Rosemary Mint IIPA?

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peterj

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Now before anyone verbally derides me or throws up in their mouth or anything, just hear me out!

So I have a huge rosemary plant growing in my front garden and I love the taste and smell of it. I was thinking the other day that I also like a nice piney hop presence in IPAs. Naturally I came up with an idea for a rosemary IPA. So I made up a little rosemary tea and added it to a hoppy pale ale I brewed to see how it would be. It was pretty good, but I think it added a little bit of an herbal astringency and savory taste to it and made it feel a little too dry. I wanted to add something to sweeten it up a little and maybe reduce the savory aspect of it.

So also growing in my garden right next to the rosemary is a couple huge mint plants. I'm thinking that a small hint of mint might give it a little bit of a sweeter aspect that could be good. I'm also thinking of using crystal and honey malt and mashing around 156 to keep it on the sweeter side with more body to hopefully balance the dry piney perfumeyness of the rosemary. I also decided it might be better to bring it up to the lower end of IIPA range.

I'm thinking some nice fruity hops would strike a good balance with the pineyness of the rosemary so I'm thinking of using Citra and Amarillo.

Anyway, here is a tentative recipe I've come up with. I'm planning on this being a half batch because I realize that it could go horribly wrong and be disgusting. Any thoughts or insights into the recipe or brewing with rosemary or mint would be appreciated. I've never used either in a beer before. I'm open to all comments, suggestions, and mockeries.

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Imperial IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 3 gallons (ending kettle volume)
Boil Size: 5 gallons
Efficiency: 77.5% (ending kettle)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV (standard): 8.07%
IBU (rager): 70.88
SRM (morey): 11.79

FERMENTABLES:
6.75 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (81.8%)
0.75 lb - Belgian - Munich (9.1%)
0.25 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 20L (3%)
0.25 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 80L (3%)
0.25 lb - Canadian - Honey Malt (3%)

HOPS:
0.25 oz - Magnum for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 15, IBU: 28.85)
0.5 oz - Amarillo for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 8.6, IBU: 11.25)
0.5 oz - Citra for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 11, IBU: 14.38)
0.5 oz - Amarillo for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 8.6, IBU: 7.19)
0.5 oz - Citra for 10 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 11, IBU: 9.2)
0.5 oz - Amarillo for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 8.6)
0.5 oz - Citra for 0 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 11)
0.5 oz - Amarillo for 7 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 8.6)
0.5 oz - Citra for 7 days, Type: Pellet, Use: Dry Hop (AA 11)

MASH STEPS:
1) Temp: 156 F, Time: 60 min

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.5 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil
1 each - Rosemary (~5 inch sprig), Time: 0 min, Type: Herb, Use: Boil
1 each - Mint (~5 inch sprig), Time: 0 min, Type: Herb, Use: Boil

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 76.5%
 
Brew it! I have to say I don't imagine it tasting great, but the wonderful thing about homebrewing is experimenting. I'm 100% behind the idea and I hope you prove me wrong and make a great beer!
 
Thanks for the encouragement! Yeah, I'm not convinced it will be great either, but I figured it was worth a shot. I'm thinking about reducing the hops a little so they don't compete with the herbs too much. Maybe make it more of a lower gravity barleywine.
 
Mint will not "Sweeten".

I say DON'T brew it. Just looking out for you.

Leave out the mint and add another lb of crystal 60
 
Barley and other fermentable grains go great with herbs, you don't even need hops at all. Beer with herbs and no hops is known as Gruit. I made an oregano beer that was so good but so bitter until it aged a while. Next time I'm thinking a little basil to soften up the bitterness.

Just for the heck of it, I just went out to my garden, pinched off a little rosemary then went over to my various mint plants and tasted them together. The taste is very nice and distinct. You can't really go wrong with grain and fresh herbs.
 
Mint will not "Sweeten".

I say DON'T brew it. Just looking out for you.

Leave out the mint and add another lb of crystal 60

Mints like apple mint and chocolate mint have a perceived sweetness to them. Not really sweet, but reminds you of sweet.
 
I actually made a couple rosemary juleps last week that turned out pretty tasty so I say go for it! Personally though if your leaning towards the ipa instead of the barleywine I would make it drier and probably use more rosemary. I'm curious to see how this comes out
 
Yeah, I know the mint won't add actual sweetness but the perception of sweetness like BobbiLynn said above. Though I'm not totally sold on using it. Maybe I'll leave it out of this one to see how just rosemary works.

I don't know if I'm quite ready to make the leap into gruit. Maybe I'll try my luck with a hint of Rosemary and take it from there.

LabRatBrewer: How much rosemary did you use for that 1 gallon batch? Fresh?
 
Rosemary juleps sound really good! Did you make them the same way as a mint julep?
 
Similar. I made a rosemary infused simple syrup by just tossing some rosemary into the pan after the sugar dissolved. Then I cooled the syrup strained out the rosemary and mixed it with ice and makers in a shaker and poured over ice. With a sprig of rosemary as a garnish of course.

Come to think of it that may not be a bad way to get the rosemary flavor into the beer instead of throwing the sprigs right into the boil. You would have a little better control of how much rosemary taste your getting because you can taste it before it goes in and your just adding sugar which would bump the abv and dry it out a bit. I dont know if fermentation would kill the rosemary taste that way though...
 
Yeah, I know the mint won't add actual sweetness but the perception of sweetness like BobbiLynn said above. Though I'm not totally sold on using it. Maybe I'll leave it out of this one to see how just rosemary works.

I don't know if I'm quite ready to make the leap into gruit. Maybe I'll try my luck with a hint of Rosemary and take it from there.

LabRatBrewer: How much rosemary did you use for that 1 gallon batch? Fresh?

I just pulled last years note book. I used 5 grams (about .2 oz). It was fresh cut and added at flame out. Styrian Goldings and Cascade hops (probably what I had on hand). Pacman yeast. It was called Rosemary's Baby
 
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