I plan on lightly toasting the coconut between layers of parchment paper to absorb the oils so as to not destroy the head retention of the beer. I haven’t quite settled on temperature or time for the toasting. I was just wondering if anyone had experience working with coconut in beer themselves.
Update: so I toasted the coconut for about 15 minutes across 2 trays (to avoid overcrowding them) in a 325°F oven shaking the trays and moving the coconut around every few minutes to try and get as even of a toast level as I could. I removed the coconut from the oven when it was lightly golden (and smelled delicious) assuming that it would continue to toast slightly as it was cooling down. I deposited the toasted coconut onto another tray lined with paper towels and patted as much of the fat/oil as I could.
I repeated this same process with the cacao nibs (relying instead on their smell as an indicator of when they were toasted enough because I obviously couldn’t go by color).
I’m going to add both the coconut and cacao nibs to the beer today and let them sit for a week or so before kegging and carbonating the beer. Hopefully if there are any oils or fats they float to the top of the fermenter and I can leave them behind when I transfer the beer to the keg.
no experience with it to speak of, but thinking of it I’d think you could also suspend the coconut bits in the oven if they’re pure coconut and just let the fat drip (would it? is it even that much - I’m imagining like a piece of pork here) and then pat down with paper towels when removing from oven
or try some de-fatted shredded coconut and just toss that in a cast iron pan without any oil until you achieve desired level of toastiness - bonus for that, more surface area
if you keep your secondary temperatures cool, you might also just manage to keep the coconut oil solid I think?
just some random thoughts
I’ve used it once, in a porter. Toasted it lightly in a pan in the oven, didn’t notice much oil/fat come off of it. Put it in a mesh bag in secondary and it tasted really great in the end. I did notice a slight decrease in head retention, but it wasn’t awful. The taste made it worth it for me.
Good to know! I also didn’t notice much oil/fat come off when I toasted the coconut flakes.
I used to do a Capn’ Crunch beer which had toasted coconut in it (side note: I hate that beer, but I made it for my wife’s friends every year at their annual bike party). You want to spread it thin on a cookie sheet and toast at 450F, stirring every couple of minutes or so. Once most of it is brown, you’re good to go. If any of it turns black, stop immediately and discard or it’ll taint your beer with smokiness.
