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Hopless Beer: Good or No?
Figured I would spin this off of the nitrogen thread. Here is a good link to start with if you are considering making a hopless beer.
http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm
There is a whole movement out there to bring back Gruit and Hop free ales. I personally haven't made any hop free beer. But I have tried a few Heather ales. They were pretty interesting, aside from my buddies wife being allergic to hops they got me interested in trying the hop free thing. Sort of mellow on the bitterness and not a whole lot of stand out flavors. But a good smooth drinkable beer.
So if anyone out there has experince with (either brewing or drinking, or both) Hop free ales, I am sure we would all love to hear about it.
Cheers, uh, to no hops...?
Haven't done it, but last summer I gave SERIOUS thought to making a dandelion, rose, fuscia, or (pick any flower) beer.
I would like to try and make a beer with no hops, just regular, plain flowers. Maybe it will suck, but I won't know until I try it. Spruce ale sounded rank until I tried it. Now I love it.
I just posted in the other thread, but it's probably worth a mention here. If you are into brewing without hops, you should check out the "Radical Brewing" book by Randy Mosher. He's got a nice list of things you can use in place of hops, like Blessed Thistle, Bog-Bean, Bog Myrtle, etc.
DT
Yeah I saw your thread in the other forum. Now really isn't the time for me to get the book, or even make a flower beer since we aren't even at spring yet, but this summer is perfect.
The only other beer that is definitely on the agenda is a sour mash ale.
I'm only doing hopless beers now. I'm actually using a LOT of adjuncts for both flavor and..."other" effects. Most recent was for a friend's birthday. I used a ginger hibiscus minimash as a base (not very creative, but a good start) and added syrian rue, datura, ephedra, mandrake, green pepper and kratom (for a minor bitter). It came out tasting like a cranberry cider, but it was seriously misleading...almost too easy to drink.
Last Halloween, I added yarrow, wormwood, brugmansia, passionflower, coriander, and chasteberry to a Belgian Ale minimash stripped of hops.
I'm pleased with the results. People who aren't into beer seem to love these. Only Hanseatic purists seem to scoff. I encourage anyone interested in trying it out.
That sounds pretty cool Darth. Post a recipe if you would.
Darth Paul wrote:
I'm only doing hopless beers now. I'm actually using a LOT of adjuncts for both flavor and..."other" effects. Most recent was for a friend's birthday. I used a ginger hibiscus minimash as a base (not very creative, but a good start) and added syrian rue, datura, ephedra, mandrake, green pepper and kratom (for a minor bitter). It came out tasting like a cranberry cider, but it was seriously misleading...almost too easy to drink.
Last Halloween, I added yarrow, wormwood, brugmansia, passionflower, coriander, and chasteberry to a Belgian Ale minimash stripped of hops.
I'm pleased with the results. People who aren't into beer seem to love these. Only Hanseatic purists seem to scoff. I encourage anyone interested in trying it out.
Any particular reason you're only doing hopless beers?
How was the beer(?) made with wormwood? I've thought of experimenting with wormwood before but have heard its insanely bitter.
I have generally scoffed at hopless styles like gruit.
But last saturday night I went to the Cambridge Brewing Co. beer dinner.
One of the beers served that I had was a gruit (I picked it intentionally). I was pleasantly surprised and if I didn't know I wouldn't have missed the hops.
Made me start to rethink the whole gruit thing. I even got to ask head brewer Will Meyers how one even starts with mixing herbs together to come up with something palateable. Great night.
Anyone know of any gruit beers available in the U.S. that I would be able to buy? I developed an allergie to hops and miss having a cold one now and then! Thanks for your help.
Allergic to hops, that has to be about the sadest thing I have ever heard.
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