Artemisia vulgaris beer

[Stillman]

I have been thinking about getting back into brewing, but getting a good hops is a pain in the arse, any way I read that mugwort and wormwood species were once used as a hops substitute. I'm going to give it a go. I was thinking I might down the trackI think I might add some green anise seed and see what the flavour comes out as. If it tastes like arse nothing really lost, but I imagine if you work out the right recipe could be a tasty drop. I'm thinking that almost any flavouring herb would work for taste and no doubt impart some sort of ethnobotanical benefit too.

So anyone got any recipes they want to share?

[Rizla]

I've never tried A. vulgaris. A. afra was interesting, but a bit of a wash -- the taste was better steeped in vodka than in beer. I'm growing yarrow at the moment and will experiment with it soon. A. absinthium I haven't tried yet either.

There's tons of great info on non hop ales out there. I like Bogbean (Menyanthes) a lot as a bittering/preservative/hops "surrogate", works great instead of hops, but it's not around my local area and I pay rather a lot to get it from Canada. It's common in Sweden and Canada, circumpolar I think.

I have a friend in Sweden who sends me spicy-as-hell fresh Myrica gale and Ledlum palustre, which when fresh, are great in beers. I always throw Myrica into my ales 'cause I love the taste. I have an article from Economic Botany around which says Myrica has disinfectant properties similar to hops, and I'm sure it does, but when used in good condition it's one of the best beer/ale flavors ever. And ledlum grows near it, I only put maybe 2g of Ledlum in, as opposed to 6-8+g Myrica, per 19 liters.

I'd love to hear how your Mugwood recipes go, it's such a common and prolific yet also oft-sacred plant... Stephen Buhner's book (1998) lists a recipe with 2 oz Mugwort per 4 gallons, but I haven't tried this. The trick is to get the preservative/bitter quality, but not too much of it. Once you have bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt, you can have a field day trying all kinds of herbs at various boiling times. I often use small amounts of hops, <14g/19L, as a basic preservative, and experiment with other spices on top of that.

Check out the "Gotlandsdricke" thread on SAB a while ago, as you will see, I'm very interested in this stuff, thanks for the post! We need more brewers around here, it's ethnobotany too!

Edited September 3, 2012 by Rizla

[Stillman]

I'm going to put a brew down this weekend. Just using a coopers pale ale brew starter in a jar so cheating a bit but will add.

1 part A absinthium

1 part A vulagis

1 part white yarrow

1 part green anise seed.

After I get a feel for it I will try making a completely hop free brew from scratch, I have a keg system at home and we used to make alot of beer a few years ago but I haven't put anything down in at least 3 years.

Rizia later in the year when it warms up here I'm going to start experimenting with steeping various herbs that I am growing in vodka so will keep you posted.

[Francois le Danque]

i am very interested in making henbane pilsner, which was apparently the original pilsner before that blasted reinheitsgebot ..will definitely let you all know how that goes. i plan to use the recipe listed by christian ratsch in the encyclopedia of psychoactive plants.

if anyone has any henbane herbage they want to donate, i may be short, and you can bet some of the final product will be in it for you! good luck with your worted mug, stillman!

[Psylo]

I made a mini-batch earlier this year, and despite using miniscule % of the herb, it came out very bitter.IMO it brings absolutely nothing to the brew. Ber in mind that I like stupidly bitter beers, and Im alwas open minded about specialty ingredients, but in this instance I wasnt keep n it (thank the Lord that I only made 4L in my baby demijohn).

My too-bitter recipe was:

4L batch ABV 4.3%

Pale malt 500g

Honey 120g

Crystal (Dark-140SRM) 50g

A. vulgaris 5 grams, 20 minute boil

If I were to try this again (which I will),I ill add hp for bitterness, as I know how to control the additions, and add the wormwood at 'flameout' which might maintain flavours but reduce the bittering from the herb.

Still have two small bottles, might crack one and see how its aged since bottling in February.

[Stillman]

Frank I have not come across henbane interesting I'll look into it.

Psylo did you use the mugwort dry or fresh? I read you use very little and that it was hard to control I was going to boil a small amount of fresh leaf for 5 minute or so with the other herbs and add just enough to bitter it up. I think it will be a bitch not to overpower everything else but am interested in having a go. If its too hard I might true Roman wormwood and yarrow next time as it is less bitter.

[Psylo]

After checking my handwritten notes this morning, I misled you in the post above. My beer actually used A. absinthium, and it was dry weight.

Rizla mentioned Stephen Buhner in passing. If you are interested in pre-hop era of brewing, his 'recipe book' would serve you well. Far from being simply bunch of recipe, he goes into great detail about the history of each plant, the alleged effect of these herbs, and it's place in the anthropological landscape. His recipes are non-standardised, with some in metric, others in imperial, even many in early measures such as 'a hogshed', which makes it quite fun to translate into usable form.

Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers - The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation

Buhner's recipe for A. vulgaris is as follows:

3 pounds brown sugar

24 ounces of molasses

4 gallons water

2 ounces dried mugwort herb

The book suggests a 30 minute boil, then strained. To make it more of a beer-tasting beverage I would sub out the sugar for dry malt extract.

The yarrow (Achillea millefolium) recipe looks like this:

5 pounds malted barley*

3 ounces recently dried yarrow (plant & flowers)

or 6 ounces flowering tops

6 gallons water

1/2 of the herb is boiled with the wort (he does not state boil time for the yarrow), and when cooled, the remaining 1/2 is added to the fermenter.

*if you are not doing all grain, and not mashing & sparging, then the dry malt extract equivalent in this recipe would be 1.6kg.

Oddly though, in this instance, his recipe would only make a 2.3% beer, and I think he's mucked up his water calculations.

Let us know how your experiments turn out. I might even do a herbal mini batch next weekend myself, maybe with Salvia officinalis.

[Yeti101]

I've got a bit of mugwort growing, but I worry about the taste. In general I suspect that the amount of herb needed to provide a strong psychoactive effect would make it very bitter - but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

This has got me thinking about brewing though, though I might save those thoughts for another thread.

[Stillman]

Just put a kit brew down. A Coopers Pale ale. 1 kilo dextrose. used Mexican tarragon, green anise, mugwort, wormwood and white yarrow. Minuscule amounts trying for a flavour change will see in a month or two.

[Rizla]

I'm always a bit wary with Buhner's recipes. I wonder if he's actually made them. He rarely says, "it came out like this", or "it tastes like this", which

are things I find impossible to do with my own beer, make a comment about it.

He doesn't live far from here and I have friends who know him. I'd like to ask him about that.

Thanks for the tip about A. vulgaris.

In fermenter now:

(5 gal. US)

Juniper branches, boiled in water one hour. (several handfuls)

6.6 lbs Amber Malt Extract

1 cup honey (always killer with Myrica gale beers)

7g Myrica gale

<1g Ledlum palustre

.5 oz hops

cardamon seeds (last five minutes)

I've made it before and it should be good... would love to hear how your beers turned out!

[Stillman]

It tasted great I think it improved the bitters in it significantly but I din't use too much so was very palatable.

[bullit]

wormwood tastes like shit big time! tried it in teas when i was crook in tha gutz<> fuken horrible ! if ya need sum 4 ya brew 'still' i hav sum large plants growing!!??!!?

[Stillman]

NAh I have heaps Bullit.. Mugworts a bit better but still tastes like bitter arse. lol. YArrows good for beers.