Another nearly extinct beer worthy of note

[unionrdr]

Good to know, thanks. gotta finish cleanin' up in the brewery to be ready for a weekend that's supposed to be in the teens. Gotta tweak the BC grain mill one more time too. Ever since I cleaned it, it won't hold tolerance. Since most of the plants/herbs/spices go in primary on the 4th day of fermentation, I'm thinking of putting them in a 2 gallon nylon bag with a heavy shot glass to sink'em...

 

[unionrdr]

Since next week is retiree payday, I'll finally get this brew started! I never got the spruce extract, but I don't need that one until bottling day. so I decided to just move forward, since I've got quite a pile of bags of grain, herbs, spices, dried plants, etc ready to go. The first is on a Friday, so even better yet! And since my second home brewing book is more about American beer & brewing history & future, I'll be going with my more American brews that need tweaking/finalizing. But this one will be included, as it does represent as well the spirit of ales brewed in America in the earliest days. That time when they didn't have grains to brew with & used whatever they could scrounge up. Definitely gruits of a sort. So this one needs to get done, & so it shall. I have not forgotten..

 

[unionrdr]

A lot of things have happened since my last post, like the wife replacing my fubared computer with a new one! Some files were lost, like this one & the Hybrid lager V4 recipes when the old hard drive surrendered to the click of death. So I gotta start anew with these two. Since it's a PM/PB BIAB beer, I moved it to the BIAB forum below. Look for updates that'll start Saturday with the brew in that forum's posting...

 

[unionrdr]

Good thing I found this thread! New computer's built-in spell checker did some weird things. HP support tried to restore to 7/1, but it failed
& I spent the whole night redoing computer. Ale is about done fermenting, so I'll be checking it any day now. The 1/4oz spruce essence will go in the priming solution.

 

[unionrdr]

Some said it looks complicated. Truthfully, the hardest part was all the research since the start of this year or so. Some of those medicinal plants originally used were/are of questionable safety/value. Mostly, they were substitutes for the more expensive herbs then controlled by the church. You had to buy the herbs, etc. from them. So I used the herbs, etc. that they were subs for instead. Boiled anise seed in 1/2 gallon of spring water for a total of 30 minutes. With 15 minutes left, I added remaining gruits. covered & cooled on day four of fermentation, per recipe. Poured through a 2 1/2 gallon nylon bag into primary, then tied it off with a heavy shot glass for weight to sink it in primary, which started at 5.5 gallons, the 1/2 gallon of gruits/tea making it 6 USG, or 23.016L.
That recipe page is dated to 1695, by the way. I have a couple more of those pages I found for colonial porter, a Wisconsin wheat & a Scot's heather ale.
Still in all, it's been a fun & educational ride this year with researching, finding the ingredients, & finally brewing it. Today, the airlock looks like it's finally done fermenting. With the OG about 1.077 with the gruits added, it looks like it'll be a brown ale, as foretold in research. It is a strong ale, said to resemble a barleywine. But that's where I think similarities end. The strong ale category in BS 2.2.13 (Beta version) seems to fit it best on the bar chart on the recipe design page. I've also written one for the German heavier version brewed when hops had just came into their earliest use. Historians are agreeing that this was most likely the first beer brewed with the then " new" hops! In Germany anyway. But some of the gruits had still seemed to be added, so I compromised. I bittered the beer with hops, wrather than blesses thistle typically used to bitter gruit ales. Then added the remaining gruits, & upped the crystal 10L to 2lbs to add the sweetness it had. The beer was said to be, " sweet, dark & strong as six horses, carriage & all"!
I can tell you this at this point,...1TSP of the tea I made to sanitize the gruits & bring out their flavor, I got a little body & head buzz from them! :rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

For anyone following this thread, I took a first FG sample a little bit ago & got FG 1.024 against an OG of 1.077. Tastes like funeral or minced meat pie!? Amber/copper color, slightly misty with particles in it yet. Aroma is the same as flavor. It seems the anise seed & whole cloves are dominant? Also a little sweet...naturally so, as the pies wood be. Definitely a good fall/winter holiday ale now @ 7.6% by Cooper's formula. I'll be adding 1/4oz spruce Essence to the priming solution to replace the 2ozs spruce tips that were to be boiled with the gruits.

 

[unionrdr]

Took 2nd FG @ 2:58, got .002 points lower @ FG 1.022. Still a bit cloudy, still smells & tastes like funeral/mincemeat pie. Only now a tad boozy/brandied flavor in there...just a little. Oh yeah...:rockin:

 

[Psylocide]

7.2% by real calculations @ 1.022.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, of the 8 or so calculation formulas I've run across, Cooper's is the highest. But still falls within BS2's numbers. A strong ale regardless. Interesting how the aroma & flavor turned out from all the herbs, spices & plants used?...

 

[unionrdr]

The new window A/C unit I installed a couple days ago is finally getting the primary temp down. down to about 21C, or 69.8F now. Hopefully, it'll start settling out clear & stable. FG was 1.022 last I checked.

 

[unionrdr]

Just took another FG sample about 1/2 hour ago. Still @ FG 1.022. With A/C running at between 65-69F, sample was less turbid, but still very misty. Aroma was still like a bright sort of mince pie, tasted the same. That bright slightly sweet/tart brightness on the back. Booziness gone as well. If it's the same Saturday morning, in the bottles it goes before infection sets in from the suck-backs. Although, it has been a lot cooler in here than before, & the A/c unit has a screen filter on it like a drier.

 

[unionrdr]

Finished bottling the Mumme a half hour ago. Got only 59-12oz bottles out of 6 gallons, due to 2L of trub loss. Carbonated to 2.3Vco2. I also put 1/4oz of spruce essence in the priming solution to account for 2ozs of tips that were to go in the boil. Now we wait...

 

[TheHairyHop]

well this has been an adventure. I'm curious on those final tasting notes.

 

[unionrdr]

That'll be at least another month. a few weeks minimum to see if it carbonates in the normal time frame. Then a week in the fridge. I'm going to age most of it for fall & holidays. Should go great with Christmas baking. In any case, I'll do a tasting video in a month. And yes, since I started researching this ale a year ago, it has indeed been one hell of a long journey. Thanks for noticing & commenting. I'd like to send out a couple bottles for folks to try & give opinions.

 

[bigrsmith]

Very excited to see how it turns out when you crack the first one. For sure keep us posted. The adventure has me wanting to try something finding and brewing something like this except I am no where ready for that trip. I am only on my 3rd extract kit.

 

[unionrdr]

I'll definitely keep y'all posted on this one. I'm understandably curious myself as to how the final product will be? Gotta get going on version 4.2 of my hybrid lager next. Trying for that 1950-1965 flavor profile...

 

[premington]

Ummm... Super interesting thread! I read the entire thing, got to the end, and see no report on how the gruit turned out. What a tease!

Is there a review of how this tasted?