Raisins for carbonation?

[naristov]

I was reading through some of the recipes in Brooklyn Brew Shop's book for some inspiration on my next brew. I came across a recipe called "Prohibition Ale" and it called for raisins to be put in each bottle. Apparently a woman told the good people at Brooklyn Brew Shop that she use to brew beer back during the Prohibition era and that you needed to use exactly 4 Raisin because 3 would be too little and 5 would result in a bottle bombs.

I doubt I will be using this method, but I was wondering if anyone had tried this and if so what were the results.

 

[Matteo57]

subscribed... interested in this...Wonder how many for belgian beers... I would think this would be good for a good quad or something!

 

[boscobeans]

You would get sugar to carbonate, but I would be afraid of putting a bunch of nasties in your beer and winding up with bottle bombs or garbage beer at the least.


bosco

 

[feinbera]

Idunno, at that point, the finished beer is pretty acidic and alcoholic, so, you're not going to get any mold or anything. It might be the wild yeast or lacto or brett on the raisins that's fermenting them out rather than residual brewer's yeast, but they make up such a small volume of the total fermentables that you're probably getting more flavor from the raisins themselves than any bugs they bring with them. I doubt the prohibition-era brewers were making brews with too many residual higher-order sugars to chew on, or aging them long enough for the raisin bugs to chew on them... but, then, if you're dropping raisins into a beer you plan on cellaring for a few months, you're probably a pretty experimental type of brewer who won't mind rolling the dice on spontaneous raisins yeasts.

 

[naristov]

I might try it with a few bottles on my next brew, just to see. My guess the biggest problem would be inconsistencies in carbonation.

 

[SoupNazi]

Would you grind them up or put them in whole?

 

[naristov]

Would you grind them up or put them in whole?

I think the recipe says to just drop them in whole. You would probably get more floties if you grind them up.

 

[jwsquared]

Raisins host yeast on their surface.

 

[Hamsterbite]

My concern would be gushers and bottle bombs and basically just not knowing what you're going to end up with depending on what type/how many wild yeast/bugs are present. How could you know how far the wild stuff would continue to attenuate?

 

[Timmyg316]

Its interesting. I would think grinding them would only make fermentation faster. As for surface microbes you could soak them in vodka first.

 

[weizemanner]

Many raisins are covered in sulfur/sulfates before drying. Helps control wild yeasts, but might prevent the yeast in the bottle from carbonating at all. Personally if i tried this i would use organic raisins and soak them in ever-clear for a few minutes.

or if you want raisin flavor for your Belgians or what-have-you, add them to secondary and use your normal priming sugar for carbonation.

 

[Chromebrew]

Subscribed. If anyone tests this please reply. Thanks!

 

[naristov]

Subscribed. If anyone tests this please reply. Thanks!

I got a bottling day coming up in a 2 weeks, I'm going to set aside a few bottles to experiment with. I'll let you know how it all comes out.

 

[mtodd22]

I was speaking with my friend's dad a few months back. He was a homebrewer back in the early 90's and he was telling me he used raisins for carbonating a few times. He said it worked great. No bombs, good head, etc. I didn't ask how may per bottle, or if he took steps to sanitize them, but I do know they went in whole.

 

[PlinyTheElder]

I have also seen this recipe and just bottled today. Although I was worried about ruining my entire batch and only primed half of them with raisins. I'll post back and let you know what happens. (ie. How many diseases I pick-up, or how many flats and bombs I make.)

 

[naristov]

I have also seen this recipe and just bottled today. Although I was worried about ruining my entire batch and only primed half of them with raisins. I'll post back and let you know what happens. (ie. How many diseases I pick-up, or how many flats and bombs I make.)

How many did you put in? What were your methods (if any) to putting them in? I'm going to bottle before the weekend, I plan to putting aside a few bottles and try different methods out. Keep us posted.

 

[wiescins]

very interesting

 

[PlinyTheElder]

How many did you put in? What were your methods (if any) to putting them in? I'm going to bottle before the weekend, I plan to putting aside a few bottles and try different methods out. Keep us posted.

So I tried to follow the recipe and story regarding the raisins. I put 4 moderately sized raisins in each bottle and then filled the bottles. I didn't prep them by washing or cleansing them in anyway. Sounds risky after reading all the posts on this thread. I convinced myself that the alcohol and acidity of the beer would be enough to combat any bugs.

 

[fullstop22]

My Dad brewed once in the 60's. I do remember it did have at least one raisin in each bottle. I was young so I do not know if it was for carbonation or not.

 

[Bradinator]

I remember chatting with an elderly fellow that used to home brew all the time at his farm and said he used raisins in his brews to ferment it. Guessing there must be some kind of wild yeasts on it? I tried raisins in a couple brews, though not to ferment it and found they added nothing to the final product except for some nasty looking white balls floating around my fermenter. Live and learn I guess.

Can't wait to see how this experiment turns out though.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

subscribed.

 

[Chromebrew]

Bump! Hoping Naristov had some results to share. If anyone has results let us know please.

 

[JustusLiebig]

I'll have a black butte porter clone ready to bottle in a week or so that I will use raisins in if no one has done this by then. It can't be that hard. I wonder what the minimum amount of beers would be necessary to make some predictions. It would be good to see 2 beers each with 2, 3, and 4 raisins, and 1 beer with 5 raisins. Open 1 beer each at 10 days to check the carbonation and at several months open the rest including the one 5 raisin beer that hopefully hasn't exploded by then. This long term test would check for contamination problems.
Take some of each beer and run on a stir plate to knock the C02 out of them and check their gravity. A beer like a porter will have plenty of residual sugar to compare the final gravities amongst the beers. Use one unprimed capped beer and two sugar primed beers as controls.
Anything else?

 

[DacotahBrewing]

I have a beer I bottled last week with raisins. About 2 gallons bottle conditioned with raisins and 3 gallons primed with corn sugar. We used 3 raisins in each bottle. We also primed the other 3 gallons at 2.2 vols (I think). I haven't opened any of them yet. I will check back when I have some notes.

 

[Chromebrew]

awesome, i cant wait to hear back!

on a side note, i was suprised by how much flavor raisins can contribute. I really like the flavor, but oddly i dont like to eat them by themselves.

 

[naristov]

Bump! Hoping Naristov had some results to share. If anyone has results let us know please.

I forgot. It's been a weird couple of months for me, esp in terms of brewing. I have an EggNog stout fermenting as we speak 2 more weeks till bottling.

 

[Matteo57]

Anyone try this with a Belgian quad or dubbel? How did it turn out? Better or worse than normal priming sugar?

 

[DacotahBrewing]

Three raisins carbed perfectly

 

[DRonco]

Three raisins carbed perfectly

Awesome! Thanks for the update. What is the beer? Did it contribute anything to the flavor?

 

[kroach01]

Always wanted to try this in a Belgian-style! Dacotah, can you comment on the taste?