Henbane Pilsener

[apothecary]

20 litres of water

1 litre of malt

1/2 litre honey

40 grams of dried henbane leaves

yeast for beer (amount depends on the product)

Find a container which is large enough to hold all the ingredients. Cook the henbane in water for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile dissolve the malt in a couple of litres of water, dissolve the honey into it and add the henbane leaf-water. Then add the yeast. It might be useful to add a little bit more yeast than recommended because the tropane-alkaloids affect the yeast. Don't seal the container as it may explode.

The brew should start fermenting after a day or so and the fermentation should be finished after 4 or 5 days. The beer is now ready for drinking. You can also bottle it, in which case you can add a few drops of honey to each bottle and let it ferment for another week or two.

Serve preferably chilled. Store as normal beer.

[apothecary]

Cross posted this one at the nook, wondering if anyone knows what an appropriate amount of yeast would be?

[smogs]

it doesnt matter how much yeast you use because its a culture and thus grows

you can buy packets of beer yeast at home brew shops

DONT use bread yeast

yuck!

[Legba]

you could phone a home brew shop and tell them wat u want, %etoh-wise, and the amount u want, 20 l. i guess, and he'll tell ya what to use re malt and honey. no need to mention th henbane, aye.

from memory, i used to use 3-4 kilos of malt and made 18 l. that came out as 6 to 8 %. you can get wine yeast to get it above 8% but it'll be a harsh taste.

i found givin th brew a stir once in a while, as its fermenting, produced a smoother tastin ale. fermenting below about 20 C would good, imho.

i know nothin of potency, re henbane, and if u dont, u better take to someone who does.

cheers, big ears :D

[Amulte]

wait a minute, i thought henbane was banned. my local herbalist tried to kill me 2 years back when i asked about henbane...

hmmm, im gonna have to start a post about some plants i need to know the legal status about. not here thought.

sounds a good drop apoth, im gonna have to try that myself.

[Legba]

meditating...

[ 26. September 2005, 05:33: Message edited by: Bacchant ]

[Legba]

pilsiner yeast should be available at th homebrew store

[apothecary]

Henbane beer was quite a common occurance throughout Germany until it was outlawed by the government, who said only Hops was allowed from that point on.

[Torsten]

henbane is prohibited in food and is also restricted as a therapeutic. herbalists generally know shit about laws and fully buy into the whole toxic herb hysteria.

[Siggor]

stuff

Edited December 11, 2009 by spudamore

[Legba]

sugar, in the form of sugar, make home brews taste nasty. in the form of malt, it tastes better.

(another example of gods seemingly random ways? )

i think its pilsiner hops u can buy, not yeast. doh.

taste would be a matter of experimentation. what a task :D

[Siggor]

stuff

Edited December 11, 2009 by spudamore

[Legba]

i suspect that malt leaves some 'body' to the brew which i like. i aint no authority, thats 4 sure.

i thought bavarian countries have always banned th use of sugar in their retail beers to protect their reputations, for some reason. doh. shouldnt say alway, huh.

[Siggor]

stuff

Edited December 11, 2009 by spudamore

[smogs]

malt is a type of sugar and there are many types of sugar each which give different flavours

100% malt would be too rich for a pilsner and you would probably want a 50/50 mix of maltodextrose and plain dextrose.

malt also adds body and head.

same thing with the temprature, the temprature you ferment at depends on the beer. A general rule of thumb is the lighter the beer the higher the temprature. Dark ales and stouts are best done in cooler temps.

also the amount of sugar mentioned above is way off. It generally 1 kilo of sugar will produce aprox 5-6% alcohol per 18L. There is a calculation that you can use to work this out which comes with a beer brewing kit.

The best way would be to just go to big W (they have quite a big range of beer kits and crap), buy a pilsner kit and a kilo of brewing sugar and mix up as per instructions.

Then chop up henbane and boil in a small amount of water with lid on for 10-15mins to release flavours and help kill some of the the bugs. Then chuck that in too

also anotehr thing its better to use raw sugar or white sugar to carbonate in bottles, brewing sugar doesnt give as much fizz and makes it a bit sludgy.

