Lavender

So my fiance wants to try her hand at making a beer, and she wants to try putting Lavender in it. I suggested a Wit, which is a style she likes a lot, but she wants to hear more suggestions before committing.

Anyone out there have a killer recipe with lavender in it?

Seems to me that a wit would work the best, maybe using it in secondary like dry hopping.

THere's some discussion here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/lavender-beer-i-know-55896/

There's very very very little discussion/info about using Lavender, I don't know if it's because it turns out nasty or just becasue not many people have done it. But in the book,


THere's a recipe for a pseudo-"beer" with lavender here;




Now having read the book I will tell you, he's NOT a brewer, and most of his recipes bear little resemblance to beer as we know it. He's more of a philosopher/new ager writing about herbs and alcohol, so I as both a theologian and a brewer, have taken his book with a bot of a grain of salt. I question his research on so many levels, both looking at his take on ancient religions AND on Brewing, and I find a lot of his stuff lacking in both venues so take it with a grain of salt.

Google netted me one decent link here;

http://craftsofdestiny.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-beer-begins.html

If I were playing around I would go for a wit with a "dry hopping" of a few sprigs of lavender...I would definitely do small test batch of no more than 2.5 gallons...

Good luck..But I doubt you will get much actual info here...I only found the two thread in the "similar threads" box down below my post, and very little in the interwebs...so YOU and your GF have to be the trail blazers and let us know what you find.

I would second the wit and maybe, maybe try it with a stout. I'd go very light on the lavender though, either way. Too much and it's going to smell like potpourri and taste like soap. No recipe, but I'd find a good solid wit recipe and then play with it from there. No idea how much lavender to add though. Some choices would be fresh or dried lavender flowers and adding it to the boil or in secondary.

Revvy said:

Good luck..But I doubt you will get much actual info here...I only found the two thread in the "similar threads" box down below my post, and very little in the interwebs...so YOU and your GF have to be the trail blazers and let us know what you find.

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Yeah, I've done a bit of searching on my own, and the lack of information out there was the reason I made a new post for it.

I'm thinking Wit, playing down the coriander and boosting the orange. Lavender and orange is a classic culinary combo. My other thought was a saison style. The stout sounds possible, too.

She picked a few hundred stems of culinary lavender this year and dried the flowers, so I'm sure we'll have enough to try a few different things.

Stout ever occured to me....I don't think it would work will all those dark malts, but if it did, it would be a contest winner and a stellar beer all around.....Actually I think any lavender beer that ends up working could be a stellar and award winning beer. This would be something that could end up in a Sam Adams longshot box....

It's kind strange, but at the same time if done right, could be something sublime and awesome. Don't shoot her down, encourage her instead...It may take some playing around....It may even take some lactose to sweeten a bit (I dunno) but she might really be on to something here.

My recommendation is to add the lavender post-ferment and start with a small amount, like a few grams. A Kolsh might also work for the base.

You could lean towards Amber Ale like Fraoch:
http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/historicales.php?id=30#top

I've been toying with using flowers for the aroma portion of beers. Like a Rose Pale Ale for the wifey. Let us know what you eventually do, how you did it, and how it came out.

TIA

My housemate brewed a lavender beer awhile ago, pretty much to experiment and use up all of his leftover ingredients; I thought it tasted fantastic; practically a laundry list of roasted malts and adjuncts, incl. Munich, British crystal, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked barley and flaked wheat, lightly hopped with Willamette and 3/4oz Lavender added at flameout. It somehow all came together wonderfully. The lavender didn't really stand out, and overall the beer had a creamy, dessert-like taste without being very sweet, kind of like a custard. He brewed it extract, I'm looking forward to adapting it to all-grain one of these days. I'll post the recipe if anyone's interested.

What about Berliner-weiss? My fiancee makes a killer lavender lemonade. In a lot of ways, the sourness of berliner-weiss reminds me of lemonade.

Wow all these Ideas sound great!!!!

You might want to prepare yourself for the lavender only coming through in the aroma. It's such a fragrant herb, but to use it in large enough quantities that you can taste it might be too much.

I made a chilled lavender soup once and put way too much in - it smelled amazing but was so gaggy with this round, melon-like thickness.

Ok, I was intrigued by the Stout suggestion. Here's a first draft of a recipe (playing off of a orange chocolate stout recipe). Anyone have thoughts?



Amount Item % or IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) 83.72 %
8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 4.65 %
8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) 4.65 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 4.65 %
4.0 oz Carafa I (337.0 SRM) 2.33 %
0.75 oz Nugget [13.00 %] (60 min) 33.9 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (5 min) 3.8 IBU

0.75 oz Lavender (Boil 5.0 min)
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min)
3.00 oz Cocoa nibs (Boil 5.0 min)

Mash at 154.

Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Bitterness: 37.7 IBU
Color: 31.6 SRM

Edit: heh. I just read the "laundry list" above and saw that it had Willamette. I like the idea of layering some herbal/floral notes into a stout. Kinda like EKG without the "farmland".

Lavender is pretty delicate right? I'm not sure if I'd even boil it, especially in a stout. Let if ferment out, then "dry hop" with it. Keg or bottle when it has the level of lavender you want.

I think a saison would be great with lavender. But in order to avoid the hassle of getting a saison to ferment out, try using the seasonal flanders golden ale yeast wyeast has out right now. It creates and awesome sweet perfumy aroma that would pair amazingly with a little lavender. I think a really simple grain bill, with very minimal hops (only for bittering) and mashed slightly high (like 154) would be great with a little lavender dry hopped in.

