Lavender beer (I know)

My home town has a big lavender festival each year, I'd like to brew some lavender beer as a tribute to this event. Any clues?

(and I know how goofy this sounds, but there ya go...)

I think Jamil uses lavender in his Wit recipe.

Someone just posted an article in a thread regarding some beer champion contest and it mentioned a lavender infused saison. That sounds like a winner to me.

Greg

How much and when to add for a five gallon extract recipe?

Last time I was in Sequim I had some tasty lavender wine, so why not lavender beer! I seem to recall coming across lavender beer recipes when doing random google searches for beer recipes, so you might want to try that if you haven't already.

How much do you use for tea? Scale that up to your batch size and throw it in at the last 10 minutes of your boil.

Thanks folks, I'm gonna give it a try.....

I lived in Sequim for 6 agonizing months. My fiance's parents moved there just to spite me... 1 year before we got together but still just to spite me.

Back on topic though Could you throw some in like dry hopping? It'd have to be something with boiling hops but not a large amount aromatic hops to clash

Lavender is big stuff around here (don't know why), lavender tea, lavender honey, etc. I'd be inclined to brew a wheat or golden and dry "hop" with the lavender. That way you could control the outcome a bit better. I'd try 1/2 ounce for 3-4 days while clearing. You might consider splitting the batch and putting some lavender tea in half. Then you could compare the two or even mix them.

Well folks, I'm drinking my first lavender beer tonight. One thing I learned about is the different varieties of lavender. DO NOT use aromatic lavender. It contains camphor. (think vicks vapor rub)

Use Grosso lavender, or any culinary lavender. I bought the lawnmower saison kit from Midwest Supply, and replaced the bitter orange peel with 1/2 oz of Grosso buds.

Not sure how I like it yet. I'll have to drink 2-3 to figure that out...

I drove through Sequim today (just to share my Sequim experience). They have a few wineries over that way, I'd love to live on the Olympic Peninsula, but not necessarily in Sequim.

Too bad about Ted's place, eh? But, that's what got me to do this on my own.......

also interested to see how you liked it. my girlfriend is a big lavender fan, and i'm considering adding some to my heather ale at bottling.

I've had Lavender cookies and they were good. I'd imagine it would be easy to overdo it.

Dave Wills is planning a lavender beer for the Oregon City Lavender fest. He had four test pigs (2.25 gal.) last night:

Wit with 4.5 grams of lavender flowers for a week
Beaver Tail with 9 grams
Beaver Tail with 18 grams

He had two pigs of the Beaver Tail with 9 grams, which was a good idea as most people liked that the best. The hopheads were voting for the 18.

He also had samples of his Bourbon Barrel Porter (11%). Smelled so good, I was afraid to taste it. Tasted better.

I realize this thread hasn't been used in a while, but I'm wondering, what about using lavender honey?

I brewed a basic wheat ale and dry hopped with lavender. My wife loves it, and I find it quite drinkable, too. The lavender flavour is more mild than I would expect, and it balances well with the hops and malt. I would definitely recommend it, especially for strong-beer-fearing types.
My recipe:

5 gallon wort
6# wheat DME ay flameout
1 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Willamette @ 30
0.5 oz Amarillo @ 5
Yeast: Safale US-05
OG: 1.070
Primary: 20 days
Secondary: Drew off 1 gallon with 1 cup steamed culinary lavender added for 21 days

This is kinda a late post, but i just got the idea tonight. we live near a lavender farm here in Atascadero. At the fair tonight they had a booth, and i got to thinking, I really like citrus infused beer and Recently had a lavender lemon soda and really liked it. So why not make a Lavender infused citrus style beer. I made a orange blossom mead and might try that with lavender, but maybe a Honey blonde or wit would be the way to go. i understand that i should find the grosso lavender, so that query will go to the lavender farmer. Have plans to make a wit this week and will draw a second from the mash and infuse it, maybe a gallon. aiming for 3-5% ALC. I will also leave the gruit in for the wit feel and taste. hopefully it will turn out. Any experience not already posted would help. thanks - Tim

I've done a number of follow-up experiments with lavender in an attempt to improve/perfect it.
1) Added 2 tbs culinary lavender to previously described wheat recipe at beginning of boil, end of boil, or in secondary. Of 11 tasters, end of boil got the highest score, but they were all similar. The secondary definitely had a greater lavender aroma and flavour. The beginning of boil was almost invisible, and the end of boil had a very slight aroma and flavour.
2) Added 1, 2, or 4 tbs culinary lavender to the secondary of the above wheat recipe. The 2 tbs got the highest score here. The 1 was present but subtle. The 4 was quite strong- many thought overpowering, but my wife was happy with it.
3) All-grain stout (3# 2-row, 1# choc malt, 0.5# dark crystal, 0.25# each roasted barley and red wheat, mash 160 x60min, 0.5 oz Fuggles at 60 and 30 min, Yeast S-04) with 0, 2, or 4 tbs lavender added to secondary. The 2 tbs got the highest score and was _really_ interesting. The stout and lavender flavours worked quite well.