[Siggor]

stuff

Edited December 11, 2009 by spudamore

[Rev]

so has anyone tried this?

I have a big henabne plant lookin fine ill be giving the chop in a couple weeks

I might try but more likely i would be able to send herb to someone who can brew

EDIT: yeah the idea being i send u herb and you send me a couple bottles brew :D - if u want to send me more ill assist with the return postage

Its H alba

In the SUSDP henbane is restricted to smoking mixes (exempt)

or certain concentrations insofatr as it becomes either S2 (OTC pharmacy medicine) or s4 (Prescription pharmacy medicine)

was it 0.2% hyoscyamine being the limit

cant recall

all the sols like datura, brug, mandrake etc have the same entries - or very similar

so does lobelia

anyway the herb is then legal to buy and sell as long as its sold for smoking or incense

[ 26. September 2005, 12:27: Message edited by: Rev ]

[smogs]

and legal to make food stuffs out of it as long as u dont sell?

I would be happy to give her a go... and it makes it easier when your inbox isnt ful rev!

infact ill send out a few bottles to people who pay for postage (dont pm me yet when its ready)

yes i bottle my beer... i dont really drink much beer at home only the odd one, i save my beer drinking from when im out and about. Which is a shame because I really enjoy brewing it.

It is good to take your own beer to bbq's and the like tho!

hydrometer: I have one but I never use the damn thing... the only thing you really use it for is calculating the alcohol percentage (by measuring how much sugar is in it at start) which you dont need to do if your using a kit and when theres no sugar left so its time to bottle... which you dont need to do because it stops bubbling.

[ 27. September 2005, 13:26: Message edited by: smogs ]

[watertrade]

Just a few thoughts on this…

What is single dose for hensbane? I've never used it & I'm not familiar with the plant.? It could be worked out that one stubbie equals one 1/2 dose. Also the active components of the hensbane, are they water soluble? The beer would act as a weak alcohol extraction.

Depending on the active components of the Hensbane, you might have problems with the fermentation - the hensbane might kill the yeast or make them do funny stuff... It might be better to add the hensbane after primary fermentation.

I think the real success with beers like this comes in balancing the flavors of the ingredients - what does Hensbane taste like at the required dose.?? A pilsner might not be the best style to use, depending on the taste it might suit a stronger beer style like a high alcohol Belgium ale.

The issue of the correct yeast comes down to the style of beer you are making- some are better at some things than others.

If anyone wants help making up a recipe I would be happy to help out. When I had more time I used to brew all kinds of things from scratch (malted grains etc) I don’t get much time anymore. I also have some Beer hops (Humulus Lupulus (Perle variety)) rhizomes that I could share at the end of next summer if anyone is interested.

Cheers

Jim

[ 27. September 2005, 13:52: Message edited by: watertrade ]

[Legba]

alcohol calculator.

3 kg of dried malt @ 18 litres = 7%

[apothecary]

Ahh the joys of cross posting. This is what someone at the nook managed to dig up.

 

quote:

---

Christian Ratsch lectures

 

about the pilsener: “Well, I have to tell you some of the effects, too

 

- [snickers, laughs] - when we drink it we usually gather with some friend,

 

6-8 people, and, er, then we have these big horns, you know, real drinking

 

horns, and… er.. Its the best thing to drink from because the drinking

 

horn, its, its like I have one like this size, very, very nice… You touch

 

it and it feels like an erotic body or somethin very [mutter]… So you

 

drink from this, and then you pass it around. This was actually what our

 

ancestors did for their rituals, they had these horns ,drinking it , giving-,

 

saying something, a greeting of a god or greeting to the ancestors… …And

 

they drink so much, and it is said, in the sources, “until the gods are

 

among them.” So, what does it mean? Its an entheogenic experience. Well,

 

we did the same thing, and it turned out, that, ..er well, the gods weren’t

 

there, but we were elevating to them. So, er, the effect er is like, it

 

starts to loose up your body and you feel like really smooth and really

 

relaxed and then you have nice body sensations and nice sensations on your

 

skin and you think and this could be nice for some erotic adventures and

 

you close your eyes and suddenly and suddenly you stay in your red mist

 

