Brewing with Coconut Water

That sounds like a bad idea. Just use toasted coconut in the 2ndary.

 

Boil a cup of coconut water for an hour, cool it, and taste. If it tastes fine, then use it for a portion of your sparge water.

If it tastes horrible, try boiling it for 10 minutes only and see if the result is any better. If the taste is still bad, consider pasteurizing the coconut water then topping off your chilled wort with it. You will have to anticipate the drop in gravity obviously.

Or just take the advice from GetMeAnIPA. Seems safer and easier to control to me.

 

I wonder what percentage of coconut water (to regular brewing water) you would need for the flavor to carry through. Possibly more than is practical? I really have no experience with brewing with cocounut or the beer in question, just musing out loud.

 

once i used coconut water, split out 9 coconuts, drained the water which was a little more than a pint, ran it through cheese cloth, dumped it into the boil. Didn't taste squat!!!! Toasted coconut now whenever a beer requires coconut

 

I did some reading on this a while back. It's not worth the effort, in my opinion. Get some Coconut, toast it, layer in paper towels to remove some oils, the add it in the keg or secondary. I use kegs and purge the crap out of them. I get amazing Coconut flavor that people freak over.

 

"Prop 14" wasn't brewed with coconut water. Coconut water is too dilute to use in beer. They used shredded coconut and barrel aging. There is a recipe for the base beer in the recipe section.

 

How much coconut do you use per 5 gals and for how long?

 

@Brew_Betty I use 1 coconut , toasted, in the secondary for 1 to 4 weeks depending on the brew.

 

That sounds like a lot of work. I go for the pre-shredded stuff.

 

I listened to a podcast on Basic Brewing and the host used watermelon juice entirely for his mash water and if I remember correctly, he used some in the sparge and brewing as well. After fermenting, he said there was very little watermelon flavor. I would imagine coconut water would yield similar results and wouldn't bring much to the game. Fresh coconut is probably your best bet.

 

I'm curious now if anyone has (commercially or privately) brewed a beer using only coconut water (rather than regular H2O)...

 

Anecdotal sources describe coconut water is used in India for the senicide of elderly people, a procedure known as thalaikoothal. In this custom, the elderly person is made to drink an excessive amount of coconut water, eventually resulting in fever and death.

 

I did about 3oz/gal of pre shredded coconut toasted at 325 for 6 or 7 minutes, just until starting to brown, in my 12% stout with bourbon & oak in it as well and I'm really happy with how it tastes. Next time I would definitely use a hop bag though. I think the idea of using a paper towel to remove some oil is a great idea too as the coconut destroyed my head retention.

 

@Brew_Betty it is not that much work, besides, fresh coconut tastes better to me than store bought.

 

i don't know why ppl are always worried about coconut... for that matter any "fat" in homebrewing... I mean that stuff may affect the shelf-life a bit, maybe appearance if some proteins bond in your bottle or keg... ...I have quite a bit of experience with coconut... have a "Hammock-Bomb Coconut POrter"that's medaled twice. it uses a lot of raw coconut, in the mash and a little coconut water. You have to use quite a bit of coco meat to get the flavor... you can toast coconut with oats that will bind to the fat and yet it will retain some all the flavor... waste of oats tho imo. I don't toast coconut, I don't use much coconut water, but I use the rawmeat liberally in the mash. Don't fear the fat Now let me go throw 2 lbs of peanut butter in the kettle. U can also not crash the brew, not 'upset the brew' and most of those fats will be sitting right on the top of the brew like an oil slick and you can rack-it rt till it gets to that top and stop and it won't even go in your beer.

 

@witster18 how much raw coconut and why raw?

 

Why do you think I was worried about fat? I didn't mention fat. Coconut water is fat free, I believe, or pretty much so. My concern is flavor. I have tried to use it in coconut curries instead of coconut milk and it contributed no discernible flavor. I was worried that if coconut water does not make up a large portion of the water in a 5 gallon batch, the malt, hop, and yeast wouldn't allow it to come through. You say you used a lot of raw coconut and a little coconut water, but not no raw coconut and a little coconut water. In short, I don't think your comment is relevant to my post. Did you intend to reply to someone else?