Henbane Pilsener

[Owtovit]

Normal sugar isn't usually used in beer because it gives of unsual, fruity flavours. If you have to use a sugar instead of malt, dextrose is the best becuase it fully ferments without a bad taste.

Like foolsbreath said, the lower the temperature you can ferment at, the cleaner the taste will be. When my brother in law makes lagers, he tries to brew them at around 12 C or so. You can really taste the difference when it is brewed at a lower temperature. Also, different yeasts work better at different temps. Lager yeasts are meant for low temperature brewing and ale yeasts for higher ones. Also lagers are usually not as strong flavoured as ales, so you would probably want to try and get them as clean tasting as possible.

When you use malt it doesn't fully ferment out, thus adding body to the beer, as well as a fuller flavour.

I think that maltodextrin doesn't ferment at all, it just adds body and head retention.

In regards to the purity laws in Germany, I think that they require that all that goes into beer is grains, hops and yeast, with no sugar or other herbs. This means that the beer will be fuller flavoured than the stuff that we dare to call beer made here in Aus, eg. XXXX, VB etc which are made with only a little malt for flavour and a lot of dextrose for alcohol content.

[mescalito]

Some good points there, not all sugars are fermentable and different sugars give different flavours.Your malts are for flavour body and mouthfeel, your dextrose or corn sugar is for the fermentation.

DON'T USE CANE SUGAR unless you want rum tasting beer with the added bonus of some wicked types of alcohols in your brew(the hang-over types)

Obviously adding herbs to beer is obviously nothing new but I'm very interested to see how this one turns out apoth.To date I have tried blue lotus and damiana all with excellent results as they are already reasonably bitter(and bitter is good ;))

A couple of hab's and some damiana will add a nice flavour to a mexican Cerveza style too....just chuck the chillis and damiana in on the second or third day after fermentation starts to avoid contams....and if your getting contams with beer anyway then clean-clean-clean

Anyway now I'm finally settled and set up *whew* I'll trial some experimental brews I've been thinking about for some time now and join the entheo-brewing.As far as herb-brewing goes the sky's the limit but be educated with CNS depressants and obviously MAOI's and their interactions.

[Conan Troutman]

Smogs, have bout 35g of Mardrake root, would be willing to make similiar arrangements if you would like to give her a go??.

[Rev]

Ok henbane has had the chop

i found i could cut it right back so now ill transplant the rootsock and see if i can move successfully

anyone smoked the foliage?

[apothecary]

I wish

[Conan Troutman]

Anyone know a rough single 'standard' oral dose for mandragora?

Info is scarce...Cheers

[apothecary]

Same standard guidelines for ingesting tropanic material apply to ingesting mandrake root, so in short, there is no such thing as the standard dose you want.

[smogs]

that doesnt really help when u have to put it in a beer and then cant change it!

[Conan Troutman]

This is so smogs can brew with an idea of an single standard dose.

Have 35g of root material, hoping not to go to past the so called 'good effects' stage.

Anyone with experience in tropanic material give any sort of ball park figure? :saufen2:

Cheers

[smogs]

alternatively i can brew the standard kit with all 35g.... then drink 1 beer.... wait 20mins

etc etc

but if it takes like 6 beers to get a dose then alcohol will b the stronger substance etc

[Conan Troutman]

The principle active components of mandrake are scopolomine (hyoscine), atropine, hyosyamine, and mandragorine. These tropanes are all parasympathetic depressants. The chemistry of mandrake is similar to that of datura and is exceptionally rich in mandragorine, a powerful narcotic and hypnotic (C17,H27,O3,N)

Mandrake is extremely toxic. BE CAREFUL!

Preparation

Small quantities (less than 30 grains) of the powdered root are placed in wine. Both the fruit and the roots were used as ingredients in "flying ointments," psychedelic preparations allegedly used by fifteenth-century witches to enable the to fly on their brooms in astral projection.

http://www.emandrake.com/public/

30 grains=1.94grams

[smogs]

Mandrake is extremely toxic. BE CAREFUL!

http://www.emandrake.com/public/

30 grains=1.94grams

sounds scary!

i might leave this 1 alone

[indigo264nm]

Very interesting!!!

Maybe I'll give this a go with my next lot of Henbanes. The couple I have now are going to be used to make up a traditional style flying oinment. Of course the lack of a vagina for the broomstick application will prevent me from using it in the traditional manner though.... ^_^

[Rev]

Very interesting!!!

Maybe I'll give this a go with my next lot of Henbanes. The couple I have now are going to be used to make up a traditional style flying oinment. Of course the lack of a vagina for the broomstick application will prevent me from using it in the traditional manner though.... ^_^

we could start a charity drive to send u to see a surgeon in thailand

and if we could do that im sure a broom could also be found

u interetested?

I wonder if the Glans is as absorptive as the vagina (or at least similar)

i presume the vaginal walls correlate to the tissues in the male urethra but i cant see an way to get it in there that wouldnt hurt

[smogs]

rubbing it on sensitive parts down there might still do the job... i mean if things like stds can get in threw the sensitive skin i reckon other things could too

could make for an interesting additive to a lubricant

[ballzac]