If you do a saison, I'd use a saison yeast. Wyeast 3711 has no problems fermenting out. A saison might be a great beer to try some lavender in, I agree.

KingBrianI said:

try using the seasonal flanders golden ale yeast wyeast has out right now. It creates and awesome sweet perfumy aroma that would pair amazingly with a little lavender.

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Thanks for the tip on that yeast. That sounds divine.
Right now I'm thinking of doing multiple 1 or 2 gallon batches of several different things, picking the best one, and letting my fiance brew a full batch of that.

So far I'm thinking wit for sure, saison or belgian golden, stout, and a brown or amber. She doesn't care much for barleywines, but that could be fun if not too sweet (think back background note, not lavender syrup).

I was thinking while doing dishes about Lavender Icecream that someone made of the food network or something....How they got the flavor and aroma infused in it...

I'm wondering if you'd find help looking at some food recipes with lavender, like this one.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Honey-Lavender-Ice-Cream-108526

Just a thought.

I did a Scottish Ale with lavender almost a year ago, it is just now getting to be drinkable. The lavender was way overpowering, and worked with the extract twang to make it terrible. Luckily I let patience be my guide, and waited it out. Had one for the first time in almost 4 months last week, and it was much better. Not nearly as lavendery.

Definitely start small when adding non-standard ingredients. Better to end up with a beer that you can't tell the difference in, than one that is terrible.

chri5 said:

I did a Scottish Ale with lavender almost a year ago, it is just now getting to be drinkable. The lavender was way overpowering, and worked with the extract twang to make it terrible. Luckily I let patience be my guide, and waited it out. Had one for the first time in almost 4 months last week, and it was much better. Not nearly as lavendery.

Definitely start small when adding non-standard ingredients. Better to end up with a beer that you can't tell the difference in, than one that is terrible.

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How much did you use and how? Good to have a guidepost of where "too much" is.

If I had to guess, I'd say like 2-3oz. I didn't take any notes, and didn't weigh it at all. I also added it at 3-4 different times throughout the boil.

2-3oz sounds way too high. I have a bag of just flowers stripped off the stalk, and 4oz is pretty much a full ziplock sandwich bag.

I'm planning on staying under 3/4oz in 5gal, and probably under 1/2oz in all but the wit. I'm not looking for a whole lot of flavor, but it would be nice if some came through alongside the aroma. I'll start with adding small amounts to the boil, then "dry-hopping" if we want more lavender.

oh I agree, however much I used was WAY too much lol

I did a Lavender "kind of a Wit Summer Ale" a few months ago. It turned out pretty dang good, and I am not that much of a Wit fan. The SWMBO loves it.... Next time I'll put in twice the citus zest.
here is the recipie:

“Pig in the Garden Summer Ale”

Batch size: 5-gallons
Boil Volume: 6-gallons
O.G.: 1.049
F.G. 1.010
IBU (from hops): 10.4
Color: 4.03 SRM
Assume mash efficiency of 70% for calculations (if higher, so much the better)

6.5lbs Pilsner malt
0.25lbs Munich malt
3lbs white wheat malt
1/2-oz Styrian Goldings hop pellets, 4.5AA 90-min.
1/2-oz lavender 5-min. (from my garden, used the flowers and about 8" of stems)
3/8-oz Indian coriander 5-min. (had a heck of a time finding it!)
Zest from one lime 5-min.
Zest from one orange 5-min.

Infusion Mash at 1.25-quart per pound at 151-degrees for 60-min.
Batch sparge at 170-degrees in two batches.
90-min. boil (very low boil, more of a “simmer&#8221
and I cheated and used T-58...

So I thought I'd revive this thread with some results and comments.

Those of you who are AHA members might have seen the original homebrew recipe for The Bruery's Orchard White published this month. It's a witbier, with 0.2oz French lavender at flameout. I have a bottle at home, but I haven't tried the beer yet.

I entered a lavender wit as a 16E in the NHC first round this year, scoring a 39.

Sounds like the judges liked it a fair bit. The recipe was very standard for a wit- 2/3 pale, 1/3 wheat, 8oz oats, hops for 25 IBUs with 3/4 oz coriander and orange peel.

I pulled off a gallon at flameout and added 2 grams of English culinary lavender and a couple ounces of honey. It is quite floral in the nose, but well balanced and crisp finishing. The lavender masks the spice somewhat more than I would have liked, but it's a good beer overall.

I did the same with a chocolate stout (it's the chocolate mint stout recipe from these forums, with lavender instead of mint). I used 2 grams / gal here as well. This beer came out slightly floral, but the lavender was muted. I think I could have doubled the addition and been fine- I'll give it a shot if I brew a similar beer soon.

I'm brewing a saison this weekend, and I intend to flower a gallon of it with lavender. We'll see how it goes.

Vosge chocolates makes some high end chocolates with some very interesting (odd) combination but they are always pretty tasty. They have a drinking chocolate that is "Lemon myrtle, indigenous to Australia, imparts an exhilarating breadth of flavors reminiscent of lemongrass and kaffir lime. A hint of lavender flower yields a floral bouquet while the citrus notes of lemon myrtle cut the sweetness of white chocolate" (it is quoted from their website as I'm to lazy to type all that).


These might be interesting to blend into a beer.