Coconut & Coffee White Stout
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So... What is it?
The white stout is an extra weird beer in the world of craft brews! Taking what is essentially a blonde ale and cramming it full of coffee beans (and any other adjuncts) to give it the toasty, roasty flavours of a full bodies stout, whilst having the appearance and mouthfeel of an easy drinking blonde ale! This one came out at a cruisy 5.1% and is so ridiculously easy! Carrying delicious flavours of toasted coconut, roasty espresso and a silky but light body and subdued bitterness.
POST BREW ALTERATIONS
- In hindsight we would increase our Toasted coconut in the fermenter from 500g (1.1 lb) to 1kg (2.2 lb) to really boost the cocnut infusion!
Batch Size & Stats
- 19L / 5 gal finished beer
- 25L (6.6 gal) wort
- Starting gravity – 1.055
- Final gravity 1.016
- ABV – 5.1%
- IBU - 18
- Colour - 9.5 ECB
What ingredients?
Water
With sparging
- 20L (5.2 gal) Strike water at 69°C (156.2°F)
- 15L (3.9 gal) Sparge water approx. 78°C (172°F)
Without sparging
- 30L (7.9 gal) strike water approx. 69°C (156.2°F)
Malts
Total Grain Bill 4.91kg (10.8 4lb)
- Pale ale malt - 81.1% – 3.98kg (8.77 lb) -
- wheat - 10% – 490g (1.08 lb)
- Rolled Oats - 5.9% - 290g (0.64 lb)
- Gladiator malt (dextrin malt) - 3.1% – 150g (0.33 lb)
- Rice Hulls - 250g (0.55 lb)
Adjuncts
- Lactose - start of boil250g (0.55 lb)
- Coffee Beans - 410g (0.9 lb) for a few days after primary fermentation
- Toasted Coconut Shavings (toasted at 180C / 356F for 8 mins) 1kg (2.2 lb) - half added in the last 10 mins of boil, half added after primary fermentation
In hindsight, we reccomend doubling the fermenter addition of shavings
Hops & whirlfloc tablets
Fuggles
- 28g (1 oz) / 15 IBU's - 60 min
- 35g (1.2 oz) 4 IBU's - 5 min
Whirlfloc
- 0.75g (0.025 oz) / 1 tablet – 15 minutes left in the boil
Yeast options & fermentation temperatures
- US-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- AUS-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- S-04 – ferment at 18°C (64.4°F) 22g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
Water Profile
- Ca2+62
- Mg2+ 9
- Na+ 15
- Cl- 98
- SO42- 49
- HCO3- 57
Step by step process
Step 1 – Milling
- Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches (credit card width)
- Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
- Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person
Step 2 – Mashing
Mash for 60 minutes at 69°C (156.2°F) with 20L (5.2 gal) of strike water (with sparging - 30L (7.9 gal without sparging)
- Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature (you can use the calculator in our website for this)
- ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)
- its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed
if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
Step 3 (optional) – Sparging
- if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 15L (3.9 gal) Sparge water approx. 78°C (172°F)
- if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
- as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil
Step 4 – Boiling
- once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 28g (1 oz) of Fuggles
- at 15 minutes left in the boil add 1 whirlfloc tablet (OR granulated whirlfloc 0.7g (0.025 oz)
- at 10 mins left add your coconut shavings to the boil. (toast 500g / 1.1 lbs of shavings at 180C / 356F for 8 mins)
- at 5 minutes left in the boil add 35g (1.23 oz) of Fuggles
- after 60 mins of boil turn off your heat source
Step 5 – Whirlpooling / cooling
- after 60 mins of boil turn off your heat source and begin cooling
- once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort
Step 6 – Yeast Pitching
- It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
- Wort Aeration (Optional) if you have a paint mixer give your wort a quick blitz before pitching yeast to help add more dissolved oxygen into the wort to help the yeast have a healthier kick start into fermentation
- Now add your tincture of Vanilla extract! (or you can wait till end of fermentation if you prefer)
- Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively
- To make a yeast starter you can use either:
- DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040
- some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
- 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching
- To rehydrate yeast
- Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)
Step 7 – Fermentation & Coconut addition
- Allow yeast to ferment over the next week or two (aprox)
- If you have a temperature-controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
- After 7 days of fermentation or around 1.018 gravity, we added our fermenter Coconut shavings & 410g (0.9 lb) of Arabica coffee beans and raised the temperature of fermentation by 2 degrees for a diacetyl rest for the next 2 days
- 2 days after adding the coffee and spice tincture it is time to cold crash (if you can) and bottle / keg!
- It's important to note that fermentation times will vary based on your circumstances like temperature, amount of yeast pitched, the healthiness of yeast, the gravity of the wort, pH, etc. so don’t stress be patient and know that these times are just a rough guide
- If you have temp control then when there are 2 days left of fermentation raise the temperature by 2 degrees for a diacetyl rest (once gravity reaches roughly 1.014) & gravity is the same 3 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)
Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing
- begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
- If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
- After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated, remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.
