Doug Freyburger
2012-12-26 20:37:34 UTC
A gruse is a brew bittered with herbs other than hops. Centuries ago
hops had not yet become the standard for bittering so other herbs were
used. I like to brew them on occasion. I have a gardener friend to
grows all sorts of herbs and a couple of times per year we discuss what
might work well in a home brew.
Last year I made a gruse of only woodruff. It's the spice used in
German May Wine. When folks would take a sip they'd get an entire
bottle. The stuff disappeared at parties like grain offered to locusts
or barley offered to home brewers. Okay, that worked great. Let's try
something similar this year.
Meadow sweet was once called mead sweet and it was used to bitter mead.
Smells nice straight off the plant. Chewing a leaf straight off the
plant it tastes like, hmm, mildly bitter sort of like those Japanese
leaves that come with sashimi. Shizu or something like that. So this
year it's a two herb brew.
One can dark malt, 1.5 kg. One can amber malt, 1.5 kg. One large
handfull of well dried woodruff, hand crushed, not measured by weight.
One small handfull of well dried meadow sweet, hand crushed, not
measured by weight. An envelope of old ale yeast for English bitters.
Boil it for an hour and intot he primary fermenter. Add the yeast just
before sealing the top and putting in the airlock. That's it for my
recipe. I go low tech most batches.
Unfortunately it's not fermenting this morning. I failed to proof the
old yeast and apparently it was dead. Likely it was killed by crappy
storage during a hot summer. My wife will be at the home brew
shop buying a test tube of active yeast today so it will be bubbling
tonight.
In a month I'll bottle. In two months I'll open the first bottle.
hops had not yet become the standard for bittering so other herbs were
used. I like to brew them on occasion. I have a gardener friend to
grows all sorts of herbs and a couple of times per year we discuss what
might work well in a home brew.
Last year I made a gruse of only woodruff. It's the spice used in
German May Wine. When folks would take a sip they'd get an entire
bottle. The stuff disappeared at parties like grain offered to locusts
or barley offered to home brewers. Okay, that worked great. Let's try
something similar this year.
Meadow sweet was once called mead sweet and it was used to bitter mead.
Smells nice straight off the plant. Chewing a leaf straight off the
plant it tastes like, hmm, mildly bitter sort of like those Japanese
leaves that come with sashimi. Shizu or something like that. So this
year it's a two herb brew.
One can dark malt, 1.5 kg. One can amber malt, 1.5 kg. One large
handfull of well dried woodruff, hand crushed, not measured by weight.
One small handfull of well dried meadow sweet, hand crushed, not
measured by weight. An envelope of old ale yeast for English bitters.
Boil it for an hour and intot he primary fermenter. Add the yeast just
before sealing the top and putting in the airlock. That's it for my
recipe. I go low tech most batches.
Unfortunately it's not fermenting this morning. I failed to proof the
old yeast and apparently it was dead. Likely it was killed by crappy
storage during a hot summer. My wife will be at the home brew
shop buying a test tube of active yeast today so it will be bubbling
tonight.
In a month I'll bottle. In two months I'll open the first bottle.