Had a great beer in Hawaii- koko brown. It’s basically a nut brown with roasted coconut. Anyone ever use roasted coconut and have some experience they can share on how and when to use it?
This was discussed just last month.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=16779
I love coconut, but I can’t handle Koko Brown. Tastes like Hawaiian tropic to me. Haven’t had it in 4 years, maybe it is better.
I use coconut quite often in my beers. Recently won a homebrew comp with a Hawaiian Porter that got scaled up to a 15bbl commercial system.
I basically do the following:
Toast the coconut at 375F for 15min, frequently stirring.
Add to secondary to taste. 2-3 days pale beer. 3-4 days brown beer, 3-7 days stout/porter
I usually add it to the keg so I can taste it daily, then transfer/remove when the coconut is at the level I prefer.
I have used coconut in the secondary a number of times, roasted in a stainless pan, unsweetened coconut flakes. After 1 week or till desired flavor is reached, I cold crash to 32 to solidify oil and then rack. This is an important step if you want any head retention and avoid the oil slick on top of the beer. Once won best in show with this method and got to brew on a large system which is not as easy :).
Good Luck!
This here is an important statement…focusing on transfer. Believe me, you do not want to try to remove the coconut from the keg, especially a pound of it in a grain sack. It tends to absorb liquid and get bigger.
Makes me think it would be a dang shame to waste that pile of beer-soaked coconut. I’m thinking using them for baking or feeding a few day’s smoothies.
My neighbor made one after a trip to Hawaii. That oil slick thing just wouldn’t go away. It must take careful racking to get some head retention, I guess. He was thinking of filtering it next time. The taste was great - he put it in a Porter.
I added a cup of no sugar added organic coconut chips that I roasted to keg and COCO BOMB after 24 hours so I pulled it. A little sure seems to go a long way quick.
IM sure its because of the amount of surface on the coconut chips when compared to fresh unchipped(…) Coconut. Same idea behind Oak chips VBS cubes etc. I also dislike coconut and find its falvor easy to distinguish so im not suprised its a coco bomb;)