and you feel your body elevated. Its really beautiful, intresting feeling,

 

and what is very amazing: you dont get alcoholic effects from it, and this

 

beer has about 4 to 5 percent alcohol… …I drink about 2.5-3 liters

 

of henbane beer to get the full effect. You can drink more of course, but

 

you may start to hallucinate badly. The hallucinations caused by nightshade

 

plants are very unpleasant most of the time. Because - this is what I call

 

the ‘true hallucinations’ - you see something which is just not there,

 

you’re not aware about you’re hallucinating it. So you start to hallucinate

 

scenes from real life. I observed an doctor under the influence of scopolamine,

 

and he was just sitting there for four hours writing recepies and I observed

 

a teacher and he was sitting at his table for hours and, and doing some

 

corrections and test - but there was nothing [laughters] He was just totally…

 

Just total hallucination. And thats a typical sign of over-dosage - you

 

dont wanna do that. I found the beer the best, er, the easiest way to control

 

the amount of tropane alkaloids you want to ingest…”

 

[About Henbane]

 

“Its very easy to grow and

 

its beautiful plant and its very unique how it looks like with its long

 

buds and flowers. Its -if you see the plant you will know its a magic one.

 

Its really amazing.”

 

[About brewing]

 

“Q:When youre cooking the

 

henbane does it matter if you boil it? [?] Ratsch: Well I boil it for acouple

 

of minutes, well, the tropane alkaloids will stay, they are very stable,

 

strong molecyles. Q: [Mumble, mumble mumble] Ratsch: No, I, er um when

 

I figured out how to the henbane beer I started to brew mandrake beer.

 

And, er, [laughs] thats very interesting too. You can use the same recipe

 

and insteads of fourty grams of dried leaves of henbane you use about fourty

 

grams of the dried root of mandrake the same way. And er thats pretty strong

 

and interesting. I found the effect different from henbane. And the chemistry

 

of mandrake is er quite different from other nightshade plants. There has

 

been very little experimentation done with mandrake… …I just recently

 

did some reseach, literature search for personal experience with mandrake

 

- doesn’t exist. Its really amazing…”

---

I thought I had my hands full researching Datura, Brugmansia, Henbane, Deadly Nightshade, and now it looks like I'll have to add Mandrake to that list

[Rev]

mandrake is promising

the roots as a medicinal and the golden apples as food

[wandjina]

the tropane alkaloids were once used extensively in the 'treatment' (i.e. sedation) of asylum patients, what is referred to as the 'alkaloid period' of pscyhiatry. (the source being hyoscyamus)

I came across this interesting anecdotal report in the course of my research:

Stefanek J, Dufincova J, Vychytil P, Holmes S.

Vnitr Lek. 2000 Nov;46(11):808-10.

Mystery of mydriatic pupils

Abstract

The authors describe the case of a 27-year-old man who was examined on account of vertigo and blurred vision. In the objective case-history there was mild confusion, in the physical examination broad symmetrical mydriasis dominated. Later other similar patients were found. Atropine intoxication was proved. The source of the alkaloid was poppy seed contaminated with seeds of henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), in bakery goods served in the works canteen.

[foolsbreath]

The amount of yeast used to start a culture should be 25-40 g/hl, or 5-10 g/20 lts,

Dextrose will give the cleanest tasting beer, and the lower the ferment temperature, the finer the flavours and cleaner the beer, don't go to low, or you will get a stuck fermentation.

To work out how much sugar to use do the following, rule of thumb is that the theoretical alcohol is more or less equal to the baume of your pre fermented must (a measure of total soluble solids), give or take a little due to vigour and genetics of your yeast!

So if you want a beer of 5% V/V alcohol aim for a total soluble solids of 5 degrees baume, if your solution is clean, (just water and sugar) the soluble solids are just sugar, so work off this. convert the baume reading to brix, by mujltiplying by 1.8 (5 x 1.8) = 9 brix, another measure of total souble solids. Times the brix measurement by 10 to give a good estimate of the sugar level required, 90 g/l, or 1.8 KG for a 20 litre brew at 5% alcohol!

[Torsten]

foolsbreath - why do I get the feeling you really know what you're talking about

Great hobby/job!