experimental beers with a botanical twist
I haven’t been brewing much for the past year or so, for the simple reason that I’ve cut way back on my own drinking. But I still love to brew, so it occurred to me half-way through December that I could brew a batch of beer to give away.
What to do with a staghorn sumac wheat beer and a root beer stout that fail to live up to expectations.
Is there really such a thing as a gruit IPA? you may be wondering. Well, there is now!
A fairly conventional IPA with fresh, wild-crafted Norway spruce tips. Ten ounces in the secondary seemed just about right.
Ground Ivy, AKA alehoof or gill-over-the-ground, is an historically important brewing herb that I’d never fully appreciated until encountering it in its native land.
Lavender, chamomile and valerian root meet hops for a dark lager with an extra midnight-y nudge in the direction of bed.
Cardamom, ginger, vanilla, star anise, and grains of paradise—plus some actual black tea, because why not.
Such a delight to discover a widely used Mexican herb, hoja santa or Mexican pepperleaf, that has nearly the same taste as sassafras! It helps me bridge the cultural gap between Pennsylvania, where I brewed this, and Oaxaca, whose mole negro recipe inspired this twist on chocolate stout.
Hibiscus flowers, Mexican giant hyssop, and epazote or Mexican-tea together impart an amazing floral taste, a bit of citrus-like tartness, and a rich pink color to this lightly hopped beer.
A terroir-ific beer using herbs from the back forty (sweetfern and mugwort) and locally grown base malt from Appalachian Malting in Portage, PA.
Brewed on 6 July 2018 in London, with sloes picked and frozen the previous year. I added juniper berries too, because gin.
