Who has tried to brew Gruit?

In today's WSJ there is an article on the rise of gruit.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444897304578044733005355570.html?KEYWORDS=gruit

Looks interesting but wanted to see what other people's experience and opinion is on brewing Gruit.

I have searched HBT and read some of the recipes and may give a couple of small batch tries.

i want to but haven't plucked up the courage. most of the commercial ones i've tried are toned down so as to be somewhat sellable, i think. having Narke's (sweden) bog myrtle ale recently may have swung me, it was divine
so, please post any and all results!

I have brewing what will be more of a gruit wine, I haven't sampled it yet. I do make gruited kombucha, it does seem to magnify the effects of alcohol so I think there is something to it. It does taste good, especially with heather tips in it. I'm using heather tips, marsh rosemary, sweet gale, and yarrow. Yarrow is a bit bitter but also flowery, some people don't like it.

This is a recipe that I have done in the past - it was a bit interesting tasting for a "beer" but it was extremely popular.

Ingredients:
------------

15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US
10.1 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L
5.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
5.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
1.25 oz Gale - Myrica (Boil 30.0 mins)
1.25 oz Rosemary - Wild (Boil 30.0 mins)
1.25 oz Yarrow (Boil 30.0 mins)
0.63 lb Raisons (Boil 10.0 mins)
1 lbs 14.0 oz Honey (1.0 SRM) - added at flameout
3 (I think) oz French Medium Oak Chips (Secondary 14.0 days)

1.0 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787 ) - (2L Starter)

wow sounds interesting indeed. have you tried it with a neutral yeast or always with the belgian?

Do u boil the seasonings before or after u add the malts?

I have not brewed one yet,but have been reading up on them. http://gruitale.com/intro_en.htm has more info for you.

The Belgian is the only yeast that I have done, though with all of the herbs, there is little of the belgian funk that comes through. It just adds a bit of interest with the belgian.

As for the herbs: I add them to the boil (30 minutes). One time I took half of the Gale and reserved it and soaked the reserved Gale in vodka (just enough vodka to cover the gale). I then added the gale and vodka to the secondary along with the oak. I read that some fo the components of the Gale were best extracted with alcohol which is why I did that. Came out really good that way.

I made a pretty awesome wormwood gruit/purl. I was worried when I first bottled it that the wormwood made it taste like vermouth, but after just 2 months in the bottle it's pretty danged awesome, if I might say so myself. I have the recipe on my blog:

http://zankapfelhomestead.wordpress...black-purl-of-innsmouth-ginger-licorice-purl/

I used a recipe which had me use Yarrow and sweet gale. It recommended fresh yarrow but all I had was some dried yarrow from a healthfood store. A little goes a long way. The end result was a tart lemony(think shandy with no sweetness)beer. Ive read that due to no hops that it can get tart alsther people seem to have different results. That is just my experience,and I do kind of like it as a refreshing summer beer,light and lemonytart with some floral/herbal component.
I used the recipe in Pappizans book.

It's not technically a true Gruit because I used 2oz of hops.... But I have a damn good pale ale recipe I made using Bog Myrtle and Elderberries I'd be happy to share of your interested.