Gruit Experiment

I have been sitting on some cut and sifted herbs for many months now, and I just cannot wait any longer to make my Gruit.

On a whim, I dropped by my FLBS and slapped together a solid base recipe to add my herbs to. This isn't a traditional gruit base recipe but I am more interested in the hopless brewing process and the flavor profile of the herbs in terms of how the balance against a sweet base.

INGREDIENTS
6.00 lb Briess Light LME
2.00 lb Muntons Light DME
0.50 lb Briess 40L Crystal
0.50 lb Patagonia 8 (I am not really sure what this is, or if I have the name right)

*2 oz Yarrow flower
*2 oz Marsh Rosemary
*2 oz Sweet Gale
*2 oz Wormwood

* 1 oz of each at 30 minutes, the remainder at flameout.

I think that the WLP028 Eddinburgh Scottish Ale yeast will be a fantastic spin for this beer.

How did brew day go? How's it doing fermenting now?

I did an experimental gruit this past weekend with some leftovers. I was amazed the the smells that were coming off it.


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I wonder what patagonia malt is? Dark malt?

I'm glad to see more gruit beers appearing on here (Doog Si Reeb's Yule Gruit opened my eyes to a new path to happiness without hoppiness), and I'm looking forward to hearing how this recipe went!

Update: Brew day went very well and without much incident. The only slip up is the final bunch of herbs didn't get thrown in at flameout, they got thrown in once I had cooled the wort to 70*. I don't think that will really do too much though.

This is Day 6 of fermenting and things have slowed down substantially. It took about 24 hours for the blowoff to really get bubbling, but it sounded like deep, steady heartbeat for about 4 days. I think a starter for the yeast would have helped things take off a bit.

I took a reading and it is at 1.016, down from 1.060 - so we're almost there and at 5.75% to boot. I will check tomorrow and see if there is change. If not, I will transfer to secondary in the carboy to let it clear more.

I was pretty shocked when I pulled the lid off of the fermentor though...most of the herbs and a thick layer of yeasty biproducts covered the entire top. I had to poke my way through that layer (almost an inch) to get my tube in to pull a sample.

IT TASTES AMAZING!!!!!!! It is sweet, with a nice lemony note, a lot of herby-grassy flavors, and a small amount of bitterness. The smell makes me think of a spring meadow. I am in love with this gruit already.....

Anyone have suggestions for the carbonation level of this beer? I was thinking of treating it like a mild, somewhere between 1.8 and 2.0.

Is that too low?

laiced said:

Anyone have suggestions for the carbonation level of this beer? I was thinking of treating it like a mild, somewhere between 1.8 and 2.0.

Is that too low?

Click to expand...

Well how was it?

Cheers

I actually drank one tonight. I love it, but the flavors have sort of melded into one lemony, slightly bitter, herby note. It's good, but maybe not great.

As a side note, it seems as though some of my friends who have tried it have reported hay fever or mild allergic reactions to the gruit. Could this actually happen? Itchy, watery eyes and sneezing are the symptoms. My thoughts were that the yarrow could produce that, but wouldn't the boil kill the allergens?

There is almost no carbonation in this, but I like it low.


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You should listen to the latest Jamil show on spice beers. He told a story about judging a spiced beer at the gabf, and having a bad allergic reaction. He never found out what caused it, but a boil probably won't kill most allergens.