Not sure if this is where this belongs......

I just started drinking a gruit I made last March. It really turned out great. Since there weren't a lot of recipes to look at, I had to guess at what kind of yeast to use. I decided to go for a nice bland, non offensive wheat yeast. Wyeast 3068 smack pack.

I would like to brew this again. I kept meticulous notes on brew day and both racking days. I am confident I can recreate the wort. I am looking for some suggestions for different yeasts. Here's the extract recipe I made up.

Remember, Gruit does not have hops. Bittering herbs are used in lieu of hops.

3 lbs. DME
1/2 lb light brown sugar
1/2 lb dark brown sugar
1/2 lb of home made invert sugar candy
1 lb raw local honey

I used
1 oz of Mugwort
1 oz of Yarrow
2 gr. of Sweet Gale
and .2 oz of Marsh Rosemary for aroma

The first three herbs I added at 60 minutes and the Rosemary I added at 10.

Any suggestions would be great. I plan on boiling this on July 4th so I would like to start building my starter tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

Thanks in advance.

I just did a gruit with my "house" saison yeast. (Theoretically WLP Saison II and the Dupont strain.) It's still very young, but the experiment is coming along quite nicely in my opinion. Last time I did a gruit I used WLP 001 American Ale and that was nice. But I recommend giving a version with saison yeast a try. Maybe split a batch, 2.5/3 gallons with one and 2.5/3 gallons with another? I also bottled a couple gallons of it with some saison Fantome dregs...we'll see what those bugs do to it in 6-12 months

Man...what a great idea. I would have never thought about a saison strain, but once you brought it up, I can't imagine another yeast being more perfect.

I introduced my gruit to my Saturday night poker crowd and for the first time since I've been brewing, they wiped out my entire batch. Two full cases of flip top bottles.

One of the guys in the group is in his 60's and suggested I use juniper berries as well as the other herbs I used originally. He said that extra flavor would make this gruit taste just like Ballantines.

I'm really hesitant because I don't want anything in my beer reminding me of gin.

I am buying a kegging rig from the hbss next week and I will be trying my hand at that this week. I have a kolsch that has been lagering for about 45 days and I just can't take it anymore....especially since I am not out of home brew.....lol.

I'll check back and let you know how this recipe did with the saison yeast.

Wow, you're a generous man for bringing the entire batch! I give my gruits out pretty selectively because I want to age them for a while, but it sounds like you already did that part. On the juniper berries I can't really give you advice unfortunately. I used a small portion in a porter once but they really didn't come through.

Yeah, let me know how it goes. Changing the recipe slightly might be good to make it more like a saison, but that's totally up to you. I mean I guess that would just be using extra light or pilsener DME and maybe some steeping grains. I basically just did a rustic saison recipe with some spelt and went at it with the gruit herbs. Have fun with whatever you end up doing!

LOLOLOL....you are right about being generous. Also a little bit newbie. I had the group at my house and they saw what I had put up and asked for some. Next thing I know I'm being hailed as the next Brock Wagner and they drank it all with little or no conscience.

I learned the hard way that fantastic beer bought at the store is always out trumped by decent to good beer that's free.