Tropical Milk Stout Recipe

We’re getting a little tropical on this next recipe. My Tropical Milk Stout perfectly melds together coconut, chocolate, and banana. This milk stout provides lots of flavor without being cloyingly sweet. I love a good pastry stout but cannot drink more than one pint let alone a full five-gallon batch.

The flavor in the Tropical Milk Stout comes from a mix of a flavored mash and a tincture. This was my first attempt to flavor my mash and boy was I impressed with the results. Banana flour and coconut were added directly to the mash. I thought I had used plenty of rice hulls but I still had issues with a slow draining mash. That said I’ll be flavor mashing all my future flavored beers in the future.

Tinctures are a method of extracting flavors from spices and other ingredients via spirits. The tincture in the Tropical Milk Stout included toasted cocoa nibs, coconut, and a vanilla bean. Toasting and grinding your spices before using really makes them pop. A one week soak in vodka extracted a boatload of flavor for me. The liquid from the tincture was strained into the keg before racking the beer. You could also add the whole tincture jar to your fermenter for a few days before racking. The flavor was great but I do wish I had added either a banana or banana flour to the tincture for more banana flavor.

Tasting Notes: 

The liquid is black with a fingertip of cream-colored foam. The aroma is coconut and chocolate with a hint of banana. Taste is sweet coconut and chocolate with banana on the finish. This beer really melds all the flavors together without being overly sweet.

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Tropical Milk Stout

A milk stout packing a punch of banana, chocolate, and coconut. This beer packed with layers of flavor thanks to a flavor mash and a tincture.

Mash1 hr

Boil1 hr

Fermentation20 d

Type: Beer

Style: Milk Stout

Keyword: Banana, Chocolate, Coconut, Sweet Stout

• Batch Size: 5.5 gallon
• BH Efficiency: 75%
• SG: 1.062 Actual: 1.071
• FG: 1.024 Actual: 1.027
• Calculated ABV: 5.8%
• IBU’S: 25.5
• Color: 28.4 SRM

Ingredients

Fermentables

• 9.5 Pounds Simpsons Golden Promise Malt
• 1 Pound Pale Chocolate Malt
• 1 Pound Briess Blonde Roast Oat
• .5 Pounds Muntons 60L Crystal
• .5 Pounds Briess White Wheat
• .3 Pounds Dingemans Special B
• .1 Pounds Weyerman Carafa II
• .1 Pounds Briess 40L Crystal
• .05 Pounds Briess Midnight Wheat
• 1 Pound Lactose
• 15 oz Unsweetened Coconut Flakes (Mashed)
• 1 Pound Banana Flour (Mashed)

Hops

• 1 oz Manadarina Bavaria 9.5%

Yeast

• 2 Packs Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale

• 2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• .5 Tablet Whirlfloc

Tincture

• 4 oz Cacao Nibs (Toasted)
• 2 oz Unsweetened Coconut Flakes (Toasted)
• 2 Beans Vanilla (Sliced)
• 3 oz Vodka

Instructions

Mash

• 60 Minutes

Boil

• 60 Minutes

Hop Schedule

• 1 oz Mandarina Bavaria at 60 Minutes

Fermentation

• 20 Days

Carbonation

• 2.3 Volumes of CO2

Have you tried flavoring your mash before? What did you try and how did it turn out? Check out my quick guide to making a tincture for your next flavored brew.