Gruit Mead

[Naraic]

Shure we all speak the same language when we are drunk!

What is the gingers purpose?

 

[Naraic]

A quick google didn't reveal anything as to the purpose of the ginger.
I would suspect it is used for its antibacterial property's, gives the yeast a chance to catch hold.

 

[bernardsmith]

A quick google didn't reveal anything as to the purpose of the ginger.
I would suspect it is used for its antibacterial property's, gives the yeast a chance to catch hold.

Ginger bug is a traditional method of creating a carbonated drink. The ginger is presumably the source of the fermenting bacteria /yeasts.

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/use-a-wild-fermented-ginger-bug-to-add-fizz-to-homemade-soda

 

[loveofrose]

Day 4 of Honey-Ginger Bug

Signs of life! It still smells good!
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1459978936.132013.jpg

 

[loveofrose]

Update on Ginger Bug:
The first batch of Ginger bug smelled wonderful, but developed white puffy mold on top. I abandoned this batch. I've also decided that in order to make this more mead-centric, a "honey bug" is actually a better way to go. See below.

Honey Bug

I must admit, this is my own (unproven) method for generating a wild starter. Yeast naturally exist in honey as well as most fruits. Here, I am attempting to cultivate yeast from pure honey. It is critical that you use raw, unpasteurized honey for this to work!

1. To a 1 pint mason jar, add the following and mix until full dissolved:
-1/4 cup honey
-3/4 cup spring water
2. Cover with cheesecloth or loose lid, swirl everyday, and wait until you see signs of fermentation.
3. If pleasant tasting, pitch into a batch of gruit mead (2 TBSP for 1 gallon; whole cup for 5 gallons).

 

[ThatVideoKid]

Sounds awesome! I always thought ginger bugs tend to have more success because of the antiseptic qualities, but I'm sure you can get something good going with honey. Maybe a honey ginger bug?

 

[biochemedic]

Update on Ginger Bug:
The first batch of Ginger bug smelled wonderful, but developed white puffy mold on top. I abandoned this batch. I've also decided that in order to make this more mead-centric, a "honey bug" is actually a better way to go. See below.

I'm not certain that the "white puffy mold" was something that you needed to be worried about and leading to abandonment. Some wild critters can do that and will ferment quite nicely. I've done some natural fermentations with left over cider in the past, and they can look *REALLY* funky sometimes, but have ended up tasting awesome!

 

[loveofrose]

Gruit BOMM

I finally received my gruit herbs. It is time to make some Gruit mead! I've decided to stay true to Viking tradition and add a bit of dried malt extract. The DME is only 20% of the fermentables, so it is mostly mead.

For herbs, I checked various recipes for amounts online. The consensus for beer gruit was 1 hour boils with 10 grams of each herb per gallon. For a delicate mead, I think this is far too long and too much. I don't want a bitter mead. Rather, I would like emphasis on the flowery aroma of the herbs.

1. Add 1 quart of water to a pot and bring to a boil. Add the following:
-8 oz Golden DME
-5 grams Sweet Gale
-5 grams Yarrow
-5 grams Marsh Rosemary
2. Boil 10 minutes and cool in an ice bath.
3. Add strained wort to a carboy with 2 lbs of Orange blossom honey to carboy (SG ~1.1).
4. Add 1/4 tsp DAP, 1/2 tsp Fermaid K, and 1/2 tsp K2CO3.
-Add DAP/Fermaid K again at 1.066 & 1.033.
5. Add water to half gallon and swirl vigorously until honey is dissolved.
6. Add water to 1/2 cup shy of gallon. Taste: Very nice and herbal. Reminiscent of hops with a menthol type flavor.
7. Add a smack pack of Wyeast 1388.
8. It should finish around 1.003 (unfermentable sugar in the DME should prevent 1.000).

