Following Tomme Arthur’s Dubbel recipe from Stan Hieronymus’ book Brew Like A Monk - anything special to watch for with adding raisins? I added them slowly and kept stirring for a minute or so, but they seem to have sunk to the bottom and I hate to think that they will scorch on the bottom…any insight? Meanwhile stirring, stirring, stirring!
Just keep stirring! I like to use raisins later in the process. After the beer is fermented, toss some raisins in a red hot wok and caramelize them. Deglaze with some of the beer, then toss it all in a secondary and rack the beer on top.
Cool. Thanks, Denny. I’m chilling down the Dubbel right now and it looks pretty nice, but I know looks can be deceiving! Here’s hoping no scorch tastes are in there…
From what I’ve read, after Tomme caramelizes/deglazes his raisins, he purees them and adds at knockout. I’ve made his dubbel recipe a couple times and last time I caramelized them in a metal pan with a little wort, deglazing with some brandy and wort before pureeing and adding at knockout. I’ve heard and read conflicting views as to whether to use dark or golden raisins. I’ve used both and I prefer dark raisins. I have the ingredients on hand except for the yeast and that beer is next on deck for me. It really improves after aging for a year if you can wait that long.
+1 to Denny’s suggestion to add some more caramelized/deglazed in secondary!
One more thing - I checked my notes and the first time I made this I added chopped up dark raisins 10 minutes before the end of the boil. Although the little pieces of raisins got strained out when transferring to the fermenters, the beer still ended up really good.
Damn Denny, you have me sold. Think this might be my next brew.
Works really well with dates and figs, too.
- 1.060
My keg of dubbel is coming to an end and I have some dried figs in the fridge…
What quantity of figs would you recommend for 5 gallons?
I did this with a stout. it’s intense for sure. I think I left it sit a little too long in secondary and picked up some tannis from the raisin skins, that and I used about 3.5 lbs of raisins in 5 gallons.
wracking to the keg a raisin lodged in the end of my racking cane so it took around 1 hours to get 5 gallons in the keg but it was crystal clear the whole time with that raisin filtering out all the gunk 
Love the raisin puree idea. Think I’ll try it in my next Dubbel or Quad.
1/2-1 lb. Depends on how prominent you want it.
per 5 gallons?
Doh! Yes. Sorry, lack of sleep…
I’ve done that Tomme Arthur recipe also, 1’ of dark raisins caramelized and deglazed with port. Dump it in the kettle at knock out. Recirculate for 15 minutes. We did a club brew with this recipe and threw it in a fresh bourbon barrel. Ooh la la!