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Ethnobotanical Beer

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Wouldnt boiling the herbs sufficiently kill the bacteria? Or do you mean by using the vodka method you can preserve the Blue Lotus compounds?

Boiling will definitely kill the bugs, but could also destroy or boil off some of the "goodies" in theory.

I do like the idea of soaking the herbs in vodka to kill the lactobacilli. You definitely don't want *that* in your brewski.

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Boiling will definitely kill the bugs, but could also destroy or boil off some of the "goodies" in theory.

I do like the idea of soaking the herbs in vodka to kill the lactobacilli. You definitely don't want *that* in your brewski.

Exactly. And even if boiling doesn't mess up the alkaloids (some are quite tough,) it would certainly drive off some of the lovely, subtle aromatic compounds from the Nymphaea worse than a bubbling fermentation. Truthfully, the best way to preserve the smell would be to put them in the secondary (sanitized with vodka of course,) but I have this feeling that the turbulent, acidic, enzyme rich broth of the primary helps with alkaloid extraction better than sitting in the secondary. I could be wrong, but it's just my gut feeling.

I've said it before, but here it is again; Use Hop Bags for Herbs in Fermenters! Then just wring them out like towels to get the goodies out before you rack. It's a pain in the ass to rack beer when your cane/tube keeps getting clogged with little bits of flowers etc.!!!

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As a bit of an aside, I've found a couple of Aussie-made beers that are incorporating native plants as adjuncts in their manufacture. Both are made by Barons Brewing in NSW, and are made under their "Native Range" label.

Black Wattle Original Ale is obviously made with roasted black wattle seed. It's got a toasty, almost rye-like flavour. Quite tasty, slightly tarry, and definitely worth trying.

Lemon Myrtle Witbier is a wheat beer; it's got a definite lemon note and is slightly perfume-y in the finish. It's not bad at all, and is rather easy to drink, although I thought it a little bit soft in the end.

Whilst neither of these beers is "active" in the entheogen sense, I reckon they give homebrewers a bit of an idea of what you can do with basic recipes and then tweaking the flavour by adding some more "interesting" adjuncts.

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Bumping an old thread in the event that anyone has some winning ethno-beer recipes since this was last an active discussion.

I made a 4 litre batch the other day using 5 grams of Artemisia absinthium, boiled for 60 minutes, as the sole bittering addition (so no hops at all). Bottled last week, and boy, it was bitter, so I only bottled two litres. Will probably be ready to drink next week, I might even crack one tomorrow.

Might try a mandrake beer in a month or two if I can get my hands on some root :devil:

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Try looking up Braindeath Barley Wine.

Expensive brew at a couple hundred $$$ per brew but you wouldn't need much. I am a brewer and am looking into a Belgian Dubble with the same ethno additive when coin permits.

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My understanding is that, for oral consumption, the lipid solubility of THC dictated that a fatty carrier is required for successful absorbtion. And while I'm sure a high-proof alcohol would strip much of the desired oils, a Barleywine (typically what ? 10%?) seems to be a poor choice. Ideally, a high alc whisky blended to create a home made Baileys woiuld be my choice of carrier if I wanted to do green shots.

Im also wondering that if the Braindeath recipe was followed, surely the plant oils would be disasterous for your beer's head retention. Nothing a bit of force carbed nitrogen wouldnt fix if you had a keg setup B)

EDIT: And I didnt try my Wormwood Ale this weekend, going to give it another week in the bottle to condition. This is the first of what will be many ancient ale reproductions that I'll be experimenting with in 2012.

Edited by Psylo Dread

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My understanding is that, for oral consumption, the lipid solubility of THC dictated that a fatty carrier is required for successful absorbtion. And while I'm sure a high-proof alcohol would strip much of the desired oils, a Barleywine (typically what ? 10%?) seems to be a poor choice. Ideally, a high alc whisky blended to create a home made Baileys woiuld be my choice of carrier if I wanted to do green shots.

Im also wondering that if the Braindeath recipe was followed, surely the plant oils would be disasterous for your beer's head retention. Nothing a bit of force carbed nitrogen wouldnt fix if you had a keg setup B)

EDIT: And I didnt try my Wormwood Ale this weekend, going to give it another week in the bottle to condition. This is the first of what will be many ancient ale reproductions that I'll be experimenting with in 2012.

 

A few things pertinant to the above:

1. As long as the goodies are extracted from the plant material they are orally active. Eating a chunky bud is less than triumphant. Lipids are typically used as they are selective (for lack of a better term) for the THC without extracting chlorophil, sugars etc for use with cooking. High proof alcohol would be the best non lipid solvent but you asked about beer!... and you still have the water component which will pull all of the above anyway.

2. Plant oils ie. Hops (mj's cousin) actually promote foam stability and increase head retention... but it doesn't matter as Barley Wines are seldom carbonated and even if they are the high alcohol works against head retention.

3. I am really keen to see how your recipes go as this kind of thing is close to my heart as an ethnobot and brewer. I want to do a gruit eventually so why not an ethno one?

