Ricola beer

[TheCollector]

So I keep tossing around the idea of making a herbal tasting beer... Maybe just a small 1-2 gallon batch. I think I want a taste very similar to Ricola cough drops. I even thought about using the actual cough drops as priming drops per bottle... So how could I achieve this kind of flavor profile in a beer?
Thanks everyone!

 

[myerstyson]

echinacea? orange peel?

 

[mrdail87]

You should grab a copy of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Herbal-Healing-Beers-Fermentation/dp/0937381667

It has lots of old recipes, not sure how some of them would come out, but could easily be adapted for a more "modern" brew. Before hops came along beer was bittered exclusively with herbs. Which herbs in particular varied based on location, and local tastes. Been wanting to try out an herbal beer myself, at least in a small batch.

If you want a ricola flavor, they list the ingredients on there website:

http://www.ricola.com/en-ch/Products/Herb-drops/Original

Looks like it prominently uses mint, thyme, and sage, which are easy to get a hold of. I'd start by making a tea with it, taste and refine from there.

 

[unionrdr]

Here's a link to a site dealing with gruit beers you can have a look at; http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm

 

[TheCollector]

Thanks guys. I've heard of that book before but it got really bad reviews. I will check out the ricola website and that gruitale website.

 

[aprichman]

Thanks guys. I've heard of that book before but it got really bad reviews. I will check out the ricola website and that gruitale website.

I have that book. It's pretty weird but I'll skim through it and see if they have any recipes worth posting.

 

[TheCollector]

Thanks aprichman

 

[TheCollector]

What if I use recola drops as my priming drops at bottling time?

 

[Beernik]

Recola herbs.

The two flavors I get most out of the cough drops are menthol and horehound. I've thought about making a horehound beer before. I bought a bunch of horehound candy for it and decided that it wouldn't give me a strong enough flavor. So if/when I do it, I'll look for the actual herb and maybe try dry herbing it.

I'd use a mildly flavored saison or blonde ale as the base.

 

[heckler73]

I made a herbal (not cough drops though!) 1 gallon batch of Fraoch. Turned out quite good, but I wouldn't make 5 g.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/fraoch-ale-heather-ale-recipe-please-90363/index3.html#post6291294