Post Fermentation
9. Add the following dry herbs in a Muslim bag and leave for 2 weeks:
-5 grams Sweet Gale
-5 grams Yarrow
-5 grams Marsh Rosemary
10. Cold crash and bottle with carbonation tabs.

Specs
SG - 1.102
FG - 1.003
ABV - 13%
4.5 Lovibond

 

[loveofrose]

Day 1
Gruit blasting out of the airlock. Looks like the yeast love Gruit!

 

[loveofrose]

Day 3
Gravity 1.045. Degassed and added nutrients. I may not add the last batch of nutrients since this is going so fast. It seems the herbs are providing something beneficial.

Much to my surprise, the taste is wonderful right now! The Gruit herbs are very fragrant and the taste is difficult to describe. Think flowers with a very restrained menthol/herbal note. I think the old ways were quite good!

 

[dmtaylor]

That looks like a good recipe. The amounts look good to me. I think the DME might be providing some nutrition to the yeast, so maybe you don't need anything else.

 

[Zymomancer]

I'm really happy I found this thread after a few months of mostly ignoring the forums. The most gruit-related stuff I've done is "dry hop" some yarrow, wild bergamot, and sage in a cider, it was not the best pairing but certainly unique. I picked some more herbs and dried them (yarrow, mugwort) but never got around to using them, and have gotten the itch to jump into beermaking. A gruit mead or braggot has now been added to the very long list of things I want to brew, as well.

I'm particularly grateful for your article (https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/gruit-mead/) spelling out some boil times and dosage for gruit herbs. I've seen a number of recipes with mixtures of herbs, or general guidelines, but not much specific that's backed up by direct experience.

A few months ago I compiled a bunch of info from various sources about gruit herbs and other herbs in brewing. I never really "finished" it (a lot of the information is absent or imprecise, namely suggested dosage) but I suppose it's a good time to go ahead and share it. If people are interested on contributing / correcting I can open it up to editing:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l4ZiEjVXSSoo0-9bUx0L4l2wrwqc532_GYO-_O7FBfQ/edit?usp=sharing

(Don't forget to scroll to the right to see sources and some guidelines)

If something is marked with "?" as a source it's probably just something I cobbled together from wikipedia or random mentions of someone putting that particular herb or spice in some sort of brew, so don't take it too seriously.

Also, if you want a commercial gruit sample, I don't know of any meads but Beau's brewing in Vanleek Hill (near Ottawa up here in the frozen wastes) has an entire series of gruit beers: Bog Water is one of my favourite beers in existence and I have a bottle of Original Gruit waiting to be tasted.

 

[loveofrose]

Thanks Zymomancer! I appreciate any knowledge we can accumulate here!

 

[loveofrose]

Day 5

Gravity 1.015. No need for extra nutrients. This will go dry on its own. Flavor is good, but I'm trying to access whether I need to dry hop with herbs or not. The problem is that I don't know what flavor each is contributing. Let's remedy that problem.

Gruit Herb Flavor Analysis

Since I will be dry hopping herbs, I need a simple taste analysis to determine what flavor is coming from where and what needs reinforcement. For this purpose, I'm simply taking a bit of the herbs and chewing them up to get the flavor (and hoping the stimulant effects aren't too much). I also tried a few extra herbs that I have in my toolbox. My notes below:

1. Sweet gale - A very mild wintergreen flavor with an astringency that implies a dry beverage. Good to balance a sweet beverage and give a nice cooling effect on the palette.

2. Yarrow - Extremely flowery with a honey-like component. A slight bitterness at the end, but it's almost like a bee pollen bitterness rather than hops.

3. Marsh Rosemary - Rosemary is the perfect description, only very mild in comparison to true Rosemary. It also has a small peat-like element in the aftertaste that you would not want to overdo.

4. Meadowsweet - A marshmallow like flowery flavor with a mellow, slightly tart finish. I would use this to reinforce a flowery aroma.

5. Mugwort - Definitely bitter, but not as bad as you would think. It also has a spicy note that could be nice to work with.

