The Gruit Beer Thread

[cmac62]

^^ Ice cream.

 

[Albionwood]

the chicory and dandelion give it a little strange herb note and it’s kinda sour, like black coffee.

I think you said the chicory and dandelion was from a "coffee substitute" so this doesn't sound like a surprising result.

The one time I tried roasted dandelion root I found it to have a very harsh roast character and not much else. Unroasted dried dandelion root on the other hand can provide an interesting but very mild earthy character and has a pleasant aroma; it takes a lot to get much effect. Sometime I'd like to experiment with toasting it to a lighter color and see if there's a sweet spot where you get more flavor without that harshness.

Chicory I haven't tried. A small addition of the stuff used to make Thai coffee might be interesting.

What was your recipe?

 

[Knox]

Hey fellow gruitineers,

In the new year I plan on starting my gruit brewing again, they were sadly put on pause as I had to move to my new house. But now that this is over, I can begin again.

I have made two gruits so far, a yarrow and elderberry gruit. Below is a brief summary of each brew.

My yarrow gruit was a smash gruit (I just realised smash still works for gruits) where I seperated the leaves/stems and flowers. I used the 12g of leaves to bitter with and 30g of the flowers for aroma. The gruit came out light, citrusy and slightly anis like in aroma. A pleasant combination. The flavour was dominated by citrus, herbal and floral flavour. It had a straw like colour and the yarrow didn't contribute any colour to the beer.

My elderberry gruit was more an accident then planned. I was making an Ebulon from "The Homebrewers Almanic" by Marika Josephson, and I simply forgot to add the Nugget as other things were happening in the house. I did add the hops at the end of the boil together with the 1,5 kg of elderberries. The beer ended up being 11% and sour because of the oxalic acids elderberries contain. However the beer came out a dark burgundy, alcoholic and sour, with a faint berry note at the end. I have a single bottle left from that brew that I plan to open sometime next year for new years.

My next gruit is going to be a recipe made by a danish blogger Raabryg (they do not seem to be active anymore, sadly). It is a sweet gale gruit with a small addition of hops in it. I have attached the recipe as a PDF.
Sweet gale is pretty popular in Danish spirits, often you will see spiced snap that contain it and a single brewery really popularised it in their "Porse Guld" by Thisted Bryghus.

What really got me in the gruit mood was the gruit "Old Ale" by Frederiksberg Bryghus. It is such a good balance of savoury flavours that don't compete. If you get the chance to drink it, do so! It is fantastic.

 

[Miraculix]

Hey fellow gruitineers,

In the new year I plan on starting my gruit brewing again, they were sadly put on pause as I had to move to my new house. But now that this is over, I can begin again.

I have made two gruits so far, a yarrow and elderberry gruit. Below is a brief summary of each brew.

My yarrow gruit was a smash gruit (I just realised smash still works for gruits) where I seperated the leaves/stems and flowers. I used the 12g of leaves to bitter with and 30g of the flowers for aroma. The gruit came out light, citrusy and slightly anis like in aroma. A pleasant combination. The flavour was dominated by citrus, herbal and floral flavour. It had a straw like colour and the yarrow didn't contribute any colour to the beer.

My elderberry gruit was more an accident then planned. I was making an Ebulon from "The Homebrewers Almanic" by Marika Josephson, and I simply forgot to add the Nugget as other things were happening in the house. I did add the hops at the end of the boil together with the 1,5 kg of elderberries. The beer ended up being 11% and sour because of the oxalic acids elderberries contain. However the beer came out a dark burgundy, alcoholic and sour, with a faint berry note at the end. I have a single bottle left from that brew that I plan to open sometime next year for new years.

My next gruit is going to be a recipe made by a danish blogger Raabryg (they do not seem to be active anymore, sadly). It is a sweet gale gruit with a small addition of hops in it. I have attached the recipe as a PDF.
Sweet gale is pretty popular in Danish spirits, often you will see spiced snap that contain it and a single brewery really popularised it in their "Porse Guld" by Thisted Bryghus.

What really got me in the gruit mood was the gruit "Old Ale" by Frederiksberg Bryghus. It is such a good balance of savoury flavours that don't compete. If you get the chance to drink it, do so! It is fantastic.

That sounds great!
However, that's not really a gruit. It's a herbal beer. When starting this thread, I wasn't aware of the meaning of gruit either, Susanns papers which are linked to on this thread, are a great source of information regarding this specific topic.

Anyway, glad to see that somebody is continuing on the herbal beer path! My all time favourite is ground ivy, if you can find out somewhere, try it alone first, just like you did with the yarrow. First few weeks in the bottle of can taste weird, bit after some time, just goodness remains.

 

[Knox]

That sounds great!
However, that's not really a gruit. It's a herbal beer. When starting this thread, I wasn't aware of the meaning of gruit either, Susanns papers which are linked to on this thread, are a great source of information regarding this specific topic.

Thanks for the info, I will check out the papers. If I like the brew, I might only use Sweet Gale next time.

The picture from the blog post makes it look quite appetising, so I hope I will get a similar colouration.

Anyway, glad to see that somebody is continuing on the herbal beer path! My all time favourite is ground ivy, if you can find out somewhere, try it alone first, just like you did with the yarrow. First few weeks in the bottle of can taste weird, bit after some time, just goodness remains.

I will! Now I have a forest for a backyard, so I will probably find some. Another herb I would like to try would be Woodruff. It makes a delish syrup for pancakes and I hear it is a common Berliner Weisse flavouring.

What you are describing with the bottling is known as "bottle shock" in the industry. It happens to most products, where it seems like the product needs to "relax" after being bottled. I often experience this twice with our beers at work, first when we transfer them to the lagering tank and then when we bottle. They taste weird until a few weeks in.