Okay,

A lot of people have made some really good points and obviously know what they're talking about, and I'll probably repeat some of what's been said, but I think I have some things to add. As has been said, NEVER EVER use standard sugar (sucrose) unless you want your beer to taste like sickly pee.Even many commercial brewing sugars are just sucrose (including one of the coopers ones) and some are a combonation. Always read the ingredients. You CAN use maltose, dextrose, glucose or maltodextrin. I use maltose in the form of Light Dried Malt Powder. I believe that yeast has the most profound effect on the flavour of beer. Much more so than the type of sugar! NEVER use the yeast sachet that comes with a kit. Spend the extra five bucks on a sachet of really good yeast. I use Saflager. Liquid cultures are also available. Hops is also a great consideration, especially with a pilsner. I know nothing about henbane, but I assume you are using it (partly) to bitter the beer instead of hops. This is fine. However, pilsners MUST be dry hopped to be a pilsner. Dry hopping is when hops are added to the wort AFTER the boil. This adds flavour and aroma but not bitterness (during the boiling adds bitterness and not flavour). I usually add it in two stages. Half goes in as soon as the wort is off the boil, and the rest goes in when the wort has cooled to pitching temperature (the temperature at which the yeast is pitched, or added to the wort). This brings out different aromatic compounds. If I recall correctly, Pilsener Urquell use a third stage which is added five minutes or so prior to the completion of the boil. Only noble hops are ever used for dry hopping. These are expensive for bittering because they contain less alpha acids and therefore require more to get the same level of bitterness, but they are perfect for dry hopping as they don't have some of the nastier flavours that high alpha varieties have. The variety that MUST be used for a pilsner is Saaz. For a good flavour/aroma about 100g/25L (4Oz/Gal) is fine if you are using pellets, and I just dump it into the carboy (not in a bag) for the best flavour. It will just become part of the sediment, although you might find the odd speck in your beer if you are using pellets. Many purists never use high alpha varieties for anything, and spend the extra on the Noble varieties for bittering. I find this to be unnecessary and use green bullet or pride of ringwood for bittering. The recipe you have given is actually more of a mead than a pilsner as it contains honey, and does not contain the saaz. I hope this has helped, and I'll let you know if I think of anything I've forgotten.

[Benzito]

Wow Ballzac!

It sounds like you really know what you're talking about! Nice first post.

Welcome to the forums.

[indigo264nm]

we could start a charity drive to send u to see a surgeon in thailand

and if we could do that im sure a broom could also be found

u interetested?

I wonder if the Glans is as absorptive as the vagina (or at least similar)

i presume the vaginal walls correlate to the tissues in the male urethra but i cant see an way to get it in there that wouldnt hurt

Depends... Instead of getting me a return ticket, just get me two one way tickets - one to Thailand and one home from Thailand in maybe 3 months time. Theoretically I can fly on a broomstick home if it works... spend a couple of months living as a chick back here and then fly over again on my broomstick, get the operation reversed (I'll be sure to keep it preserved) and then fly home again male as I am quite happy with my gender as is. You will however need to fund two sex changes though.

In regards to the glans, I was told once about 'coke sex' where both members rub it on their 'parts' and although orgasm is impossible it makes for a very enhanced and long experience in bed... so I suppose it could work, but it is still not a mucus membrane so I dunno.

[mescalito]

I'm sure there was a thread a few years back on the coke and genitals thing??

Quote: "but it is still not a mucus membrane so I dunno. "

I WANT MY FORESKIN AND SMEGMA BACK!!!

;)

[indigo264nm]

I WANT MY FORESKIN AND SMEGMA BACK!!!

;)

Fly with me to Thailand... I'm sure a doctor could fix you up with one.

[notung]

If anyone has tried brewing with henbane, I would love to hear how it all went. I'm looking forward to having a go with a similar recipe, but must wait to grow up some nice niger plants before anything can take place. So please get in touch!

I'm also hoping to brew some mead with mugwort & lemon balm (melissa), which should be very nice.

[ballzac]

I'm planning on brew a very experimental beverage using lion's tail to bitter instead of hops. I'm going to flavour it with a combination of things, including a type of basil I have (not sure what the name is, but it tastes like fajoa to me). I have also toyed with the idea of making a beer with some mushroom extract or something similar in it. The idea of a beer containing henbane is a bit of a worry. It would dry out your mouth, so you drink more...

[ballzac]

The variety that MUST be used for a pilsner is Saaz. For a good flavour/aroma about 100g/25L (4Oz/Gal) is fine if you are using pellets, and I just dump it into the carboy (not in a bag) for the best flavour.

Umm...that didn't really make sense

100g/25L is less than 1 Oz/Gal, I think.

I dunno. But what I said in metric is what I use.

sorry

[notung]

The idea of a beer containing henbane is a bit of a worry. It would dry out your mouth, so you drink more...

Mmm... possibly a valid point. I am new to henbane so really cannot know. Must say however I felt slightly peturbed by the Christian Rätsch quote, where he claimed to usually drink 2-3 litres of the stuff with his mates haha!! Loved the image of the drinking horn of course, and hailing the gods etc...

Edited April 27, 2006 by notung

[vapour]

i brewed some brugmansia mead a while ago - it also had a mixture of european herbs like mugwort and dandelion root, sarsparilla and burdock, calamus, licorice and juniper berries. It was an interesting flavour but I kept forgetting about the brugmansia. There's a week or two where I can't remember very much at all. i think you need to have a lot of discipline when you decide to combine tropanes with alcohol - or devise some system to keep reminding you of what's going on (like the movie 'memento'). beer on it's own kills acetylcholine and therefore the ability to make new memories - tropanes compound this and weed multiplies it. also, you get very thirsty. it seems to have some kind of cumulative effect over time, so you end up in a kind of walking dream that can last for weeks and leave you with nothing to show for it... not necessarily a bad thing, but you ought to be prepared.

next time i make herbal beer i might leave out the tropanes. also maybe ditch the european herbs. there are so many bitter flavours and interesting medicines in native plants - things like saffrole and indoles and god knows what else lurking in the bush.