Raison D'Etre - Has Anyone Made a Sucessful Batch?

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ultravista

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I really like Raison D'Etre and have found a few recipes, including one from Sam himself.

Has anyone tried brewing a Raison D'Etre, if so, which recipe and how did it turn out?
 
I've looked at those recipes dozens of times but have never brewed one. I've never been convinced that they will clone the beer; they seem too simple. I'd love to hear if someone else tries though.
 
I tried the recipe and was disapointed. It wasn't very cheap for the ingredients either. Below is the recipe that I used. It may be a good starting point to tweak it and get closer to the real thing. I believe that this recipe is from the "Extreme Brewing" book.

Raison D'Etre (extract)
Ingredients
Preboil Tea at 150F
6 gallons water
grain bag
4 oz. Crushed 40L crystal malt
8 oz. Crushed light chocolate malt

Boil
8 lbs light dry malt extract
1/2 oz warrior hops (60 minutes)
2 cups hot wort from brewpot (10 minutes)
6 oz. Pureed green raisins (10 minutes)
8 oz. Belgian Candi beet sugar (10 minutes)
1/2 oz. Vanguard hops (end of boil)

Fermentation
Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ale

Bottling
5 oz. Priming sugar

OG 1.078
FG 1.016
ABV 8%
IBU 25

In brew pot, heat water to 150F. Put grains in grainbag and steep 15 minutes.

Remove grainbag. Bring to boil. Combine raisins with 2 cups of wort from brewpot and purée until smooth

Remove from heat and add DME

Return to boil

After 15 minutes add warrior hops for 60 minute boil.

10 minutes before boil end, add raisins and Candi sugar.

At end of boil add vanguard hops. Remove kettle from heat, stir to create whirlpool, cover and let sit 20 minutes.

Cool wort and rack to a fermentor leaving as many solids behind as possible.

Pitch at 71F - 74F

Rack after 7 to 14 days. Condition in secondary for 14 to 20 days more.

Bottle.
 
The taste was definitely over the top. It seemed far too dark for raison. If I were to make it again I would cut the chocolate malt back to about 4 oz instead of 8 oz, or go with a lighter grain. The belgian candi beet sugar also adds some dark complexity to that as well. I would potentially go lighter there, or scale it back a tad bit.
 
The taste was definitely over the top. It seemed far too dark for raison. If I were to make it again I would cut the chocolate malt back to about 4 oz instead of 8 oz, or go with a lighter grain. The belgian candi beet sugar also adds some dark complexity to that as well. I would potentially go lighter there, or scale it back a tad bit.

I'll second that the taste was too much. As for the color, I'm assuming it's because of the extract. I did an all-grain version that came fairly close.
 

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