Infection Or Coconut Fat?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Dazza88

Well-Known Member
Joined
25/7/09
Messages
743
Reaction score
6
Hi,

Bottling a dark ale with shredded coconut addition (250gram). Scooped most fat off at the cooling of the boil.

I noticed a whitish rim of colour at the top of the fermenter (liquid level) today so i decided to have a quick look at the top of brew. It has been at a secondary fermenter for 3 weeks.

There is a white film over the top and it looks like fat to me but i thought i might check it with some more experienced eyes.

Have a look at the picture attached. What do you think?

P1090952.JPG


coconut.jpg
 
It got racked onto cherries in secondary.

Tastes good but different. The cherry seems to have 'thinned out' the malt a bit making it different from previous beers.

But yeah, doesn't taste off.
 
I've never done any sort of cocconut brew so by looking at it I wouldn't have a clue. But if it tastes ok I'd say bottle/keg it see how you go. Chances are it's fine.

Edit: It does look fatty though so that's prolly it. I wonder how that'd affect head retention?
 
Considering you have put actual coconut into it i'd say its fat, if you scoop it all off and wait a few days and doesnt come back, it was fat. if it comes back.. its infection city!

Im soo tempted to buy a doz cans of young cocnut juice and sub that for my sparge water :icon_drool2:
 
remember that the coconut milk is anywhere from 18% to 40% fat

when I make coconut milk or cream I use schreded coconut and hot water , so it will have some fat content

so you could expect about 100 ml ? of fat being left as it will not be consumed by the yeast
 
I've never done any sort of cocconut brew so by looking at it I wouldn't have a clue. But if it tastes ok I'd say bottle/keg it see how you go. Chances are it's fine.

Edit: It does look fatty though so that's prolly it. I wonder how that'd affect head retention?

At ale fermenting temps, coconut fat will be solid, so most of it should be left behind in the fermenter (add to that the fact that it floats), so there shouldnt be any head retention problems.

If some fat does get through into bottles, almost all of it should solidify onto the sides of the bottle prior to serving.
 
Looks like fat to me and the coconut would be the candidate for that. As others have said - if it tastes fine and doesn't reappear after being scooped out then it's probably not infection.

Have you tried tasting the skin? It will probably taste like cofa.
 
Yeah I must agree with the other posts, it looks like coconut oil. I use coconut oil at work in various foods and it looks very much like that.

If it it tastes OK then it may well be good

Hope it all goes well in the recipe

Cheers Coops :icon_cheers:
 
Yeah Cherry Ripe Ale. Tasting good but not like a cherry ripe.

Feeling confident it is fat, have bottled and stored away.

Thanks for feedback.
 
Remember wanting to make a Coconut Porter, a commercial brewery in Hawaii makes one, so did some research and found they use natural coconut extract, ordered some via the internet but still haven't gotten around to making it yet. Think other forms would be too fatty. Maybe you could skim it off before infection takes hold.

Screwy
 
Slightly leaning in the direction of off topic but,
Has anybody ever used any of the spirit essences available for adding new flavours to a brewed beer?

I once tried to make a choc orange porter using cointrau (triple sec) essence but I stuffed up the amount that I added and it was too strong in flavour. :icon_vomit:
Never could be bothered giving it another go, altho I recon with a bit of experimentation you may end up with an interesting variation.
There are a lot of flavours available to the adventurous.

Cheers
 
Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing' details how to do this (though I haven't tried it)

Pour a 250ml of your beer (or a quantity you can later scale up),

Next use a syringe to add tiny (but accurately measured) quantities of your additive / flavouring

Drink, and assess. (he recommends eating something or drinking water in between as you can get quickly used to the flavour and end up putting in too much if you aren't careful)

Add more if required.

Once it tastes right, scale up your cup size to the remaining brew, and simply multiply the volume of your additive to match the whole brew.

Rack for bulk priming (or just keg), and add additive with you sugar.

Good luck

Marlow
 
Remember wanting to make a Coconut Porter, a commercial brewery in Hawaii makes one, so did some research and found they use natural coconut extract, ordered some via the internet but still haven't gotten around to making it yet. Think other forms would be too fatty.

What do you think of my young cocnut juice idea screwy? maybe 10-12L of the stuff as 'sparge water'?!?
 
Sounds pretty good, Dazdog. How much cherry did you use?
 
Randy Mosher's 'Radical Brewing' details how to do this (though I haven't tried it)

Pour a 250ml of your beer (or a quantity you can later scale up),

Next use a syringe to add tiny (but accurately measured) quantities of your additive / flavouring

Drink, and assess. (he recommends eating something or drinking water in between as you can get quickly used to the flavour and end up putting in too much if you aren't careful)

Add more if required.

Once it tastes right, scale up your cup size to the remaining brew, and simply multiply the volume of your additive to match the whole brew.

Rack for bulk priming (or just keg), and add additive with you sugar.

Good luck

Marlow

Thanks for that info, it sounds like a more accurate way of adding the flavour.
It is probably worth another try for my "jaffa orange porter" :icon_chickcheers:

Cheers
 
Back
Top