MINT Beer????

Hey guys had a friend who wanted to brew a mint beer. We used 5lbs of light malt extract, 2oz of hops and some Californian yeast and a whole lot of mint during the boil. He refreshed the mint every 5 minutes for the last half hour of the boil by scopping out the old stuff and adding a new bunch every set.

The beer has finished fermentation and now is roughly 3.5%. I want to experiment with possibly adding some lime juice and adding some additional (dry or recommendation?) yeast in a secondary fermentation.

Do you see any issues with the acidity of the juice? Will this work. I want to give the beer some added flavor, sweetness as i worry it will be quite bitter from all the mint, and increase the ALC

let me know if you have suggestions for this beer. thank you

Why do you think it will be bitter? I don't think its a foregone conclusion.

As for lime juice, I don't see this complementing mint flavor at all. It certainly won't add sweetness. But in small amount the pH shouldn't affect a secondary fermentation. I'd look at lactose for some sweetness, I do think that might enhance the mint.

Last year a mint porter won the specialty category in a contest I judged.

I thought a mint porter or stout would be nice too. He was looking for a lighter (body, mouthfeel, not necessarily alc wise) crisper beer. Ya, tried it the other day, it is bitter! I was thinking lime-ade (apologies not lime juice) because it will have plenty of sugar in it, and i thought for a beer of this style idk maybe mint lime would be nice like a mojitio or mikes hard lemonade kinda thing. Personally i don't have high aspirations for the beer but figured it was worth a shot in reagards to trying to salvage an interesting experiment at the least.

I'm open to other flavor profiles, so lay them on me.

thanks for your input/advice

Dry hop with cocoa nibs? Could even do in a small container to test.

Mint can be terribly powerful depending on the type used and the amounts in your boil. How much did you use, and how does the mint flavoring taste?

Lennie said:

As for lime juice, I don't see this complementing mint flavor at all.

Click to expand...

Mint...lime juice...me thinks he may be shooting for a mojito themed beer.

I do a mint porter. I just put fresh mint the secondary. 0.5oz leaves a strong finish that will age out a bit in time.

Lime juice doesn't sound good with what you talked about. From what you said it sounds more like a mint pale ale..that would be interesting to try

I'd split the batch and try some with added lime, and some without. At the worst, you'll get to try out a mint ale.

If the lime blends well, you create the first Mojito Shandy.

I'd just add the lime when you pour the beer like a corona. Fresh lime is always best!

so i ended up adding a "tea" of lemon and lime peels, ginger and brown sugar to the beer in addition to another packet of dry yeast.

Didn't have any vodka but used gin instead (haha, this is truly an experiment) to sterilize a baggy full of additional fresh peels of lemon, lime (lil or no pith) and ginger slices in which i hope will infuse their flavor in a dry hop. Hoping the alcohol from the gin doesn't interfere much with the secondary fermentation. will it??? Tried to wring the baggy of peels and ginger out as much as possible but obviously some residual gin still on it when i floated this bag in the beer fermenting bucket. Checked this morning, we have some mild bubbling. Good sign no??? i will leave the bag in until i rack for bottling. how long should i wait for secondary fermentation to complete? i'll give it a week and go from there

What are you're thoughts you guys?

thanks -brandon

The gin will add a little alcohol bump but shouldn't interfere with the fermentation. The bubbling is likely the yeast working down the brown sugar. You should be fine in that regard. Keep in mind for the ginger that a little goes a long way, especially if you're going to dry hop it. I'd be very restrained in the use until you got a better feel for how much flavor it contributes. For the fermentation time, check using a hydro until you get 2-3 identical readings but I would imagine it should eat up the sugars in a few days to a week. Should be interesting!

hmmmm, haha, good to know about the ginger. I added quite a bit, equal proportions to the lemon and lime (one decent sized root sliced thinly). When i tasted the "tea" i made with the lemon, lime peels, ginger, and brown sugar, i didn't pick up really any ginger. Idk, i guess well see. Thanks for the heads up. To you think you'll taste the gin notes?

thanks

Ive tried a few mint stouts,they always remind me of Fernet.

