Raisins for carbonation?

I'm planning to brew a Baltic Porter around Christmas. I'd like to add a bit of raisin flavor. What amount do you think would work in a 5 gallon keg? My first 3 batches I force carbonated, but I can't imagine it would hurt anything to carbonate it this way and then hook it to co2 to serve. What do you think?

Steve

jwsquared said:

Raisins host yeast on their surface.

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Made a brandy along time ago that used no yeast, just raisins.

This is perhaps the ultimate alternative carbonation technique. Will try it out ASAP - seems more reliable then bottling sugar.

Tantalus said:

This is perhaps the ultimate alternative carbonation technique. Will try it out ASAP - seems more reliable then bottling sugar.

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Well I don't know if I would say more reliable. So far it seems to be pretty damn consistent. I did mention the carbonation has leveled off but I plan to keep a few bottles and age for a while to make sure no bugs take hold.

yso191 said:

I'm planning to brew a Baltic Porter around Christmas. I'd like to add a bit of raisin flavor. What amount do you think would work in a 5 gallon keg? My first 3 batches I force carbonated, but I can't imagine it would hurt anything to carbonate it this way and then hook it to co2 to serve. What do you think?

Steve

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Well, you have one advantage in that if you do too many raisins you can purge the gas and shake the carbonation out of the beer. If only it worked that easily with bottles.

If you scale the raisins up from 3 per bottle (assuming 48 bottles per 5 gallons) you could try 144 raisins.

A better way to do it would go off of weight, but like I said earlier I would suspect our weights to be inconsistent.

When I have the notes handy from the bottling day I could punch some numbers and figure out a good figure to go off of (or at least my thought process as to what you could do).

jwsquared said:

Raisins host yeast on their surface.

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I am curious about this. I do not really know how yeast works outside of bread and beer. My question is -- if there were still yeast on the skins of the raisins wouldn't it ferment the raisins in the package and make it swell? Wouldn't the same thing happen to apples or grapes if they were not treated? Or do the skins provide protection from the yeast so they do not ferment?

DacotahBrewing said:

I am curious about this. I do not really know how yeast works outside of bread and beer. My question is -- if there were still yeast on the skins of the raisins wouldn't it ferment the raisins in the package and make it swell? Wouldn't the same thing happen to apples or grapes if they were not treated? Or do the skins provide protection from the yeast so they do not ferment?

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Fermentation also needs water. If you dumped the raisins in water any yeast on the surface would begin the process.

What if a raisin got stuck in your keg pick up tube?! Plugged! Either way, I am so trying this. Maybe I will drop the raisins in some SS for a minute. I have a pale ale ready to keg this weekend. I will fill a few 20 oz bottles.. Maybe 4 raisins?

Friedclutch said:

What if a raisin got stuck in your keg pick up tube?! Plugged! Either way, I am so trying this. Maybe I will drop the raisins in some SS for a minute. I have a pale ale ready to keg this weekend. I will fill a few 20 oz bottles.. Maybe 4 raisins?

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I'd really have to question if a raisin could ever get up there. The pickup tube in a keg is designed to get practically every drop of liquid out. I don't think even a regular raisin would get up there, much less one that's been soaking in beer the whole time (since it would rehydrate and expand a little bit).

As for wild yeasts on the surface, although I typically poo-poo dunking foodstuffs in Star-San, I have to imagine a 30 second soak in Star San would be alright to kill anything off of the skin given that I think it would take quite a bit of time for the fluid to get under the raisin's skin.

A few more days to go, we'll see what it gives!

dude1 said:

A few more days to go, we'll see what it gives!

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awesome! What beer are you carbing with the raisins?

Also, has anyone eaten the raisins after carbing with them? I think it would be pretty funny to see the look on someone's face who pours the beer without being warned there were raisins in the bottle.

I'm following the "Prohibition Ale" recipe from the "Beer Making Book" by the Brooklyn Brew Shop.

So my all-grain recipe for 10L gives:

Malt
1.45kg Maris Otter
360g Vienna
90g Special B (or Special W)

Single infusion at 67°C for 60' + 10' mash-out at 77°C

Hops
28g Bramling Cross (or UK Kent Golding) in 2 halves: 60' and 30'
10g Whitbread Golding (or UK Kent Golding) in 3 thirds: 15', 5' and 0'

Yeast
Safale S-04

For priming, put exactly 4 dried raisins per 12oz bottle and let carbonate for at least 3-4 weeks as raisins carbonation is slower

It definitely takes a while to condition.
After 3 weeks, it still has a strong egg flavor.
Another week or two should do the job, but the taste is promising.
To be continued.

dude1 said:

After 3 weeks, it still has a strong egg flavor.

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Not surprising considering sulfur dioxide is used as a preservative/anti oxidyzing compound in the commercial drying of fruits.

Sulfur dioxide might not sound good enough to eat, but this food preservative does make its way into a number of edibles, including dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots and prunes.

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Not sure if it will condition out the same way sulfur compounds from yeast does. I'm not sure if it's sprayed on the grapes, the grapes are soaked in a solution, or it's burned in the fields and the smoke coats the fruit. You may be able to leach it out of the raisins by soaking them first and doing water changes before using them in bottling.

I bet most health food stores would carry non Sulfur Dioxide dried fruits.