Summary: I plan to use 2 tbs in the secondary in the future. Planning to do the wheat and the stout with that amount of lavender as well as some lactose, since I think a little sweetness with the lavender would be fabulous.

How long did you leave the beer on the lavender? I just picked up some in hopes of using it in a beer.

Ohyeah, forgot some details. These were 3 gallon batches split into 1-gallon secondaries. The dose then I like is 2 tbs/gallon in secondary. So if your batch/secondary is larger, you'll need to up the lavender appropriately. It was in the secondary for 3 weeks before bottling. You can watch the lavender and it seems like when it blanches in the secondary it's probably lost as much flavour as it's going to.

How did this turn out, can you remember that long ago? I've been thinking about doing lavender with a saison or a wheat. Anymore hints?

How did this turn out, can you remember that long ago? I've been thinking about doing lavender with a saison or a wheat. Anymore hints?

Click to expand...

So far the best ones I've used 2 tbs lavender/gallon in the secondary. 4 is a bit too strong of a flavour, 1 is quite subtle. I did end up doing a milk lavender stout and it was quite good. My first lavender beers were in a wheat, which really allowed the lavender flavour to dominate. I'm not sure how it would interact with the funky flavours of a saison. Good luck!

One of the guys in HBC brewed a lavender wheat this last summer. I wasn't there during his brew session but he did mention that he put a tsp of lavender in the boil with each hop addition. I tasted it last month and it had a nice, not overpowering, lavender aroma and just a hint of it found in the taste. It turned out quite well for an experiment.

I remember him saying that when he dropped the lavender in with the hops the wort turned a crazy green color that almost made him stop adding any more. He decided to still go with it and the green color boiled out and the wheat looked perfect.

We have a big, happy lavender bush in our yard. I'd like to try this recipe when it blooms. This goes on my list . I'm too "young" in homebrew years to really start mucking about with experiments yet, but I'm wondering what happens if I use Papazian's "Linda's lovely light" and sub in an as yet unknown quantity of lavender for the ginger (which 4 oz in 5 gal is just perfect for me). Or maybe add it in ADDITION to the ginger...but I think the ginger would totally overpower it. Hmmm...

glad to see people have tried this, my fiancee just asked me about doing one tonight.

so i am researching it to see how it will turn out

I know this topic is pretty old, but I was wondering what the best yeast would be to use in a Lavender Wheat? Should it be a neutral yeast, or maybe something like an American Hefeweizen?

I made a simple wheat beer (2 gallon batch with a couple lbs of wheat DME and a bit of flaked wheat) and added 2.5 tbsp of culinary lavender PER gallon. The lavender was added into the secondary after being in primary for 1 week. I left it in secondary before bottling for about 2 weeks. The result was a pretty damn strong aroma, and very tasty lavender flavor. Personally, as I am not a huge lavender fan, I would probably use around 1.5 or 2 tbsp of lavender per gallon in the future, but my girlfriend (loves lavender) said it could use even a little MORE lavender.

Overall, I think this experiment was successful and I will definitely be brewing it again, except next time using AG rather than extract.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the yeast I ended up using was Safbrew T-58 which was described to me as a sort of neutral yeast that would be good for a flavored wheat beer.

Thanks for this thread. The LTR just asked for me to brew a Lavender Cream Ale for her house warming. Now I've got some guidelines.

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of Saison yesterday and plan on splitting the batch in to two 2.5 gallons batches in order to "play w/ them". In secondaries, I plan on adding some dried lavender to one of them, maybe just 1 Tbsp since it's a small batch. From what I read, most used 2 Tbsp in a 5 gallon batch. I want just a little coming through, as this is for a friend of mine who insisted she must have a lavender beer. Ha. The other batch is getting raspberries put on it (as this is for a competition and it's a required ingredient). Will post once they are finished!! Almost debated doing 10 gallons just so I could have 5 gallons of "normal saison"…my favorite!

Long lost reboot of this thread

Going to try a honey lavender wheat.
Should I do the honey 15 left of boil?
How do you sanitize the lavender(if needed. I'm still new and in the understanding that everything thay touches my beer needs to be sanitized)