raisins as fermentable?

I was fidgiting around the hopville.com site using beercalculus and came across raisins as a fermentable ingredient. This sounds like it might be interesting and I was thinking - how would you extract the fermentable sugars from raisins? Would you add them to the boil or mash them like a grain? I think the flavor might be intersting.

I have some left over hops and a packet of nottingham yeast and I was thinking of something like:

8# two row
2# raisins

.75 oz Saaz @ 60 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @25 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @10 min
.75 oz Saaz @10 min

Nottingham yeast in a carboy for a few weeks.

that sounds disgusting. bitter as hell

I work with a commercial winemaker who uses about 5 pounds of raisins in a 50 gallon batch. They've already got all the sugars they need to ferment, so there's no need to mash or boil them. Just rack onto them in secondary like you'd do with any other fruit. Oh, and make sure they're organic raisins; you don't want preservatives, as that'll inhibit fermentation.

Let us know how it turns out...I'm interested to hear how raisins would taste in a straight up pale ale.

Patirck said:

I was fidgiting around the hopville.com site using beercalculus and came across raisins as a fermentable ingredient. This sounds like it might be interesting and I was thinking - how would you extract the fermentable sugars from raisins? Would you add them to the boil or mash them like a grain? I think the flavor might be intersting.

I have some left over hops and a packet of nottingham yeast and I was thinking of something like:

8# two row
2# raisins

.75 oz Saaz @ 60 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @25 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @10 min
.75 oz Saaz @10 min

Nottingham yeast in a carboy for a few weeks.

Click to expand...

Well, it may sound disgusting to some folks but the alpha acid of fresh saaz is only between 3 and 4. I think I would cook the raisens in a small amount of water, then put them and the liquid in the blender to puree. Then add them to the mash. Just sayin'. Try it you might have an interesting brew.....

Toss them in the fermenter. If you are worried about infections, put them in a bag and stick them in the wort at flameout. When the wort is cool, dump them in the fermenter. Be aware that they will dominate the flavor and since the sugars will be gone, it's different from munching them.

You might want to taste a bottle of this to see if you like the flavor.

Dogfish Head has a beer called Raison D'Etre in which they use raisins. It's a tasty brew. Try it out.

Edit: LOL sorry about this post right after Revvy's. My work pc doesn't show 90% of the pictures posted on this site.

Revvy said:

You might want to taste a bottle of this to see if you like the flavor.

Click to expand...

steinsato said:

Dogfish Head has a beer called Raison D'Etre in which they use raisins. It's a tasty brew. Try it out.

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Anyway, I dig Raison D'Etre, and would like to experiment with this as well.

IIRC there is at least one clone recipe of it on this site in the database.

Thanks for the suggestion - I found this recipe:

All Grain Recipe - Raison D'etre ::: 1.077/1.019 (5.5 Gal)
Grain Bill
14 lbs. - 2 Row Pale Malt
1/2 lb. - Crystal Malt (60L)
1/4 lb. - Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb. - Belgian Candi Sugar (add with 10 min. left in boil)
6 oz. - Pureed Golden Rasins (puree in blender with 2cups wort - add with 10min. left in boil)

Hop Schedule - 20 IBU
1 oz. - Warrior - 60 min.
1/2 oz. - Vanguard - at Flameout


Yeast
Wyeast Belgian Ardennes (3522) Yeast - 1800 ml. starter

Mash/Sparge/Boil
Mash In at 154° for 60 min - sparge as usual
Boil time : 60 min.
With 10 minutes left, add in the Candi Sugar and Pureed Rasins
Cool and ferment at 71° to 74°


Pureeing with some wort and adding to the boil seems to make sense. I have not tried this beer before - I'll see if I can find any. I have a hard time finding a lot of dogfish head stuff in L.A.

As for the bitterness- beercalculus puts this at 19.8 IBU. Am I missing something?

Keep us posted with how it turns out. Should be an interesting brew. That is a fairly big beer. I have a hard time finding them here in New Mexico as well. I usually grab a few sixers when Im up in Colorado. Fortunately, I have 2 of these in my fridge right now. I better crack one open!

I'm going for something a little lighter in both gravity and color. I think mine will be more of a straight pale ale with raisins ending up somewhere around 5.3%.

I would think if you went with 2lb you would get a brandy flavor

I edited the grain bill a bit.

Here is the recipe from beer calculus:

90% 9 0 American Two-row Pale info 37 1
10% 1 0 Raisans, Plain info 34 10
10 0

Batch size: 5.0 gallons Original Gravity
1.055
(1.049 to 1.058)
Final Gravity
1.014
(1.012 to 1.015)
Color
4° SRM / 7° EBC
(Yellow)
Mash Efficiency
75%
hops
use time oz variety form aa
boil 60 mins 0.75 Saaz info leaf 6.0
boil 20 mins 0.75 Saaz info leaf 6.0
boil 5 mins 1 Styrian Goldings info pellet 5.4

Boil: 3.0 avg gallons for 60 minutes Bitterness
19.9 IBU / 5 HBU
ƒ: Tinseth
BU:GU
0.36
yeast
Nottingham info
ale yeast in dry form with high flocculation
Alcohol
5.5% ABV / 4% ABW
Calories
181 per 12 oz.
misc
use time amount ingredient
boil 10 min 1 tsp Irish Moss info

I got about 4lbs of raisins from my Thompson Seedless vines in my backyard. I never use chemicals in my garden so I'm not worried about that. I'm thinking you gave me an idea! I have ingredients ready for Orfy's Hob Goblin ready to go, I might just add a pound of them to see how it changes it. Or better yet, I might rack 1 gallon of it, add some raisins and ferment them side by side. Hmm...

Patirck said:

I was fidgiting around the hopville.com site using beercalculus and came across raisins as a fermentable ingredient. This sounds like it might be interesting and I was thinking - how would you extract the fermentable sugars from raisins? Would you add them to the boil or mash them like a grain? I think the flavor might be intersting.

I have some left over hops and a packet of nottingham yeast and I was thinking of something like:

8# two row
2# raisins

.75 oz Saaz @ 60 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @25 min
.5 oz styrian goldings @10 min
.75 oz Saaz @10 min

Nottingham yeast in a carboy for a few weeks.

Click to expand...

Did you ever try this out? I am working on a belgian that will use raisins (similar to raisin d'etre but different grain bill from what I've seen).
Curious how the 2 lbs of raisins fit with the 8lbs of two row

in case anyone was wondering raison is french for reason, not raisin which is already a french word for grape. raisin in french is raisin sec. anyway, nobody asked me so i am i even writing this? i don't know.

What would the difference be between pureeing and adding to the last minutes of boiling and chopping and adding towards the end of fermentation? I kind of feel like you would get more flavor from them if you didn't cook them.

TastySalmon said:

What would the difference be between pureeing and adding to the last minutes of boiling and chopping and adding towards the end of fermentation? I kind of feel like you would get more flavor from them if you didn't cook them.

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My thought had been in the secondary or at flame out(and only to get rid of critters). I don't think having them in the mash would get the flavor out

Raisins are used a lot in wine making to increase body. They can impart a raisin flavor and have a significant amount of fermentable sugars. I have a blueberry going with 2 lbs of chopped raisins. No one on the wine forum cooks them but that might be due to the higher alcohol concentration in general. Make sure you get the ones without any chems....sorbate or others.