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Anyone experimented with yarrow or wormwood mead?
We have wild yarrow (white flowers) that grow wild all over our farmland, and the herb is somewhat new to me, so ive been researching it and now i feel like im obsessed it has so many different medicinal properties. My brother has been brewing beer for years, and soon we want to try to make some yarrow beer or yarrow mead. Yarrow is supposedly an inebrient when added to home brewing. Im interested to learn if anyone has experience with yarrow beer and what (if any) stronger intoxicating effects it has.
I put some wormwood in a beer a few years ago, and it was not good. I must have used too much. Of course, I forgot how much. But it was extremely bitter. Just taste a little piece of wormwood, and the beer was just as bitter and dry and harsh as the raw wormwood itself. I could never drink enough to detect any extra inebriation.
I thought I might have had Yarrow growing at my last house, but I wasn't sure, and I didn't take any chances. I understand there are a few plants that look like Yarrow but are toxic... One of these days I'm going to order some seeds online and grow my own and brew with it.
I wonder if one could use Salvia D in beer?
I have made beer with yarrow in the past with good results. The main thing to remember about yarrow is that the bitterness is pretty intense (not as intense as wormwood - but still stronger than hops). You will need to let your yarrow brew age for a while (6 months at least) before the flavor really starts to mellow and mature. Personally, I'd give it a year.
For my yarrow beer I just tossed together some stuff I had laying around the house. A little DME and a little brown sugar. I made a tea by steeping the yarrow for about a half hour. I would not recommend dry hopping with yarrow.
As far as wormwood goes, I made a beer with it once with mixed results. The beer looks great, smells great, tastes great in your mouth, but as soon as you swallow it the intense bitterness of the wormwood kicks you in the nuts. I would suggest using very little and maybe dry hopping over the top of it to enhance the flavor.
I am just about ready to finally bottle a five gallon batch of wormwood mead this weekend. We used 15 lbs of Goldenrod honey and 2 oz. of wormwood (really bitter stuff!). We made a batch a year and a half ago and it turned out terrific. We ended up adding 3 lbs of honey after the fact to sweeten it up a bit so we used 15 lbs up front this time. As last time, we will fortify this with two 750 ml bottles of Lemoncello. We don't use Potassium Sorbate or any sulfides in our meads, and the last batch was sparkling (even with the fortification using two bottles of 64 proof liquor). Bitterness didn't come into play until a few seconds after you swallowed it but it wasn't horribly so. Bottled in 22 oz bottles and let me tell you that one bottle was plenty for one person. The after effects tended to vary amongst drinkers but the two things that were common were extreme euphoria and colors appearing to change in front of your eyes. I do not plan to brew with wormwood again.
I do not understand the attraction to brewing with wormwood as it is so extremely bitter. Getting a nice little buzz off your mead is one thing but seeing colours change before my eyes is another. If I am gonna invest that much honey and time in a batch of mead, I want it to be smooth and mellow. Just my 2 cents worth.
I wonder if tasters would have "seen colors" if they weren't told it had the mysterious wormwood in it.
@ Tess
Truthfully, it wasn't my idea but I was really interested in the chemical process of the whole thing so I went with it. It has been a hit and most of my friends are still begging for bottles.
Wormwood !!
I was given a bottle of Absinthe (from Prague) - made using Absinthe, ended up using the stuff as lighter fluid, it was so bitter, it was undrinkable.
paulb wrote:
Wormwood !!
I was given a bottle of Absinthe (from Prague) - made using Absinthe, ended up using the stuff as lighter fluid, it was so bitter, it was undrinkable.
You'd have to make a decoction or a tea from the actual wormwood dried product to taste. I have done both and prefer making a tea steeped 15 minutes in 150 degree F water. One gallon water to four ounces of dried quality wormwood, then mix with 12 lbs honey and four gallons spring water should deliver a medium bodied mead if left at that, but it'd be a bit heavy on the wormwood. At this point you could add any spices, fruit, or whateverelse you wanted to I reckon. I recommend products from this site: http://www.shamansgarden.com/p-136-worm … sweet.aspx
No, or rather, not yet.
I recently purchased this book: "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation ", by Stephen Harrod Buhner, and it has been a fascinating read so far. At the moment, I am on about page 50 of about 450. Yarrow and mead have already been mentioned. I'll be trying SOME things from this book. I'll keep you posted...
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