wormwood advice please.

[sturdy begger brewers]

So i want to brew beer with wormwood for the flavor alone ,obviously ,can anyone give me an idea about complimentary flavors and quantities to use?

 

[z987k]

This thread may be to your liking:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=30143&highlight=wormwood

I don't know if you know this or not, but it doesn't cause hallucinating effects, except maybe if you drank enough of the pure oil to die from it. Read the thread or wiki it.

 

[RangerG]

I recently aquired some Absinthe from England; it came via US mail in a package marked "herbal extracts." It was french and a clone of the classic Pernod recipe called Edward, it was awsome (stillis since I got two bottles), but I really think the buzz came from it being soooo tasty and going down smoothe and fast and being 72% alcohol! Not the wormwood. There are claims at Oxygene.com (good absinthe site) about those affects but even those tasters say that the thujone affects are subtle and gone after 25 minutes. All I know was that after a couple I was pretty tipsy - giddy would be a better term - likely from rapid alcohol ingestion.

If anyone tries this, it's a great drink, don't waste money on the fancy drippers, just add about a teaspoon of sugar, a couple ice cubes, and ice water - oula, le fee vert - the green fairy.

by the way - avoid any absinthe from Checoslovakia, it's way expensive and not the real thing, more like mouthwash, I fell victim to one bottle that I now use in airlocks - my wife hates the smell but I kinda like it, a mediciny sanitary smell like it's doin it's job (not like the French variety which is exquisite)

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Wormwood was used prior to hops for bitterning. I am fairly certain is was not used to make an absinthe like product especially since it was used prior to the discovery of distilled aclohol. It is quite bitter and was used as such as well as many other herbs, to balance the sweetness of the wort. I have a book with some recipes for ancient herbal beers I will see if there is a recommended amount in there.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Okay found it.

Worwood ale.

Apparently this is for a 4 gallon batch and it is extract but it should give you something to start with.

4 # malt extract
1 # honey
1/2 oz. of wormwood
4 gallons of water
yeast.

It says to boil the worwood for one hour and then add the extract and honey when it is cooled to 160 degrees F.

Hope that helps.

 

[RangerG]

Sorry to get off subject last night, but from my wormwood reading, evidentally there are two kinds - used in absinthe anyway. Grand Wormwood (with the thujone) and petite (or Roman) wormwood - the Roman (or petite) is evidentally used more for color and is legal to use in Absente (an absinthe-like liquor which you might notice in liquor stores here in the States).

Theres is a lot on Wormwood and Absinthe at http://oxygenee.com Since you're into herbal stuff, this sight should prove interesting because Absinthe is an herbal drink and there is a lot of information on the ingredients, their distalation, history, et cetera.