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Manimal Gruit

Homebrew Beer Recipe

aj
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Submitted by aj on Sun, 04/26/2009 - 13:25
Style (BJCP): 
Gruit
Volume in US Gallons: 
3 gal
Extract Ingredients: 

3.5 lb light LME (liquid malt extract)
3.2 oz light Crystal Malt

Herbs. (These were day-old cuttings. The weights will change as the herbs dry.)
2.25 oz Yarrow
1.1 oz Sweet Woodruff
0.5 oz Lemon Balm
0.6 oz Hops

Extract Instructions: 

Heat 3 gal water to 165F. Steep crystal malt for 30 mins at 165F. Sparge w/ 2 cups water at 170F and let drip. Remove grain bag, then dissolve malt extract and stir. Bring to boil. At beginning of boil (@60 mins) add half of yarrow, all of hops and lemon balm. At 5 minutes (end of boil), add the woodruff, and the rest of the yarrow. Cool to 75F, pour into fermenter, and pitch the yeast.

Final Gravity: 
1.015
Original Gravity: 
1.049
5
Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Comments

aged well

aj's picture
Submitted by aj on Sun, 04/26/2009 - 13:27.

This one became very interesting after being in the bottle for two months. If this is your first gruit, it takes a few to get used to other herbs besides hops. The late addition of fresh sweet woodruff gave this recipe a spectacular aroma.

Don't add hops

Submitted by Gruit Guy on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 15:46.

Gruits pre-dates hopped beers. Back then an ale = herbs not hops and beer = hops.
If you want to drink a true gruit don't add hops. The hops in my opinion counter acts the goodness that is gruit. If you need more bitterness use more or other herbs. A pinch of wormwood or mugwort will add a lot of bitterness.

I've just tasted a Yarrow ale (not a gruit but a nice herbed ale) that is out of this world. I've had many friends taste it and they didn't notice the "missing" hops. One friend an avid beer/ale drinker and brewer thought the floral nose to the ale was hops!

Brewing can be a time machine into our past.

non-hops

aj's picture
Submitted by aj on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 23:52.

This recipe is a modern bastardization of gruit, I agree. However, each brewer typically had their own mixture of gruit herbs that made each one unique. Call hops my "secret ingredient" in 2010.

Call it what you want, it is a very tasty recipe and a gentle introduction to herbal brews for hop addicts.

By the way, can you post any of your herbal beer recipes? Any other herbs besides the classic gruit herbs that you like to use?

Heather Ale

Submitted by Gruit Guy on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 15:21.

If you're worried about hop-heads not liking gruit I'd suggest having them try a Heather Ale.
I'll try to post some recipes soon. After brewing with hops for many years I've decided to brew without them. Hops have a sedative quality and beers made with them are widely available. Ales without hops are hard to find and I find the herbs that I use to be uplifting.

So, bite the bullet and drop the hops (at least for gruits). A good cross-over brew, for hop-heads and even people who usually don't like beer, is fermented Ginger Ale. All you really need is some ginger root, lemons, sugar and yeast.

If you like the taste of beers with herbs added that's cool BUT you won't be able to feel the uplifting effects of herbs like yarrow. I've done an experiment where I made two batches of gruit only changing the malt used in one to a hopped extract. The hopped one sedated the non-hopped one invigorated.

Brewing can be a time machine into our past.