Herbs in the mash

[TimT]

Lemon verbena, for those who don't know, is a rather lovely herb that really springs to life in spring and summer and then tends to go dormant in autumn and winter. It has a strong lemon scent - (no shit, Sherlock!) - that you can smell from the other end of the garden.

Since we've used it in teas a lot I've occasionally experimented with using it in brews - chucked it in a few saisons last year, and maybe - though I can't remember - whacked it in a few of my wines. Don't seem to get much out of it, really.

Well today, since the Baron has been pruning the lemon verb, a thought struck me. I grabbed a few leaves and crammed them in my mouth and had a good old chew. Grassy at first, then becoming increasingly flavoursome, even bitter, as the chewing went on.

The thing about this plant, I think, is it's just not inclined to give up much flavour or character in a finished brew: I suspect this is a herb that would really benefit from being thrown in the mash - or going through some equivalent of the mashing process to get the amylase really working and converting those plant starches.

Only this strikes me as being a bit of a tricksome process: not sure whether you can just throw the herbs in the mash, and then boil them, and then hope to still have a lot of the plant flavours and smells. But if you don't go through the boil, then your brew will be in much more danger of infection.

And what if you want to use the plant for a wine, one of my meads? Honey contains amylase, but I'm not sure whether there's enough of it to really help in any kind of mashing process. (This is a subject I'd love to take advice on and I'd love anyone who knows more about this to pipe up and tell me it will work - or won't work).

And it strikes me putting plants through the mash would work on a lot of herbs. Rosemary? Hops, obviously, and I've seen a few recipes where this is done. Beetroot probably (I've read some people saying beetroot won't benefit from a mash as it's almost all fermentable sugar anyway, while others claiming that after the mash the brew will have a much more beetrooty taste).

So this is a subject I know very little about but would love to learn more. Has anyone got any reflections/feedback on this - suggestions on how to use the mashing method to get the most out of herbs and advice on how to ensure what you gain in the mash won't be lost in the boil? Im all ears!

 

[klangers]

I love your experimental and upbeat attitude TimT.

Sadly I have no experience in mashing with herbs, let along brewing with them.

 

[TimT]

Well let's just say I was warped at an influential brewing age by reading all the right wrong books. It surprises me a bit, actually, that I don't meet more offbeat brewers and that everyone sticks rigidly to the malt/hops/yeast rule. Perhaps if I'd been a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism at uni and tasted some of their attempted gruits or meads I might have been cured of my own herbal-brewing proclivities....

Currently got a yarrow-elderflower-blackberry ale bubbling away behind me

 

[mfeighan]

i have never had any experience with said herb but i was under the impression the more you cook etc your herbs the more flavour you lose. I guess just like hops the more you boil it the less aroma/flavour you get. Why not make a strong tea and add it post ferment or steep it in some vodka for a while if you are worried about infections.

 

[TimT]

Mikey we do indeed make lemon verbena tea on occasion round here. Truth be told I find it an unsatisfactory way to get the flavour of that herb into brews - I just don't get any appreciable character out of it. I think the heat carries a lot of it off in the first few minutes. Similarly, adding to the fermenter in secondary fermentation doesn't seem to do much.

The more I look into brewing with herbs the more it seems to me that there are a variety of ways to add herb flavours, and it all depends on which herbs you use. In the case of lemon verbena, I'm just making a guess based on my experience of giving it a good ol' chew - that is, the grassy/dry sensation on first chew, quickly leading to a more complex lemony bitterness in a few secs suggests something may be happening in my mouth to release the plant flavours. So maybe it's the amylase we have in our mouths - the same that gets put to use in the making of chicha!

At any rate, we have a perfectly good way of replicating that effect when doing a brew: the mash. Hence my above rant/ramble/ponderance/whatever.

Other methods of adding plant flavours and smells - making a tea, an alcoholic tincture, an essence, adding it during the boil, or throwing it in the brew at some point - primary or secondary fermentation. It all depends which herbs....

 

[Yob]

Did you get round to using that heather mate? I used 250g in a mini boil last night, very earthy aroma coming out of the pot, pitched on 028 this morning.

 

[TimT]

Yeah, I did, thanks! Still a few bottles lying around. Not sure it's a brilliant ale taste on its own - it definitely needs a base herb like hops; but nothing too strong so you don't notice its gentle herb/floral tastes. But it would work brilliant in some wines I think - if I ever get another lot I want to use it in some mead!

 

[Yob]

Glad I threw in a handful of flowers then