6. Horehound - Exactly like meadowsweet, but you would need triple the amount of horehound to get the same amount of flavor.

Based on the above, the current Gruit BOMM has lots of yarrow, appropriate amounts of Marsh Rosemary, but not enough Sweet Gale; therefore...

Dry hopped with 2.5 grams Sweet Gale in a sanitized muslin bag.

 

[loveofrose]

Day 7
Gravity 1.005. A substantial tartness has become apparent due to the dryness. The sweet gale is also providing a nice wintergreen type note.

Added 6 oz of honey to balance the tartness (1.020). Vodka added to airlock.

 

[dmtaylor]

Day 7
Gravity 1.005. A substantial tartness has become apparent due to the dryness.

Makes perfect sense. Gruit herbs provide tartness as much as herbal flavors.

 

[loveofrose]

Day 11
Oh yeah! That's what I'm shooting for! Right now, it's room temp and still fermenting, but it has a cooling effect all the way down your throat. Extremely tasty! I can't wait to see how it is when clear.

 

[loveofrose]

Day 16
Began cold crashing.

 

[loveofrose]

My previous attempt to make a honey bug resulted in mold only. How do I know? I streaked the culture on plates selective for yeast and grew no yeast. Success is only met after much failure. I repeat: Success is only met after much failure.

So what went wrong? Maybe too much honey. Honey is a hostile environment, so let's cut it back a bit. Also, maybe there was no viable yeast in the honey I chose. I can increase my chances by using multiple honey sources. Hopefully, at least one will have yeast. Let's try this again:

1. To a jar add the following:
-1/5 cup of honey from a mixture of summer Berry, OB, Meadowfoam, Acacia, and Tupelo varietals.
-4/5 cup ozarka spring water

I also made another ginger bug using only summer Berry honey as above plus a 2" price of ginger sliced thinly with the skin on.

 

[Maylar]

Maybe throw some apple slices in there (with skins).

 

[loveofrose]

The point is to isolate yeast from the honey.

 

[SkeletorMob]

Hey love of rose how did you source your ginger? When I tried a ginger bug it didn't fail miserably but it was infected. I never got mold but i got a rancid smell in one recipe and a small slow ferment to the other. I used organic ginger root from the health store
2 tbl sliced root skin on with 2 tbl of cane sugar daily (as per Zimmerman's instructions).
I like the idea of the raw honey starter, I think I will try that along with an experiment with grapes from a friends vineyard. I really wanted to get into the wild ferment but had to save my recipes with a known strain. I've never homebrewed before haha I love Zimmerman's book, it got me diving in head first with joy! (See thread first batch need advice if your curious at the first attempt)

 

[loveofrose]

Day 19

It's a bit hazy, but much clearer than before. I decided to try a bit. It is very smooth with a strong wintergreen cooling effect. All the gruit herbs come through nicely in nose and flavor. I'm a bit surprised it's this good on the first try. I guess you can't have bad luck all the time!

This recipe is great start for getting to know the herbs. Experimentation can certainly run wild on this.

Improvements? It's really quite good as is, but carbonation would also be nice (which is the plan if the yeast are still viable). Small amounts of ginger or licorice could certainly be nice additions. I like it dry, but sweeter would be tasty as well for winter months.

Let's talk about the thing no one answers on any of the posts I found on gruit. Is the buzz different or not? This gruit mead is just shy of 15% ABV. It is strong in alcohol alone, but it does have a relaxing effect that goes beyond that. I don't really get any "Viking berserker rage" going on with this. It's more of a happy, extremely relaxed buzz. I would say it is a different buzz, but my n=1 at this point. Let's return to this point after more testing. More tasty testing. Yes, [sip] more testing is definitely required.

