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Accidentally added coconut with preservatives 220 & 223


lamensterms

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Hey guys, 

 

Brewing an oatmeal stout with some toasted coconut in the fermenter, bit ashamed to admit I didn't do enough reading before getting into it... 

 

Stout has been in the fermenter 12 days and has reached stable FG of 1.018 (OG 1.066), so time to add the coconut... Bought some shredded coconut (250g) from the supermarket, toasted for about 5 minutes and dropped into fermenter in some large stainless hop balls.  After this... I decided to research how long I should keep the coconut in the fermenter before bottling. 

Came across some advice to avoid coconut with preservatives.. Oops. Checked the packet and sure enough, preservative 220 (Sulphur Dioxide) and 223 (Sodium metabisulphite).

 

Not familiar with Sulphur Dioxide, but apparently it's a common beer & wine preservative, than can have some pretty ordinary side effects (headaches, etc). 

 

I know Sodium Metabisulphite is a sanitiser (or steriliser), and has me a bit worried it might harm the yeast. 

 

I'm planning to bottle carb, so will need active yeast for when the time comes. 

 

So, a couple of questions.. Has anyone brewed using ingredients containing these preservatives? Any ill effects? And how long should I leave the coconut in before bottling? 

 

Thanks for any help, sorry for the long post. 

 

Ps, new forum works well on mobile phone 👍

Edited by lamensterms
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I did the recipe of the month toasted island coconut porter. The desiccated coconut was the same you buy in coles from the home cooking aisle.  I doubt that was pure coconut

in for a penny in for a pound. Just leave it , bottle it and enjoy it. 

Edited by PaddyBrew2
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5 hours ago, PaddyBrew2 said:

I did the recipe of the month toasted island coconut porter.

How did it turn out?  i am trying that one this weekend.  i am still a very new homebrewer - this will be my first time trying anything other than the can/box recipes.  See the thread on "sanitizing muslin bags" for a list of my questions.  As you have done this recipe, your feedback would really help!

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I doubt you'll have an issue from 250g of coconut. The percentage of that weight that would be so2 and metabisulphite would be pretty small. The so2 is probably just what's inside the bag instead of air - it is a gas.

I use potassium metabisulphite in my brewing water. In the cubes of distilled water I use it as a sanitiser. It's actually the sulphur dioxide gas it produces that does the sanitising, kills off the yeast etc. However in wine it's used in much higher doses than you'd get on dessicated coconut. You'll be fine.

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7 hours ago, EWildcat7 said:

How did it turn out?  i am trying that one this weekend.  i am still a very new homebrewer - this will be my first time trying anything other than the can/box recipes.  See the thread on "sanitizing muslin bags" for a list of my questions.  As you have done this recipe, your feedback would really help!

Turned out a fantastic beer. I commando dry hoped the coconut I.e just chucked it in on top of the wort. In hindsight I should have put in a bag as there were floaties in most beers as the cold crash didn’t take care of them all. But a minor annoyance on what is a great beer. Be careful toasting it. Give yourself a few trial runs to get it right as you don’t want to put charred coconut in there 

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On 2/1/2019 at 1:16 PM, PaddyBrew2 said:

Turned out a fantastic beer. I commando dry hoped the coconut I.e just chucked it in on top of the wort. In hindsight I should have put in a bag as there were floaties in most beers as the cold crash didn’t take care of them all. But a minor annoyance on what is a great beer. Be careful toasting it. Give yourself a few trial runs to get it right as you don’t want to put charred coconut in there 

What temperature did you use for fermentation?  The recipe calls for 18-20 - does that sound right?  I will be using both the yeast that comes with the Devil's Half Ruby Porter and the Lallemand Nottingham yeast.

Edited by EWildcat7
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I also brewed the Coconut Porter ROTM last August. The two preservatives would be in trace amounts. Generally nothing worth worrying about. It's also a very small amount in a fairly large volume so the ppm of these two preservatives would be diminished/diluted even further.

That said, tolerances & allergic reactions vary greatly from one individual to another. Testing the water with somethings is often the only way to determine your potential reaction to it. If extreme reactions occur with contact or ingestion of a particular preservative or allergen then obviously complete avoidance of it is advised.

I've been a good boy & left those Coconut Porter bottles alone all this time & am looking forward to cracking a few open in the months ahead. I might even sneak one soon just to see how they are coming along. 😉

Cheers,

Lusty.

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12 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

I've been a good boy & left those Coconut Porter bottles alone all this time & am looking forward to cracking a few open in the months ahead. I might even sneak one soon just to see how they are coming along. 😉

A mate of mine brewed this and it was soooo good, i had some a couple of weeks ago that has been aging since it was released, i would love to see what 
It's like after another 6 months.

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5 hours ago, Hoppy81 said:

A mate of mine brewed this and it was soooo good, i had some a couple of weeks ago that has been aging since it was released, i would love to see what 
It's like after another 6 months.

what kind of bottles are you using?  Is there a limit to the PET bottles in how long they can hold beer before oxygen starts leaking in?

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49 minutes ago, EWildcat7 said:

what kind of bottles are you using?  Is there a limit to the PET bottles in how long they can hold beer before oxygen starts leaking in?

They were glass mate, i only use glass too, not really a fan of PET bottles.

Cheers,
Hoppy

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2 hours ago, EWildcat7 said:

HOPPY81 and PADDYBREW2 - how long have you left the beer in the bottles?  The recipe calls for 4 weeks, but I have read that you should always go longer than what the recipe calls for.

For the Porters the longer the better mate. The last lot i drank were about 6 moths old i think.

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  • 1 month later...

I just finished making the Island Toasted Coconut Porter recipe.  I made the wort on Thursday and put in the coconut today.  I feel pretty good about it, other than I didn't give the brew a final stir after adding the water before pitching the yeast.  But I am hoping that all of the water that I added did some of the mixing for me.  As this was the first recipe that I have tried that was anything other than cans and boxes, I was nervous.  This one involved cracking grains, 2 stages of hops, rehydrating yeast and adding in a fruit.  So, I feel pretty proud of myself for stepping up to something so much more advanced from what I have done up until now!

Now the hard part - waiting.  I have read that porters can take up to 6 months to be ready to drink.....

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I just did a gravity check on the beer which has been fermenting for 7 days.  I was very surprised that it didn't smell like coconut at all.  Has anybody else who has made this beer had the same experience?  All reviews I have read is that this is a fantastic beer.  So I am wondering if the non-coconut smell is normal at this stage.

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  • 1 month later...

Last night I tried my first beer from the Island Toasted Coconut Porter batch after it had been in the bottle for 7 weeks.  While it wasn't bad, I didn't taste any hint of coconut.  In fact, I couldn't really differentiate it from the Dark Ale that I made a few months ago.  It didn't have any sort of coconut smell either.  I know that porters get better if they age for several months, but would more time bring out the coconut flavor?  If I didn't smell/taste it when i did the gravity readings before bottling and I don't smell or taste it now, is it just not going to have the coconut flavor regardless how long I let it age?

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