I’m particularly fond of heather ales and spruce beers. The only sahti (which has juniper) I’ve had was made by me, so I have no idea if I got it traditionally right, but I certainly enjoyed it. No disrespect to all you IPA lovers out there, but the hops-forward style isn’t my thing, so for those of you that are in the same camp, where do you like to turn?
I grow mugwort and alecost to use for making gruit. Mugwort gives a mild bitterness and has a sort of generic herbal flavor. Alecost (aka Costmary) has a really distinct aroma that’s difficult to describe, maybe floral, minty and cinnamon? but not quite. It can also be quite bitter (at least when chewing it) so I’ve been a little gun shy on using it for a long time in the boil, but at FO/whirlpool it’s quite nice.
I never tried them, but I was warned that it is harder to estimate the bitterness. I know my dad used wormwood, there is gruit…
Gruit is a sort of catch-all category, as I understood it. I suppose I should have used it in my question!
Wormwood is one I have never considered. I’ve tried absinthe a few times and never been particularly keen on the flavour, but the context of being a small component of something rather than the dominant ingredient can change that. How did your dad’s beer turn out?
Gruit is mix of herbs used before hops. Each maker had slightly different recipe, so yeah it is little bit catch it all category.
Do you had real absinthe with dripping waterp? The fake stuff with burning sugar cube is disgusting.
It was long time ago he tried it but what I heard it was so bitter that only one of his friends liked it other people couldn’t even swallow it.
I don’t think I’ve ever had it with any sort of sugar, or with water for that matter. My experiences with it have been when friends show up with a bottle of it
I can’t sleep so I was looking for photos of how to serve it right but then I remembered about this video. I highly recommend finding place like this and try it.
beather ales
What’s beather? Web searching isn’t giving good results.
It made me to search it too and it is probably typo. Heather ale
It was indeed a typo, heather ale was what I meant to write
I just made my first sahti, with baker’s yeast and eastern red cedar branches. It was weird and wonderful, it tasted like cedar smells. Lots of wild yeast from the cedar didn’t do it any harm.
I love the flavour of wild fermentation but I’m terrified of screwing it up somehow and making something dangerous. I know that the fact that I’m making alcohol out of it should make it safer by default, but there’s a part of my brain that struggles with it
