You can brew a Gruit
Gruit Ale (5 gallon batch)
Malts/Sugars
3 lbs. Dark caramel dry malt extract
0.5 lb. Light brown sugar
0.5 lb. Dark brown sugar
0.5 lb. Homemade invert candy sugar (medium color)
1 lb. Honey
Yeast
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen
Hops
No hops, of course, but here are the herb additions in a 75 minute boil:
1 oz. Dried Mugwort at 60 minutes
1 oz. Dried Yarrow at 60 minutes
2 g. Dried Sweet Gale at 10 minutes
0.2 oz. Dried Marsh Rosemary at 10 minutes
Or a Heather Ale
Heather Ale
Ingredients for 5 gallons
6 2/3 pounds crushed Scotch Ale Malt or 6 pounds U.S. 2-row malted barley
and 10 1/2 oz. Amber malt (crystal or Cara-type)
12 2/3 cups of lightly pressed flowering heather tips
3/10 oz. Irish moss (10 minutes)
2 3/5 gallons soft water
1/2-3/4 cup corn sugar (dextrose) to prime
O.G. - 1.048
F.G. - 1.011
Mash the malt at 153 degrees F for 90 minutes. Sparge to collect up to 5
1/5 gallons. Add about one-half gallon (2/3 of total) of lightly pressed
heather tips and boil vigorously for 90 minutes.
Run hot wort through a sieve filled with 2 cups (1/6 of total) of heather
tips into the fermenting vessel. Allow to cool and ferment at 61 degrees F
for seven to 10 days. A lager-type yeast is suggested. The original yeast
for Froach Ale was a Scotch ale yeast, but after years of cold slow
fermentation it has evolved into a strain with a bottom-fermenting bias.
When the gravity reaches 1.015, usually the fifth day, remove ½ gallon of
ale, add 2 cups (1/6 of total) of heather flowers and warm to 158 degrees
F. Cover and steep for 15 minutes, then return to the fermenter.
Condition the ale as usual. For those needing a hop fix, add 1 4/5 oz. Of
6% AAU hops for the 90 minute boil to provide bitterness that will not
unbalance the flavors. Late addition aroma hops would compete with the
delicate heather.
For technical buff the numerical specifications for the bottled ale are
alcohol by volume, 4.9 %; O.G., 1.048; pH 4.1; color 9 SRM (23 EBC) and
bitterness 21 IBUs.
What kind of reaction does he have to the hops? The reason I ask is, when I drink IPA's or any other high IBU beer, I start sneezing like a mad man. I'll walk the 8 blocks to my house from Elysian Brewery after a night of drinking their IPA and sneeze all the way home. Fortunately, I love to sneeze almost as much as I like hoppy beers so it works out well for me.
If he experiences serious side effects from hops however, I would be careful with giving him even a low IBU beer.