I brew with a friend. We've been going back and forth each week, buying ingredients to make our own recipes. A couple months ago he made a strong old English ale. He's been reading the sacred healing ales book (sorry don't feel like getting up and looking at the cover) and decided to put Myrica gale in the brew.
Had a couple beers last night and decided to chill some homebrews and went right for the Myrica ale. The book says Myrica gale has mild psychotropic properties when put in beers. I'm no stranger to those kinda things.
Well I gotta admit that I felt good from that beer. Felt relaxed as hell and started zoning through the tv. There was something special to that beer. It had me slightly giggly and even had a 4 minute feeling that I was on something more than beer. I kept trying to think I was just experiencing a placebo effect but it wasn't.
So, I read a bit about this but am not as familiar with the concept as you, so forgive me if this is a dumb question:
Did he use the leaves in the boil like you would hops, or did he put some of the herb in whole in the fermenter? Did it add any flavors/aromas - good or bad? I see that this gets used in gruits... did the brew have hops in it as well or no?
Alright check it out. The book says to do half in the boil and half in the secondary. I don't have my brewing notes with me here but I think we did 3/4 of the bag in boil and quarter in secondary. I think the bag had a few grams in it- I was able to order it along with wormwood from northern brewer (the wormwood tasted so terrible in a tea we made that we decided not to use it).
The gale made the wort so easy to boil. Once we added it the foam over disappeared and did not risk boiling over for the entire hour.
Aroma-wise it has an intoxicating smell- a bit sharp, intriguing- maybe even spicy.
Flavor-wise it's fairly bitter, a tiny medicinal, and took some time for the beer to breathe in the glass before I really loved it.
We did a strong english ale with a high SG because we felt it needed a more malt-forward bill to deal with the bitterness we heard about with the Myrica.
I'm interested in doin an ipa with it or something.
In the meantime I'm gonna drink a 6 pack of it tomorrow and see if this pink floyd album will change my life. Haha
Myrica Gale Ale
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