How to Brew Beer With Raisins

Beer is a grain-based drink, usually made from a barley or wheat malt. Medieval German brewing laws limit the ingredients used, but modern craft and home brewers freely add fruits, vegetables, spices and flavorings to their beer. Brewing with raisins follows the usual steps as brewing with other fruits in order to kill any surface contaminants. It also adds a complex, sometimes port-like flavor to the beer that brewing with table grapes does not provide. Mixing white, red and purple raisins will give the brewer even more options for "tweaking" the flavor of his efforts.

Things You'll Need

• Homebrew beer kit (includes hopped malt mixture and yeast)
• Sugar
• 5-gallon cooking pot
• 1-gallon cooking pot
• Sterilized spoons
• Sterilized metal strainer
• Fermenting pot

Instructions

1. Start your main beer batch by boiling the hopped malt mixture (with the kit-recommended amount of water and sugar) in the 5-gallon pot. This usually will be a 45-minute boil.

2. Place raisins in the 1-gallon pot with 1/2 gallon of water; you will need at least 3 oz. of raisins per gallon of beer. Heat to 180 degrees F and let cool for 15 minutes to pasteurize (killing surface contaminants) and rehydrate the raisins.

3. Drain the liquid from the cooling raisins, but do not press or strain the raisins to remove additional liquid.

4. While the beer wort is cooling, monitor its temperature as you stir in the rehydrated and pasteurized raisins. Keep the temperature in the covered pot between 160 and 180 degrees F for 20 minutes.

5. Use a strainer to remove the raisin pulp, then add yeast as instructed in your beer kit.

6. Follow the beer kit instructions regarding primary and secondary fermentation and bottling. The sugars and flavors added by the raisins will not affect those processes, but will likely increase the alcohol content and add complexity to the flavor of the final product.

Tips & Warnings

• Lighter beers kits will allow more of the raisin flavor to come through, however, the raisin flavors may be lost in a stout or porter mix.

• When choosing your raisins, keep in mind that white are sweeter, while purple or red have stronger flavor

References

• Trade and Environment Database: German Beer Purity Law
• Homebrewing Instructions: Brew Your Own Beer at Home
• Seven Bridges Cooperative: Adding Organic Fruit to Your Beer and Mead