I know Dogfish Head has a mint beer. I want to say Red & Black? It was a lot like drinking an alcoholic Thin Mint GSC.

I don't think I'd get it again, but it's been done.

Here we go:
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occasional-rarities/black-red.htm

mrbheid said:

To you think you'll taste the gin notes?

Click to expand...

I doubt it. I'm assuming you only used enough to make a tincture of sorts. With that much volume my guess is you won't taste it.

My first attempt at brewing, bottled last week, was actually a mint ginger ale. Here's the procedure I used. I wrote this down incase I wanted to make it again.

Minger Ale
Ingredients
4-5 gallons water Preferably filtered
12 tablespoons spearmint tea
4 large tea bags
4 short pieces of string
6 grams munton premium gold active brewing yeast
1 1/2 cups lime juice
11 1/4 cups ginger syrup, see directions for making below.
5 cups baking splenda
1/2 lb fresh ginger root.
2 lbs of sugar, approximent

Pour 3 gallons of water into a large slow cooker or stock pot. Bring the water to a bare simmer. Spoon 3 tablespoons into each of the tea bags. Close up the tea bags, place the tea bags in the simmering water. Simmer for 7-15 minutes to taste. Remove tea bags. Remove from heat. It is also fine to add the tea earlier, it just won't do much until the water is hot.

Grate the ginger root into a medium sauce pan. It is not necessary to peel the ginger first. Cover with more of the water. Boil until the ginger smell mellows. This can take anywhere from 10 minutes for new ginger, or around an hour for old ginger.
Pour the contents of the pot through a sieve into a bowl. Make sure to get all the ginger out of the pan. Discard the ginger solids in the sieve.
Use a 1 cup measuring cup to move the liquid from the bowl back to the sauce pan. Make sure to keep track of how much liquid you have. Add 1 1/2 times the volume of the liquid, in sugar, to the sauce pan. Keep on low-medium heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

Place remaining water in a pot or sauce pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cover.

Allow the syrup, tea, and water to cool.

Using a funnel, pour the 11 1/4 cups syrup into a sterilized 4+ gallon bottle or carboy. Add the yeast, lime juice, tea, and splenda. Add additional water until you reach a volume of 4 gallons. Place the cap on the bottle, shake to combine and aerate. Install your airlock. Place the brew someplace cool and dark. Wait...

The reason I used spearmint is both that it isn't "peppery" the way pepper mint is, and it grows wild in my backyard. I cut it every 2-3 weeks and it produces 1 1/2 to 2 cups of dried peppermint each time. This is after destemming and crumbling into tea sized flakes.

The overall flavor is good. Strong mint flavor. Good ginger flavor too. The boiling mellows the ginger considerably. Not much fire, just good flavor. A little warmth in the back of the mouth after drinking is all. The color is a light yellow with a tinge of green to it. It was practically opaque when I bottled and pasturized it. It is still slightly murky after chilling in my fridge for a week, though it has cleared considerably.

I did halt the fermentation to early though. The result is a brew that is sweeter then I intended. Next time I would use a yeast nutrient as a lot is going to be missing from the syrup and the tea that the yeast would need. I would also add the splenda after the fermentation was complete. Otherwise, it would be problematic to get the sweetness where you wanted it. I would also make a starter first, and use around 10 grams of yeast in a 1 quart or so starter.

I did not own a hydrometer at that time, so I am unable to determine the ABV.

Based on the additions you made, that may be closer to what you are looking for in a future brew.

I have a chocolate mint plant. I thought I would find awesome uses for it but as it turns out it's really only used for desserts. I think it would make an interesting beer but I haven't played with it enough to figure out the best way or the best quantity to try.

