experimental beers with a botanical twist
Achillea millefolium. One of the most versatile brewing herbs, useful for bittering, flavoring, and as a preservative. Use fresh or dried, picked if possible early in the blooming period. The flowering tops are the most flavorful part, but the leaves are good, too.
A native of Europe, it’s widely naturalized in the New World as well. Look for it in old meadows and waste areas. I use it often in part because it’s so easy to collect, both in Pennsylvania and in London, where it crops up in the unmowed portions of city parks.
My idea was to flavor a summer ale with a mix of common meadow plants, all gathered at the time of brewing, and thereby to try and capture the essence of a midsummer meadow. Much to my own surprise, I seem to have succeeded on the first attempt!
Juniper forms the dominant note, resiny and vaguely citrusy, supported by the camphor quality of yarrow and the spiciness of ginger. The bitterness is mild, equivalent roughly to a standard wheat beer.
It’s, uh, crisp and floral, medium-bodied, dry! (Can it be all those things at the same time? You sure hope so.)
Braggot is half beer, half mead. I brewed this way back on July 24, 2002, when honey was cheap and when my technique involved a LOT of herbs, usually including roasted dandelion root.
All I know is that yarrow beer (actually, yarrow gruit braggot ale, if you want to get technical about it) makes a nice, crisp, aromatic summer drink. If it helps stave off baldness, piles and ague, so much the better.
