Bittering without hops (Yeongji mushrooms)

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jdog2050

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Hey all, first post.

I live in South Korea, and after getting the hang of brewing, I'm starting to plan more brews using native ingredients. One of which is a medicinal mushroom called "Yeongji" in Korean or "Reishi" in Japanese.

It makes a very bitter tea and has no side effects.

Has anyone here used something other than hops for bittering? How'd you experiment without necessarily just making a batch (ingredients are roughly double out here).

Would appreciate any insight.
 
I haven't even bottled my first batch yet, so this is outside my knowledge.

But the rule seems to be start small with herbs and other bittering agents.
Not sure if any of these will deal with the ingredients you are wanting to
use or the methods you are wanting to use.

With the hops shortage, maybe we'll see more alternative bittering???

There is discussion of using alternative bittering agents in this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313/

Here's another talking of alternative bittering:
Alternative bittering plants [Archive] - ProBrewer Interactive

And another:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/hop-alternative-58473/

There is a recipe for beer using reishi mushrooms found here:
http://www.freebeer.org/blog/recipe/

It's the beer called "Linghzi" in a 5 gallon batch:

"-2 oz Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma Lucidum, Lingzhi).
-Crush or grind and infuse in 1 quart of hot boiled water (max temperature 172 °F).
-Steep for 30 minutes.
-Filter the mixture and add to the boiling wort the last 15 min.
"
...
 
I haven't even bottled my first batch yet, so this is outside my knowledge.

But the rule seems to be start small with herbs and other bittering agents.
Not sure if any of these will deal with the ingredients you are wanting to
use or the methods you are wanting to use.

With the hops shortage, maybe we'll see more alternative bittering???

There is discussion of using alternative bittering agents in this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313/

Here's another talking of alternative bittering:
Alternative bittering plants [Archive] - ProBrewer Interactive

And another:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/hop-alternative-58473/

There is a recipe for beer using reishi mushrooms found here:
FREE BEER Recipe

It's the beer called "Linghzi" in a 5 gallon batch:

"-2 oz Reishi Mushroom (Ganoderma Lucidum, Lingzhi).
-Crush or grind and infuse in 1 quart of hot boiled water (max temperature 172 °F).
-Steep for 30 minutes.
-Filter the mixture and add to the boiling wort the last 15 min.
"
...

Wow, thanks for all the info man.

Jeez, there's already a Linghzi beer, and I thought I was being so original. Oh well. I'm gonna get some Lingzhi and see exactly *how* it bitters per ounce to the gallon.
 
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