There's a tiny brewery in Charlotte called NoDa Brewing that makes a pretty good beer called the Nodajito, its a belgian wit with mint and lime. I 'm glad I decided to have a sample when I asked the bartender about it because she told me it was weird, but I liked it.

No Label brewery here in Texas makes a mint IPA that's awesome.

janitorjerm said:

No Label brewery here in Texas makes a mint IPA that's awesome.

Click to expand...

Do you really taste the mint?

So far I've only seen their milk stout up here. I liked the milk stout. I also found the hefe in Austin but thought it was pretty bland.

I could. I had it at The Counter when they did meet the brewer night. It came with a flight of beer and a flight of sliders. It was subtle then but when I was talking to the brewmaster he said the next batch was coming up on the mint so now I'm sure its there. For what its worth no one in our party liked the Hefe.

Was considering a mint porter. Since dogfish pulled off a mint stout, I think a porter is safe. Thoughts?

just brewed a mint stout last month, it tourned uot great! It was just a test batch (low volume and low gravity beer, don't want to waste material ) but for sure i'm going to try it again! I'm planning to do a big chocolate stout with mint for the winter.

I've used what we call " ice mint" here in Italy, I don't know if the translation is correct. the taste is stronger than the "normal" mint and iot is also more refreshing.
http://www.lhogarth.it/cd2002/cat/img/1jeb.jpg

Mint in the boil will do nothing aside from boil off all the flavor of the mint, or change the flavor into something acrid. At most, I would only boil it for 10 minutes.

Flameout and "dryherb" additions are the ONLY way to go with such a delicate herb like this as far as I'm concerned. Take it from a Chef... or leave it, your choice.

bobbrews said:

Mint in the boil will do nothing aside from boil off all the flavor of the mint, or change the flavor into something acrid. At most, I would only boil it for 10 minutes.

Flameout and "dryherb" additions are the ONLY way to go with such a delicate herb like this as far as I'm concerned. Take it from a Chef... or leave it, your choice.

Click to expand...

I agree completely. Boiled fresh mint tastes like old socks.

I have also used mint in cooking, and particularly in soups it needs to go in last. (I use basil that way as well.) I think the taste of bitterness or acridity is from tannins and the bitter juices in the stalks that is released by heat, and that same heat destroys the mint oils that contain that minty flavor. For your current beer, I would think it possible that the yeast will clean that up in time, but for next time definitely add only at flameout or in the fermenter.

Now I am thinking of a wheat beer using mint & lemon/lime, in the same way that witbier uses coriander and orange. Hm. (Of course, my last witbier/blue moon clone ended up terrible, so who am I to wonder?)

Got a co-worker that has a pretty good garden. They have pineapple mint. Never heard of it. Would like to try it in a porter for winter batch. Thoughts?

Hmm. Probably good as a dry addition to a fairly fruity base recipe. I've never tasted any such thing before though, so I can't really say.

The best way you can do this, IMO, is to use fresh mint leaves and fresh limes in the secondary.

I did a Chocolate Mint Stout before. It was delicious. I added 1oz of fresh mint leaves, in a hop bag, at flameout.
A friend of mine, who does a lot of mint tea, told me fresh mint can get bitter if steeped too long.

I once did a 'Mint Pale Ale'. I did a very light and pale beer - about 3.5-4.0% ABV - and brewed the beer entirely as normal. I hopped it very, very lightly with Perle. I believe it was 0.33 oz for bittering, about 10-15 IBU. I also added 0.33oz at flame-out. Fermented per usual using a neutral american ale yeast - most likely, US-05.

After fermentation, I took a pyrex measuring cup, and added 0.33oz more Perle. I steeped that in about 24oz recently-boiled water. Added in an entire box of (individual teabags) Bigelow Plantation Mint and let it steep (covered in foil) until it was room temperature. Then, I poured the contents including the hop sludge into my fermenter, but leaving the tea bags behind.

Kegged, carbed, and let it mellow for two weeks. The result was a wonderfully light, dry, minty beer that went down easy in the summer heat.