[kgs]

On a whim, I bought a pound of this at a local health-food store (Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco). It's sugar made from the sap of the coconut palm tree. Anyone use this in a beer? I was thinking of using it in a sweet stout or a porter.

[nateo]

I've used it in an English IPA. It has sort of a buttery slickness to it, but not a lot of flavor, though it might be more apparent in something like a tripel. In terms of mouthfeel, though, it was a nice addition, being dry but not "thin."

I'd say using it in a stout/porter would be a waste, what with all the other competing flavors.

[tschmidlin]

I use palm sugar in my beers pretty regularly, but I don't know that it's coconut palm.  Either way, I like it.  I haven't done a side by side test with table sugar to know exactly what the differences are though.

[kgs]

I use palm sugar in my beers pretty regularly, but I don't know that it's coconut palm.  Either way, I like it.  I haven't done a side by side test with table sugar to know exactly what the differences are though.

There are various palm sugars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_sugar) but this one professes to be coconut palm, according to the jar I scooped it from, and it smells coconutty.  I once put jaggery (another palm sugar) in beer -- it was tasty.

[punatic]

Being from the land of swaying palms it would seem that I should chime in here.  However, due to the ubiquitous nature of sugar cane in Hawaii, I don't think anyone ever started making palm sugar here.  Before moving here I lived in Florida.  Until this thread, I'd never even heard of palm sugar (but there's lots of stuff I'm always late to the party for).

Sounds tasty.  I'll nose around and see if I can scare up some local kine palm sugar.

[tschmidlin]

it smells coconutty.

That sounds really cool, the stuff I sue doesn't.  Let us know how it turns out, I'm really interested.

[pfooti]

Most palm sugar (I believe) comes from date palms rather than coconut palms. That'd explain the aroma difference. The first time I bought palm sugar (learning to cook Thai food), I thought, "hmm, I wonder if I could brew this"?

You know you're a homebrewer when that's your thought upon finding a new kind of sugar.