 

[loveofrose]

Hey love of rose how did you source your ginger? When I tried a ginger bug it didn't fail miserably but it was infected. I never got mold but i got a rancid smell in one recipe and a small slow ferment to the other. I used organic ginger root from the health store
2 tbl sliced root skin on with 2 tbl of cane sugar daily (as per Zimmerman's instructions).
I like the idea of the raw honey starter, I think I will try that along with an experiment with grapes from a friends vineyard. I really wanted to get into the wild ferment but had to save my recipes with a known strain. I've never homebrewed before haha I love Zimmerman's book, it got me diving in head first with joy! (See thread first batch need advice if your curious at the first attempt)

Haha, I went to the store and bought it! Nothing so fancy as Zimmerman suggests. I'm making wild starters to isolate a pure yeast strain through microbiology techniques. I'll write an article (three actually) once all the "bugs" are worked out (sorry, couldn't resist some microbiology humor). Cheers!

 

[Naraic]

A tidbit from my herbalist buddy.
Unripe pine cones are just amazing as a source of wild yeasts. If you are into brewing (sodas, herbal brews, beers, etc...) - just place a few cones into sugar water (15% sugar - 85% water per volume). These pinyon pine green cones already started fermenting in a day. Never had such a fast fermentation (Don't screw the lid too tight). After 2-3 days, the liquid can be used as a starter for wonderful fermented concoctions. I usually use 1/2 pint starter for one gallon of brew. Experimental extension from my book "The New Wildcrafted Cuisine" http://www.amazon.com/New-Wildcrafted-Cuisine-…/…/1603586067

 

[loveofrose]

My previous attempt to make a honey bug resulted in mold only. How do I know? I streaked the culture on plates selective for yeast and grew no yeast. Success is only met after much failure. I repeat: Success is only met after much failure.

So what went wrong? Maybe too much honey. Honey is a hostile environment, so let's cut it back a bit. Also, maybe there was no viable yeast in the honey I chose. I can increase my chances by using multiple honey sources. Hopefully, at least one will have yeast. Let's try this again:

1. To a jar add the following:
-1/5 cup of honey from a mixture of summer Berry, OB, Meadowfoam, Acacia, and Tupelo varietals.
-4/5 cup ozarka spring water

I also made another ginger bug using only summer Berry honey as above plus a 2" price of ginger sliced thinly with the skin on.

Update to "Honey Bug". I allowed this to sit in a dark place loosely capped until the mead cleared. That's right. I said the mead.

At this point, there was a nasty looking mat of filamentous fungi on top; however, the bottom had a fluffy layer of yeast. I pulled the top layer off to the side and got a loop of yeast for plating:

You can see filamentous patches and round white colonies here. The white colonies are yeasties. I've re-streaked one of the well isolated colonies to obtain a pure culture. Can't wait to make some mead with the pure strain!

Ginger bug also worked:

Streaked a single clone of this as well.

 

[loveofrose]

I'm on passage 3 of purifying the honey yeast. It seems to be pure, so I inoculated a 1 cup starter as follows:
1 ounce honey
4 ounces water
1 tsp Fermaid O
One loop of yeast from a single colony

Let's see if the isolate has good characteristics before we go all out.

 

[loveofrose]

Full on fermentation.

This yeast isolate smells like honey during fermentation! Can't wait to see how it tastes!

 

[loveofrose]

The starter of my honey yeast isolate is bone dry. I decided to taste it to see if it was worth going forward to ABV tolerance testing.

Keep in mind this starter had an SG of 1.09 and now it's dry. Most meads at this point would be very thin in body and light in flavor.

Not this mead. It's the thickest mouthfeel I've ever felt in any yeast. It's dessert liquor thick with massive honey aroma. You would swear it was raw honey, but then you realize it's bone dry on the finish. I think I hit the gold mine on this one.

I hope the characteristics last through aging. Crazy good and extremely different. I think I have a true mead yeast!

 

[KingBrianI]

Very interesting stuff here. I'll be following your results closely. May be time for me to start working on gruit again, I'm feeling inspired.