Hawaiian Breakfast Stout (Oatmeal Stout #3)

My last two oatmeal stouts have been so successful that I've been wanting to brew another one since before the last one even kicked. Batch 2 was still going strong around the time I took a trip to Hawaii and, while my most consumed beer there was actually a hoppy blond, I felt that many of the flavors of breakfast in the islands, including luscious coconut and complex coffee, would go great in my breakfast stout, and Hawaiian Breakfast Stout was born. The recipe is largely a reconstruction of my first attempt at oatmeal stout, with the oak and coffee additions of the second attempt, plus coconut additions that were influenced by The Madfermentationist coconut-vanilla milk stout.

Racking half onto the coffee and coconut.

7/15/16

Brew day. Couldn't get below 80F with immersion chiller, let finish cooling overnight prior to pitching starter of Wyeast West Yorkshire in the morning. Fermentation extremely active within 12 hours.

7/24/16

Fermentation has dramatically slowed but large krausen remains. Added 1 oz medium toast oak cubes.

The Hula Daddy coffee before bagging

8/6/16

The beer is tasting very good. Racked about half to the keg and racked the other half on top of 7 oz of coconut and .75 oz Hula Daddy Red Bourbon Kona coffee. The coconut was bagged coconut slices that had a bit of a rum smell to them but tasted fairly good. They were toasted in a stainless steel pan on medium-low for a little over 10 minutes.

8/9/16

Racked coconut/coffee version to keg. I'm recovering from strep throat so I had a very small tasting and the results from it might not be accurate. Smell had some definite coconut while flavor seemed more the base stout with light coffee.

8/20/16

Finally getting to taste these without a sore throat. Base beer is surprisingly dry and a touch acidic. Hawaiian version is dominated by the coffee with the coconut not really making an appearance. Hopefully a more thorough review to come but next time I would up the amount of coconut, switch to shredded over sliced, and possibly skip the toasting.

Toasting the coconut. Toasting ended up pretty uneven with some pieces getting brown and crispy with a slight bacon-like toasty character while others stayed fairly white and tasted like very mild coconut.