It was just a suggestion anyway man, take it or leave it but it has been done succesfully which gives me hope!

Cheers brother........bong.

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Hops have nowhere near the oils that MJ does though. The oils on humulus cones are only around the base. Anyway, this is an interesting turn in discussion. ..... llet me know know how you go if you get around to it (maybe we could swap some bottles).

I brewed a barleywine last year with my neighbour, and we're sampling the first of it it on Australia Day (will keep sampling every three months, to see how it matures) but we carbonated it. Oops, I didnt know that it was supposed to be a still beverage... just assumed it should be carbonated as that's how the Murray's Anniversary Ale is presented.

For an ethno brewer such as yourself, you might be interested in a book I bought a few years ago titled "Sacred & Healing Herbal Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner. There are at least 10 pages discussing Gruit & related non-hop beers of a similar nature. Actually, the whole book is about non-hopped beers from ancient times. Where the hell can we get Myrica Gale from though, to make Gruit ? The book can be found here, cheap as chips:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Sacred-Herbal-Healing-Beers-Stephen-Harrod-Buhner/9780937381663

My next experimental potion is going to be LOADED with high grade middle eastern saffron. That could be a lot of fun.

Im also keen to try another member's recipe (FM?) based around Blue Lotus

And me & a mate are slated to try producing an drinkable beverage with nothing but native fruit & herbs specific to the Ryde district (hence my other thread about getting some Smilx) to present to some of the district's regeneration volunteers

Anyway Bongchitis, I have a ton of wormwood and other dried herbs if you want some for experimentation. Let me know if you want me to post a list up here and I'm happy to share (ie for free) if you are sure youre going to use them in making unique alcoholic beverages.

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Hops have nowhere near the oils that MJ does though. The oils on humulus cones are only around the base. Anyway, this is an interesting turn in discussion. ..... llet me know know how you go if you get around to it (maybe we could swap some bottles).

I brewed a barleywine last year with my neighbour, and we're sampling the first of it it on Australia Day (will keep sampling every three months, to see how it matures) but we carbonated it. Oops, I didnt know that it was supposed to be a still beverage... just assumed it should be carbonated as that's how the Murray's Anniversary Ale is presented.

For an ethno brewer such as yourself, you might be interested in a book I bought a few years ago titled "Sacred & Healing Herbal Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner. There are at least 10 pages discussing Gruit & related non-hop beers of a similar nature. Actually, the whole book is about non-hopped beers from ancient times. Where the hell can we get Myrica Gale from though, to make Gruit ? The book can be found here, cheap as chips:

http://www.bookdepos...r/9780937381663

My next experimental potion is going to be LOADED with high grade middle eastern saffron. That could be a lot of fun.

Im also keen to try another member's recipe (FM?) based around Blue Lotus

And me & a mate are slated to try producing an drinkable beverage with nothing but native fruit & herbs specific to the Ryde district (hence my other thread about getting some Smilx) to present to some of the district's regeneration volunteers

Anyway Bongchitis, I have a ton of wormwood and other dried herbs if you want some for experimentation. Let me know if you want me to post a list up here and I'm happy to share (ie for free) if you are sure youre going to use them in making unique alcoholic beverages.

 

Firstly, thanks for the generous offer of info and herbs, much appreciated. I was under the impression that Gruit was just a term for a non hop bittered brew, I didn't know it was a specific ingredient that led to its name. I need to read more methinks... but an Aussie ethno 'gruit'sounds cool B)

You are correct on the oil content i guess... and you would need an ounce or two to make it worthwhile, but again if you are not carbonating it doesn't matter. Nothing wrong with carbonating a BW though, i just dont believe its as common as presenting it still.

I remember reading FM's topic on various brews a long time ago and when wanting to find it again I couldn't... something in the title about Egypt????? I believe he used saffron aswell in one of them, should be awsome once refined!

Like the idea of the native bevvy aswell mate and posting a list would be great. There is also a little info on Aussiehomebrewer about this stuff. Couple of guys here are members there aswell.

Cheers mate.......bong

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just put about 40grams of blue lily into 90&% alcohol, will let it sit a few days-week then strain.

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My next experimental potion is going to be LOADED with high grade middle eastern saffron. That could be a lot of fun.

 

There's a thread on Crocus beer over at the Nook by Monk. You might want to determine solubility of crocin and/or safranal before you go ahead and dump all that exotica into your carbouy. I have a feeling they both might only be soluble at very high alcohol conc.

Also, FM's Egyptian ethnobeer was "Nefertem's Triple".

Just used shredded licorice root in a stout along with cacao nibs and coffee. The licorice root is fantastic for imparting body and a distinctive sweetness to balance your bittering.

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You'd wanna be careful if you're making home brew with poppies. Both are hard on the liver and you wouldn't want to damage your liver or kidneys.

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You'd wanna be careful if you're making home brew with poppies. Both are hard on the liver and you wouldn't want to damage your liver or kidneys.

 

That horse has bolted my brother!

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that look like Gentleman blue-lilly :D

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