New Belgium Coconut Curry Hefe- update

As someone who has used coconut in the distant past when homebrewing and later learned the science behind its staling, they were probably right that it was abused. Coconut oil has a lot of short and medium chain fatty acids, which about 9% of are unsaturated. That portion can undergo lipid peroxidation when the beer stales, especially if there's O2 or temperature abuse.



That process is self-propagating once it starts and eventually creates a lot of nasty off-flavors (the lipid can break where it was oxidized and create a volatile aldehyde). If they toasted the coconut before using it in the beer then they probably jump-started it.

The eventual flavor depends on the length of the fatty acid. Barley fats are usually really long (like linoleic acid) and they make the paper/cardboard flavor we're all familiar with in staled/oxidized lagers. The shorter fatty acids in coconut oil however, make really nasty flavors in comparison.

Coconut in a fresh stout (not what NB made, I know) is great as long as you drink it right away!

 

This is a much more appropriate way to deal with suspicions of a bad or infected bottle than the way the other poster did it. Not only did he fail to contact the brewery and get a response prior to posting his thread, but the title of the thread implied there was ZERO doubt as to whether or not there was an infection problem.

That is just irresponsible, even if the beer he had was absolutely disgusting.

I have a bottle of this that I hadn't found the right opportunity to open, but I may try it sooner than later given the concerns about the volatile ingredients and the coconut oil change over time.

 

I tried the beer a few weeks ago. I never had any chunks in it, but it did have this plasticky aftertaste, I assume phenols. The beer itself was great, but the aftertaste was too much, so I was forced to drain-pour it.

 

That just sounds like ass