looking for a gruit recipe

[animus_divinus]

im looking for some traditional pre-hops gruit recipes... i know gruit is a mixture of various spices and seasonings.. so im interested in finding a good mix.. preferably of a traditional scottish style gruit for old style scottish ales

does anyone have any references to any traditional scottish gruit recipes?

 

[Priemus]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gruit-ale-180815/

What i was playing around with a year ago. The site most interesting is probably http://www.gruitale.com/recipes_en.htm

 

[animus_divinus]

how did it turn out?..... looks like a nice recipe.. i can get rosemary, but it looks like yarrow and mugwort are going to be difficult to find locally.. may have to order it online.. im not sure if i want my first attempts at a wee heavy to use gruit or hops though... not sure if im going to need myrtle or moss though... since im going for a scottish style i should certainly find a recipe that incorperates heather

 

[animus_divinus]

from what i could gather so far, gruit seems to be equal portions of whatever herbs are used in the mixture.. mugwort, heather, yarrow seems to be the basic scottish gruit, though i could be wrong... so i could mix these together all in equal portions, but how do i determine the bitterness of this mixture to calculate how much i would need to add to my brew in place of hops?

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

I made one that got 3rd place in the first round of the National Homebrew Comp last year. Randy Mosher was one of the judges in the final round and said good things about it on the form.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/yule-gruit-213381/

 

[heywatchthis]

You might try www.themadfermentationist.com ...Oldsock has made a gruit or two recently.

 

[FatherJack]

Doog, that looks awesome!

I can't make it right now here in Japan, but I'm debating moving back to America next year and I will try this as one of my earlier brews.

 

[Priemus]

The one i had turned out beautiful!

Was a big dark beer, about 9%, had a nice woody spiceyness, little on the sweetside. If youve ever tried Norwegian xmas beer it was remarkably close to that.

But, Id do it again.

 

[animus_divinus]

is gruit supposed to be a direct replacement to hops?.. for example, 1 ounce hops = 1 ounce gruit, or do i need to add more gruit to get the same bitterness?

 

[Priemus]

Gruit isnt hops, gruit is a general term for a beer made using a substitute for hops. As it turns out in the only recipe ive tried (skull splitter) it was more or less a 1to1 substitute of yarrow instead of bittering hops, but that isnt consistant with other recipes. The one i had was just a simple one.

 

[animus_divinus]

gruit is a mixture of herbs and spices to be used as a bittering agent before hops, the question is just how bitter is the mixture? it would be nice to find out so i know just how much gruit i would need to achieve the IBU needed in a recipe

 

[LexusChris]

I looked for quite a while for some sort of bitterness measure for various gruit herbs, but could not find any.

IBU's are only used for hops, and any herbs or spices you use will not be equivilant by weight... at all! So, you can either look up a simliar recipe and try to judge if you want more or less of that flavor from the user's posts, or do lots of experiments on your own.


I also found a great resource from Brew Your Own magazine. I posted a link somewhere in here a few months back. It is a chart of various herbs & spices, with some recommended quantities & times. PM me if you cannot find it.

My gruit recipe is inspired by Northern Great Britian and the classic gruit herbs: Yarrow, Bog Myrtle & Wormwood. The base recipe is an Old Ale, and I've done 3 iterations to get the gruit herbs where I like them.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/ye-olde-gruit-ale-237269/

With a little reserach under your belt, you should be able to come up with a starting point, and then do some small batches to see where you are at.

Good luck!
--LexusChris

p.s. I really liked the looks of Doog's recipe above! Will have to try that one soon!

 

[animus_divinus]

from what i could tell.. most recipes use heather, yarrow, mugwort, and sweet gale... sometimes mixed in equal proportions, and sometimes all equal except for the sweet gale.. i guess whats best for me is to study what each of these do and when to add them... then i could taste the product and see what needs to be adjusted.. so i think experimentation is best

im going to brew a very basic scottish wee heavy using golden promise and roasted barley as the only grains, and EKG or fuggles hops with scottish ale yeast... when i have this recipe tuned im going to remove the hops and start testing it with gruit

this one recipe i found for a scottish ale using gruit was 2 ounces of each mugwort, heather, and yarrow with just a dash of sweet gale, so i think ill grow these in a garden this summer to harvest for making an old fashioned medieval ale... in fact, my recipe is going to be very similar to the one here http://www.gruitale.com/rec_st_emilian_gruit.htm except i will be using golden promise and roasted barley so i could follow the quantities and time for each step with my recipe... yeah, i like that idea, thats what ill do this fall and if it comes out well, i will have to determine how much of the herbs ill need to grow next year to satisfy my brewing habits