Fennel Beer?

[Brewing_Brad]

G'day guys,

I did a quick search on here, but nothing came up...so I'm gonna put it out there:

Fennel beer.

Thoughts?

Cheers
Brad

 

[zebba]

Might it be easier to use star anice? I've been toying with doing a brown with fuggles and star anice.

 

[Bizier]

I lost a post, but wanted to say that I tried Deschutes Black Butte XXI at their Portland pub, it was bloody fantastic. It is a very large porter with some spice incl. star anise. Absolutely the best beer I've had with that spice, because it was very moderate and complimentary.

AFAIK, both arak and ouzo use fennel seed, so you could dose commercial or HB beer with those, or make a tincture and dose.

Whatever the case, I'd suggest a dark beer. That Deschutes beer was friggin' awesome, and I spent a bunch on it.

 

[teeesoobes10]

I'd be interested to hear how you go - porter or stout or otherwise.

 

[Tanga]

Isn't there a licorice flavour or kind of malt that people use to brew stout with?

I think this'd taste nice. Let us know how it goes - though I doubt it'd be repeatable with extract.

 

[alkos]

Had this one yesterday:

http://www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/our-beers/chalkys-bite/

Very nice, refreshing, with a slight fennel-cucumberish vegetable bright flavor.

Something to repeat, certainly.

 

[Silo Ted]

G'day guys,

I did a quick search on here, but nothing came up...so I'm gonna put it out there:

Fennel beer.

Thoughts?

Cheers
Brad

I bought a book the other week on Sacred & Healing Herbal Beers, which Im sure will have a recipe in it for you on Fennel. Its at a friends place right now but when I get it back will let you know the quantities etc.

Im soon going to make something out of it with wormwood in place of hops.

 

[Malted]

Might it be easier to use star anice? I've been toying with doing a brown with fuggles and star anice.

Fennel seed may be more mild than star anise? Would possibly require more fennel seed. I reckon you can get more flavour from smaller quantities of whole star anise. My useless opinion would be to also reccommend the star anise. Could be fennel = subtle; star anise = not so subtle?

IMHO licorice and aniseed are different flavours; but I like them both.

 

[zebba]

Fennel seed may be more mild than star anise?

Actually I'd forgotten about fennel seed and was purely thinking of the plant itself! Silly me

Fennel seed definitely has a different flavour to star anice, and IMO is far nicer. You're probably right though you would need to use a lot more.

 

[Tanga]

I bought a book the other week on Sacred & Healing Herbal Beers, which Im sure will have a recipe in it for you on Fennel. Its at a friends place right now but when I get it back will let you know the quantities etc.

Im soon going to make something out of it with wormwood in place of hops.

Noice! I read about different bittering agents in a old book I've got - but there wasn't anything about quantities and I had no idea where to get any of them. I will be VERY interested to hear about your results with this. I'm just and extract brewer but would love to see what kind of results you get and perhaps having a go.

 

[DanRayner]

I reckon a softer amount (no idea how much) might go well instead of coriander seed in a witbier, just a thought...

Maybe grapefruit or another citrus peel instead of bitter orange?

 

[Silo Ted]

Sorry Brad, got my book back and I was mistaken, there isnt a fennel recipe in there. Plenty of other weird & wonderful herbed beers though. In the new year Im going to try-

Wormwood (the absinthe herb)
Liqorice root
Mandrake root
Sage

also a traditional corn beer from South America, in which the kernels will be germinated at home for 'malting'.

Happy to post any recipes for people interested in trying something wildly different to what we know and understand as beer. Brewer beware though, as some of them could be poisonous or psychotropic if too much is consumed.

 

[Brewing_Brad]

Sorry Brad, got my book back and I was mistaken, there isnt a fennel recipe in there. Plenty of other weird & wonderful herbed beers though. In the new year Im going to try-

Wormwood (the absinthe herb)
Liqorice root
Mandrake root
Sage

also a traditional corn beer from South America, in which the kernels will be germinated at home for 'malting'.

Happy to post any recipes for people interested in trying something wildly different to what we know and understand as beer. Brewer beware though, as some of them could be poisonous or psychotropic if too much is consumed.

I'd be interested in the wormwood recipe you've got, as I've got metric-****-tonne of that growing around the place as well.

The reason I asked originally is because my backyard is literally chockers with fennel. The things are seriously towering above me by at least 3 foot (I'm gonna get a photo). They're not the bulb eating variety, but I reckon I can use them for something - and naturally booze came to mind. I also have a piece of equitment that I can't talk about on this forum *coughstillcough* so maybe I could use it as flavouring there.

Either way, I'll keep you all posted.

Cheers
Brad

 

[Banshee]

Are you Greek?

 

[under]

Keep the fennel for salads

 

[Silo Ted]

I'd be interested in the wormwood recipe you've got, as I've got metric-****-tonne of that growing around the place as well.

Mate I don't want to sound like your mother, but just be careful that you have ID'd it as Artemisia absinthium properly before using for human consumption.

Ok, that said, here is the recipe from "Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner and the chapter "Psychotropic an Highly Inebriating Beers"

WORMWOOD ALE
Ingredients:
4 pounds malt extract
1 pound raw wildflower honey
1/2 ounce wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
4 gallons water
yeast

Bring the water to a boil, add wormwood, simmer one hour, When cooled to 160 degrees F, strain over malt extract and honey in fermenting vessel. Cool to 70 degrees F. Add yeast. Allow to sit in fermentation vessel until fermentation complete.

If you get to this recipe before I do, please let me know how it turned out. Maybe you could send me a bottle

 

[J Grimmer]

hey there Brad,

For what its worth i saw an episode of "the cook and the chef" where Maggie visited a destiller (I believe in Tassie) that did an wild fennel spirt, it might be worth while looking up.