Mint Beer?

As I was brewing today I was eating some mint chocolate chip ice cream and pondered the idea of adding mint leaves to the brew for a unique flavor. Has anyone tried this before?
If I do decide to try this, it will be done with a light beer with a small grain bill variety and hopefully there will be a "cool" aftertaste to the beer.
Any advice or comments are appreciated :rockin:

I havent tried it personally but I have seen and heard good things about mint chocolate stout recipes. I have tried making mint tea and the advice from that experience is add the mint at flame out. If you boil mint for more than a minute or two it will only add a very unpleasant bitterness.

I've thought about it. I think it could compliment something strong on piney hops. Like maybe a Simcoe SMaSH Minted APA.

Coriander is the seed of a basil plant and basil and mint are related. Hah.

well, from what I know, you gotta blend it with barley, IMO im new though, will that work?

I would also be interested to see what this is like. Maybe a dry hopping with some crushed mint as well as adding it at post flame out. Now Much like tea I would imaging that your wort would need to cool to <180 as to not extract harsh flavors from a delicate herb.

papabeach1 said:

well, from what I know, you gotta blend it with barley, IMO im new though, will that work?

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i think he already know he needs to use a basemalt. I think it would work well with a chocolate stout. Since you were eating mint chocolate. Find a chcolate stout recipe and add the mint at flameout. I have no idea how much to use. Or maybe you can substitute it with peppermint extract

I would say use real mint if any. Most mint extracts and peppermint/spearmint extracts tend to have a bite to them. Real mint is a very well rounded flavor, much more then exacted syrup.

While I've no desire to add mint to my beer (but not knocking it for you), it did make me think about how to go about such without the possibility of ruining an entire batch. I guess I'm wondering on this or any other such idea, how similar a taste would you get if you, say, added a few (or one) crushed mint leaves to a finished beer? I know it would be somewhat different, but wondered if you would be able to get a "possibilities?" or "heck, no!" from the experiment without risking an entire batch.

Rick

I did a mint blonde before. I added a few ounces of fresh mint leaves to the boil. The flavor I was going for was a fresh taste like when you chew fresh mint leaves. Fresh leaves will not give you a "peppermint" taste. If you are looking for a "cooling" taste, you need to add mint extract or menthol crystals at bottling.

If you are using leaves, I would recommend a lighter beer. The taste would get lost in a darker one.

I vote for a mix of fresh mint a few minutes after flamout, and some "dryminting" with crushed, fresh mint in the secondary.

I made a chocolate mint stout once, it was awesome. I used extract, for control.

Thanks for the replies guys, I will be trying this with Biermuncher's centennial blonde tomorrow, I plan on adding some crushed mint leaves at flame out and also adding some mint extract at bottling time if needed.

Coastarine said:

I've thought about it. I think it could compliment something strong on piney hops. Like maybe a Simcoe SMaSH Minted APA.

Coriander is the seed of a basil plant and basil and mint are related. Hah.

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Coriander is the seed of cilantro.

B-Dub said:

Coriander is the seed of cilantro.

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Yep. Gotta know that for working in a produce dept at a grocery store

I was thinking about mint beer yesterday and was thinking maybe a milk stout as the base recipe with some cocoa power in with the mint. Leave some residual sugar and still get the mint chocolate flavor.

B-Dub said:

Coriander is the seed of cilantro.

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Err...yeah that's what I meant to say.

Brewfanatic said:

Thanks for the replies guys, I will be trying this with Biermuncher's centennial blonde tomorrow, I plan on adding some crushed mint leaves at flame out and also adding some mint extract at bottling time if needed.

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Don't add the mint at flame out and never boil it because of the harsh bitterness as stated above. Always add it in the secondary or primary after fermentation has slowed. Mints best quality is the aroma and it will get lost in the fermentation process.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/request-comments-mint-tea-hybrid-67041/

I did one, but I used spearmint tea instead of fresh leaves. It was good. Very "cooling", as you said. I thought it was perfect for 100*F+ days.

The Mountain/Southen Sub Pub/Brewery here in Boulder does a beer they call Artic Wheat, an american wheat with peppermint i believe, it is very subtle, most people barely notice it, but I like it a lot. Give the beer a nice refreshing taste. I would go light for sure.

To the person who wanted to add a piney taste....

You can add juniper leaves or berries or young tips off of spruce tree buds

papabeach1 said:

well, from what I know, you gotta blend it with barley, IMO im new though, will that work?

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You shouldn't post if you've no idea what you're talking about.

I just finished a mint stout. I sampled it and right now it is too minty but the beer hasn't conditioned at all in the bottles. I used celestial seasoning peppermint tea bags and used about 10 at flame out and one dropped into the fermenter. I have hope it'll turn out well but if i was going to do it again I'd probably use around 5-6 bags to give it just a small hint of mint. I've read that mint messes with head retention so I'll have to see about that once everything has conditioned.

Tried adding some mint leaves at flameout today in a wheat beer, needless to say it has added a very harsh bitterness (don't really taste much of the mint flavor either) and probably wasn't the best idea. Going to try and "counter" it a bit with coriander and honey, and maybe some mint leaves after fermentation has slowed and see if it is any better.

If I was going to attempt mint in a beer again would definitely not add it at that high of a temp.

I tried to make my own mint extract once for a mint chocolate stout and it was awful. I used fresh mint, diced and soaked in vodka. It tasted like grass clippings and toothpaste. I can not tell you the proper way to add mint to your beet, I can just tell one improper way.

May the force be with you.

Just to follow up on this, the bitterness from adding the mint at flameout has pretty much dissipated. I added some mint leaves during fermentation and it actually added a nice "cool" characteristic to the beer (german style wheat).

I used peppermint which tastes a little more "harsh" than some other mints to me.