RAW beer???

[Qhrumphf]

So a good friend of mine does the raw vegan thing (most of the time). She also loves my homebrew. As a joke, I told her I'd make her some raw beer (meaning NO boiling or mashing). I looked around, and apparently there's instructions on how to do it.

Has anyone seen this? Has anyone actually TRIED making it? This just seems like such a huge disaster waiting to happen.

P.S. I have no intention of actually trying this, nor does said friend want me to. But I thought it was worth a laugh and a quick search of the site showed no history of it being brought up before.

 

[Mongrel]

Not beer, but you could make tepache and comply with the raw vegan thing. I'm going to try this soon.

 

[Golddiggie]

You could make a mead that way, or hard cider...

Zero cooking/boiling involved... Plus, you can easily get more kick out of those than you will from a beer. But, if you go too high (above ~12%), expect some longer aging time... In the order of 6-18+ months from pitching the yeast to glass.

 

[k1v1116]

My understanding of the whole raw diet thing is limited, but I think normal mash temps are high enough to remove it from the raw category so boiling afterward is not even the issue. The only brew I know of that might qualify as raw is traditional chicha de jora (an incan corn beer) it isnt mashed because it uses the enzymes in human saliva to convert the corn starch into sugar and uses natural fermentation so its not boiled. Of course thats just the ancient method the modern methods are similar to regular beer brewing but only the old method is raw.

 

[o4_srt]

My understanding of the whole raw diet thing is limited, but I think normal mash temps are high enough to remove it from the raw category so boiling afterward is not even the issue. The only brew I know of that might qualify as raw is traditional chicha de jora (an incan corn beer) it isnt mashed because it uses the enzymes in human saliva to convert the corn starch into sugar and uses natural fermentation so its not boiled. Of course thats just the ancient method the modern methods are similar to regular beer brewing but only the old method is raw.

Was still boiled, didn't you see the old women hunched over their kettle?

 

[remilard]

I second mead, non heat treated honey is easy to find and preferred by mead makers.

As for beer, how do you mash cool without getting an insidious infection? How hot can you go? Around 100F, right?

I would try a small scale mash at the max temp until you get conversion (amalyse is active, albeit slowly, even at room temp). Then see how horrible it is. If it isn't too bad, through some ale yeast in there to ferment it out and you have something like berliner weisse hopefully. Keep it cold after fermentation so it does not get funkier.

Note that unboiled beer (like traditional berliner weiss which is still mashed too hot) has a distinct doughy character which is sorta non beer like.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Already got some hard cider in secondary that qualifies as raw vegan.

Also, like I said, no real intention of actually trying to make it. She's adamant on vegan, not as adamant on raw and she has no problem drinking my mashed and boiled homebrew. Started as a joke, and now it's just academic curiosity as to the brewing science behind it.

Can you get any sort of worthwhile conversion at that kind of temp? What would you be looking at? 5% efficiency in a six hour "mash"? I didn't know it was possible to convert at all at that kind of temperature. And even then, I'd assume wild yeast and bacteria would have a field day. But some folks swear by natural fermentation for cider. So I have no idea.

 

[Qhrumphf]

All the instructions I've seen online are roughly similar to the ones here:

http://sites.google.com/site/yankeeharp/rawbeer

 

[jtakacs]

Raw beer? Is she hot?