homebrewandbeer.com

Hi all,

My brother-in-law doesn't like beer (!), because he doesn't like the hop bitterness, so I was thinking of making a brew of something without hops. A bit of investigation (i.e. google-is-my-friend) reveals that such a thing is called a gruit. Has anyone tried making one? Or even tried drinking one? If so, tell us all about it!

Tom

You could always try making Mead, fermented honey drink favoured by Vikings worldwide. Can be made with just honey, or with fruit or specialty sugars.

A quick perusal of wikipedia tells me that Gruit was a herb mixture used to bitter beer before the advent of hops, and that it was mildly to moderately narcotic.

NTRabbit wrote:You could always try making Mead, fermented honey drink favoured by Vikings worldwide. Can be made with just honey, or with fruit or specialty sugars.

A quick perusal of wikipedia tells me that Gruit was a herb mixture used to bitter beer before the advent of hops, and that it was mildly to moderately narcotic.

Umm does that make it illegal?

lethaldog wrote:

NTRabbit wrote:You could always try making Mead, fermented honey drink favoured by Vikings worldwide. Can be made with just honey, or with fruit or specialty sugars.

A quick perusal of wikipedia tells me that Gruit was a herb mixture used to bitter beer before the advent of hops, and that it was mildly to moderately narcotic.

Umm does that make it illegal?

One would assume so, though its easy to make using traditional Gruit herbs that don't contain narcotics. Or so google tells me anyway

drtom,

have you thought about making some cider?

Anyone who like apple juice probably likes sweet cider.

Any good HBS will have a Black Rock Cider can, just add 250g lactose to make it sweet, or leave it out to get a delicious dry cider.

(no I am not a Black Rock cider stooge, just a happy consumer)

Sure, I've already got cider conditioning, and I plan to make more.

I just thought gruit would be interesting. If you read some of this: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16441 you'll see some interesting mead and gruit recipes. I was thinking of trying a small batch using bay leaves, rosemary (both from the garden), and juniper berries (cheap from the asian grocer at the vic market) with dark malt extract, say 1kg with .5kg of brewing sugar into 10L of water. The brewcraft calculator predicts ~7%, which is consistent with the historical information.

T.

Hmmmm.......mead. Now that is one great drink. I have a few friends that wouldn't touch it as they think it is weak (I reckon they think it is for sissys). Well! I reckon those cruisers and the like are lolly water.

Mead. Strong enough to knock your block off, but sweet enough to make it slide down.......

Alcomoo, have you got any suggested recipes for a mead.

It is something I've been meaning to give a whirl.

Thanks,
Greg.

No I don't...I am DYING to try one though. I love it slightly warmed. There are a 2 versions that I know of; straight honey & spiced. I prefer the spiced (has hints of cinnamon, cloves, herbs..). Very more-ish. I'll do a bit of a hunt around and get back, as this is definately one I want to get going early next year for winter.

Hi All

For what it's worth, I put on a 1/2 brew of gruit this afternoon.

1kg ldme (would have used dark, but I only had light on hand)
80g treacle
400g dex
8g dry bay leaves (60 min boil)
16g fresh rosemary (60 min boil)
10g dry juniper berries (15 min boil)

Boiled all in 3L of water for 60min (with the late addition of the juniper berries), and made up to 10L with cold water.

Pitched a spare Morgan's Ale Yeast.

OG 1.050

The taste from the sample jar had a good balance between the bay and the rosemary. The juniper was not pronounced, though I think I could pick it in there.

Will post updates when something interesting happens.

T.

Oh, and on the subject of mead, there are whole websites full of recipes (see for example Cats Meow 3).

Just watch out for infection/oxidation. Hops, apart from adding flavour, also act as a preservative.

Indeed - one reason hops took over was their superior properties in stabilizing and preserving the beer, but that isn't to say that other herbs fail in this resepect.

I'll certainly take your advice, though I'm generally pretty careful and have yet to have a noticable infection in any brew.

T.

drtom,
Did you bash up the herbs with a pestle & mortar or boil them whole?

I boiled them whole. If I do it again, I'd bruise the juniper berries. The bay and rosemary don't really need it.

T.

Finally got round to opening the first one of these.

I was fully expecting it to taste awful, and was very pleasantly surprised.

It's kind of beery, cidery and evokes a faint memory of G&T (that'll be the juniper berries).

Not bad at all.

cheers,
dT.

Phew! That must be a releif that your work wasn't in vain. It sounds like an interesting combo of flavours!

Has your BIL like it? Seeing as you started on this venture because he didn't like beer.

He hasn't had a change to taste it yet. It is still reasonably bitter, though less than most beers. He'll get a chance in a couple of weeks: I'm having an "opening of the season" bbq, because it's now cool enough to brew again (just put on a wheat beer - first brew since october last year).

cheers,
dT.