add some flaked oats and lactose to the recipe. The flaked oats for the smooth silky texture they can bring to a beer. And the lactose to add some sweetness and creaminess. I like your idea for using toasted coconut. I might also think about tossing in a vanilla bean or two with the coconut to add to that creamy taste. Good luck putting your recipe together!
I advise against using store bought baking coconut. I recently did a cream ale with coconut, I toasted a 7 oz. package of shredded coconut to a medium brown and added it to the FV after fermentation was essentially complete. The beer turned out to be pretty tasty but there is a hint of a chemical aftertaste that I can’t quite put my finger on, I’m almost certain though that it came from the coconut. In the future I think I’ll either use fresh or at least something that doesn’t have added sugar or preservatives. TIFWIW