Rosemary Recipe?

I'd like to brew a beer using rosemary and was wondering if anyone could either help me out by directing me to a rosemary beer recipe or maybe list the type(s) of beer you think rosemary would go well with? Thanks.

A couple friends and I did a dark saison with raisins, orange peel, and rosemary. Go very easy on it, we used 1 sprig in 11 gallons and that was more than enough: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2008/10/dark-orange-rosemary-saison.html

I have a very lively Rosemary bush and thought I'd throw a few leaves into an ESB boil. Just 9 leaves to be exact, for 50 minutes in a 5 gallon pot. The taste dominates - I'm now sampling the stuff that's been bottled 3 weeks. Seems to have imparted a burnt sugar flavor, along with that unmistakeable almost eucalyptus Rosemary flavor.

There's no question in my mind - the beer would have been much better without it.

Maybe some day in the future, when I'm ready to risk an entire batch on something like this again on a whim, I'll add just one single leaf. Then again, maybe not.

I have a brett brown beer that I made some time ago that got some rosemary additions in my mouth. Brett and rosemary made a great combination together. However I'm not sure exactly how much would be necessary in the boil to equate to a good flavor balance.

Avery Brewing Co has a Winter's Day IPA in their taproom once a year, it's amazing. I emailed them about it, here's the response:

"Hola, Chris...

I make the Winter's Day IPA kegs individually by dry-spicing and dry-hopping unfiltered IPA inside each keg. So I open up the keg, measure out amounts of fresh rosemary from a local spice shop and hop pellets, putting them into nylon bags, and dropping them into the keg. Then I fill it with fully fermented IPA and carb it by hand.

I've made it two times now, so I'm still dialing in the exact amount of rosemary I want... on the first round (last year) I used 12 oz of Chinook pellets and 6 oz of very fresh rosemary in a 15.5 gallon keg. It tasted great for about a week, but after two weeks of rosemary infusion it became way too much.

On the keg that you had (assuming it was in the last couple of weeks), I dropped it to 12 oz Chinook and 3.5 oz of rosemary, but due to some scheduling issues the rosemary wasn't as fresh. So it ended up as a nice hint of rosemary, but I think it could have stood up to some more. Next time I'll probably go for 3-4 oz of fresh rosemary and see how it goes.

It might actually be easier to do in a homebrew setup because you can rack to a new carboy based on how it's tasting... so if you have a 5 gallon batch, you could add nylon bags of 4 oz Chinook pellets (or less... 4 oz is pretty heavy, even in our IPA) and an ounce or two of fresh rosemary. Let it sit a few days and rack it to a new carboy if it's picking up too much astringency.

Hope that helps..."

Here's my Honey Rosemary Saison. Nice saison with a noticeable yet balanced rosemary flavor. Used Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast to avoid having to ramp up the temp too high.

Hodor_Baggins said:

Avery Brewing Co has a Winter's Day IPA in their taproom once a year, it's amazing. I emailed them about it, here's the response:

"Hola, Chris...

I make the Winter's Day IPA kegs individually by dry-spicing and dry-hopping unfiltered IPA inside each keg. So I open up the keg, measure out amounts of fresh rosemary from a local spice shop and hop pellets, putting them into nylon bags, and dropping them into the keg. Then I fill it with fully fermented IPA and carb it by hand.

I've made it two times now, so I'm still dialing in the exact amount of rosemary I want... on the first round (last year) I used 12 oz of Chinook pellets and 6 oz of very fresh rosemary in a 15.5 gallon keg. It tasted great for about a week, but after two weeks of rosemary infusion it became way too much.

On the keg that you had (assuming it was in the last couple of weeks), I dropped it to 12 oz Chinook and 3.5 oz of rosemary, but due to some scheduling issues the rosemary wasn't as fresh. So it ended up as a nice hint of rosemary, but I think it could have stood up to some more. Next time I'll probably go for 3-4 oz of fresh rosemary and see how it goes.

It might actually be easier to do in a homebrew setup because you can rack to a new carboy based on how it's tasting... so if you have a 5 gallon batch, you could add nylon bags of 4 oz Chinook pellets (or less... 4 oz is pretty heavy, even in our IPA) and an ounce or two of fresh rosemary. Let it sit a few days and rack it to a new carboy if it's picking up too much astringency.

Hope that helps..."

Click to expand...

This is awesome, I wish all breweries were this cool with their fans...looking at you New Glarus!

I've made two batches of this and it's a crowd-pleaser. Even won a couple ribbons with it, including a 2nd-place BOS. At flameout I use the zest of one medium lemon, along with the final hop addition and two fresh, approx. 4-inch long Rosemary sprigs -- stems and all. Strain them out before you add to the fermenter. The Moteuka hops from New Zealand have a lemon-lime character that really work well with the other elements of this beer. Let me know if you decide to give it a try, and what you think if you do!

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Snippet Lemon Rosemary Ale (11)
Brewer: Patrick
Asst Brewer:
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.25 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.75 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 3.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 71.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 5.3 %
4 lbs Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM)Grain 2 42.1 %
4 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 42.1 %
1 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4 10.5 %
0.60 oz Motueka [7.10 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 5 21.0 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.00 Items Lemon zest (Boil 0.0 mins) Flavor 7 -
2.00 Items Rosemary (Boil 0.0 mins) Herb 8 -
0.40 oz Motueka [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: Patty's Batch Sparge 1
Total Grain Weight: 9 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash Step Add 13.23 qt of water at 170.5 F 152.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 5.18gal) of 170.0 F water
Notes:
------


Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com

Patty this recipe is going on my "to brew" list. I just need to find some Motueka hops. What is the abv of this beer? It must be fairly low with the few grains you use. Also, from brew to keg, how long does this beer typically take?

steinsato said:

Patty this recipe is going on my "to brew" list. I just need to find some Motueka hops. What is the abv of this beer? It must be fairly low with the few grains you use. Also, from brew to keg, how long does this beer typically take?

Click to expand...

It was 4.7% last time I brewed it -- I got 69% efficiency. You can be drinking this in no time. I usually give all my beers a minimum of 3 weeks in the fermentor (btw, I shoot for abround 67 degrees), but you could probably be drinking this one in that amount of time if you're in a rush. My LHBS sells Motueka, but you can find them here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/new-zealand-motueka-pellet-hops-1-oz.html