Gruit
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:18 am
I suppose Gruit would fall under this category?
I just made my first gallon of gruit, but sort of came up with my own recipe, based on what was around (currently Im in the Balkans). It was also my first all grain.
Camomille, ginger, mountain tea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideritis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), coriander, fennel, sage, some orange peel zest and honey.
The grains were from the market - also made a dark crystal malt, and a light one. Malting was my favourite part of the process.
Guessed with the proportions.
Cleaned equipment with dish soap, did not sanitize at this stage, as I could only find blue bleach like cleaner with perfume odor.
I bottled today, and am looking at abv of about 3.5%, maybe a bit higher after priming. (OG 1035, FG 1008) Probably should have boiled wort longer, or sparged more efficiently.
I did sanitize today, with some sort of balkan bleach, but its transparent and no perfume.
The brew tastes good, but would caution that camomille has a very strong presence, so go easy. Nice dark colour, sweet herbal taste. I drank a cup of the leftover without carbonation, and it tasted uniquely delicous. Will see in a week how it turns out after carbonation.
Did not log any details, but fermented for about a week.
Why gruit? Couldnt find hops. In the process, discovered that hops are high in estrogen and were traditionally used to put people to sleep. Based on this, I will continue to brew gruit ales, and leave out the hops.
So far, so good!
I just made my first gallon of gruit, but sort of came up with my own recipe, based on what was around (currently Im in the Balkans). It was also my first all grain.
Camomille, ginger, mountain tea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideritis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), coriander, fennel, sage, some orange peel zest and honey.
The grains were from the market - also made a dark crystal malt, and a light one. Malting was my favourite part of the process.
Guessed with the proportions.
Cleaned equipment with dish soap, did not sanitize at this stage, as I could only find blue bleach like cleaner with perfume odor.
I bottled today, and am looking at abv of about 3.5%, maybe a bit higher after priming. (OG 1035, FG 1008) Probably should have boiled wort longer, or sparged more efficiently.
I did sanitize today, with some sort of balkan bleach, but its transparent and no perfume.
The brew tastes good, but would caution that camomille has a very strong presence, so go easy. Nice dark colour, sweet herbal taste. I drank a cup of the leftover without carbonation, and it tasted uniquely delicous. Will see in a week how it turns out after carbonation.
Did not log any details, but fermented for about a week.
Why gruit? Couldnt find hops. In the process, discovered that hops are high in estrogen and were traditionally used to put people to sleep. Based on this, I will continue to brew gruit ales, and leave out the hops.
So far, so good!