Adding Raisin?

I think my next beer is going to be a oatmeal stout. I'm wondering if there is any way to get a bit of raisin flavour into it? Oatmeal raisin stout, Mmmmm. Anyway are raisins something that can be added to the boil? Anyone ever used them?

Thanks.

I added them to secondary in a barleywine, I don't think it tastes too strongly of raisin. Not sure about adding to the boil, but this technique worked for me. I think it was 1/2pound in 3 gal. Definitely some dark fruit character, eventhough they were golden raisins, not overpowering. Sounds like it(yours) could be a winner.

landhoney said:

I added them to secondary in a barleywine, I don't think it tastes too strongly of raisin. Not sure about adding to the boil, but this technique worked for me. I think it was 1/2pound in 3 gal. Definitely some dark fruit character, eventhough they were golden raisins, not overpowering. Sounds like it(yours) could be a winner.

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How long did you end up leaving them in for? And did you do anything to sterilize them?

Thanks

An oatmeal raisin stout sounds really good. You could go crazy and bake some oatmeal raisin cookies and use that as a mash and see what happens. I thought of that technique because I recently saw the article about the Pizza beer in Beer Advocate.

The crystal 120 should put sort of a raison flavor in your beer, anyway that is how my LBHS described it

Drunkagain said:

How long did you end up leaving them in for? And did you do anything to sterilize them?

Thanks

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I mashed them up a bit, added a little water(not even enough to cover I think, just mixed them around), heated to....? really hot almost boiling for a couple minutes. I left them in at least a couple weeks - I think till they all settled to the bottom. They were golden raisins BTW, failed to mention that. I forget why, I think it was because I saw that clones of raisin d'etre used golden - not sure though. Good luck.

I used 4 ounces of plain old raisins and 4 ounces prunes in a holiday ale last year, won't be repeating this one.

What I did was dice the raisins and prunes and added them to the kettle at flame out.

I might use raisins again but agree on using golden/white or whatever they are called.

I just brewed a barleywine with golden raisins. I added them in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I read up on this before starting the batch, though, and it seems some suggest adding them, as I did, pureed with some wort towards the end, while others bring them to near-boil temps (to sterilize), cool, and add them in the secondary. I think the latter is how Dogfish does it.

Anyway, the key concept is tannin extraction. The longer the raisin skins are at a high temperature, the more likely you will get astringent tannin flavors (a la red wine).

PT Ray said:

I used 4 ounces of plain old raisins and 4 ounces prunes in a holiday ale last year, won't be repeating this one.

What I did was dice the raisins and prunes and added them to the kettle at flame out.

I might use raisins again but agree on using golden/white or whatever they are called.

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What was the holiday ale like?

what about special B malt

100-150 Lovibond; Adds a dark raisin-y character to your beer. Try adding 2 oz to 1 lb per five gallon batch. Indespensible when making darkBelgian "Abbey" style beers, especially Dubbels

+1 on Special B. You don't need a lot, maybe a quarter pound. VERY distinct raison flavors.

landhoney said:

What was the holiday ale like?

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Gross, tasted like fermented prune juice.

yeah...i've definitely tasted belgian's that had a raisin flavor, but i highly doubt they used raisins. i wish i could remember an example...cuz one of them was good.

(maybe a little too good! )

Put me down for an "and1" on the Special B. I use it in my Scottish to add a dark fruit raisin-like flavor. This summer I used Crystal 120 instead because it seemed like the entire country was out of Special B for a few week span. I really thought it would be very similar but it just wasn't quite the same.