Rosemary In Beer

[brucearnold]

Had a brewer here in Canberra that used to make a Rosemary beer, not a big hit with other brewers but I thought it was great! Was like drinking a sunday roast lamb lunch!

 

[Nick JD]

Reinheitsgebot. It's German for "don't put wrong shit in beer!"

 

[mikk]

Never tried it personally, but i've heard people go mental over rosemary & chocolate ice cream. This suggests that it might be nice with a porter to me...

 

[Ross]

slightly :icon_offtopic:

We just took delivery today of some herbs for trialling in beer - We are brewing a Celtic Red ale with heather flowers tomorrow.

Herbs & misc we got in:

Lemon Vebena
Rosehip
Mugwort
Lavander
Elder Flower
Heather Flowers
Rosemary leaf
juniper berries
Horehound.

Steeping & tasting these as typing....

Cheers Ross

 

[HoppingMad]

Read a blog where a person used a standard pale ale recipe and added rosemary & pineapple mint late boil. They thought that the use of the mint meant the rosemary became a more subtle aftertaste.

Hopper.

 

[super_simian]

"...Then put as much Honey in it, as will bear an Egge..."

Huh, seems like they were using an egg as a primitive hydrometer!

 

[evildrakey]

Huh, seems like they were using an egg as a primitive hydrometer!

They certainly did! Not only that, some recipes have eggs of different sizes - Egge the size of a groat. Egg the size of a penny... Etc...
Some reenactment brewer in the US (I have the article SOMEWHERE) actually measured what kind of egg sizes equated to what SG... Would have been damn hilarious to have worked out...


>We are brewing a Celtic Red ale with heather flowers tomorrow.

Also, Ross - where did you find heather flowers.... I'd love to brew with those...

 

[Nick JD]

Whorehound and mugwort go well with newt's eyes if you can get them.

$50 says this is the first and last time you add this shit to your beer. If I see a FWK full of bat's tits, I'll eat my hat made from fugglearseflaps.

There's a reason people make beer from malt hops and yeast ... it doesn't taste like there's a bustle in your hedgerow.

 

[Goldenchild]

Juniper was quite common in Sweden back in the day. And still is in traditional Gotland ales. I believe they use it instead of hops and use whole branches! Will try and get hold of one since I'm here and review.

Unsure about elderflower in beer but it goes great in ciders.
All the Swedish cider brands have one with and IMO are the tastiest.

 

[Goldenchild]

slightly :icon_offtopic:

We just took delivery today of some herbs for trialling in beer - We are brewing a Celtic Red ale with heather flowers tomorrow.

After reading this tonight I decided to try a beer in my locals fridge.
Heather ale- fraoch ( heather in Gaelic)

16th centuary recipe malt and heather that's it! Great beer actually more than impressed! Also in the fridge is a pine ale and a kelp ale not so sure about the last one as I hate sea weed but interesting non the less.

 

[evildrakey]

Juniper was quite common in Sweden back in the day. And still is in traditional Gotland ales. I believe they use it instead of hops and use whole branches! Will try and get hold of one since I'm here and review.

Unsure about elderflower in beer but it goes great in ciders.
All the Swedish cider brands have one with and IMO are the tastiest.

Make sure you use Juniperus Communis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_communis, as some of the junipers are toxic. If you do find proper juniper branches, I'd love to know your source?

 

[Goldenchild]

Make sure you use Juniperus Communis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_communis, as some of the junipers are toxic. If you do find proper juniper branches, I'd love to know your source?

Thanks for the heads up but I was more thinking of sourcing an ale with it. I don't think my 18l BIAB pot could handle any branches in it!
As for sourcing branches I'm sure I could try find it over here (Sweden) but just assuming your in aussi I doubt customs would allow it in. Especially considering the tree is used fresh and not dried.

 

[Brisfox]

As this subject is about rosemary, I did one very dark ale with 3 cardomon pods crushed up and thrown straight in at flame out.
High % if I remember rightly and went well with vindaloo.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I think someone gave you a nice solution - mead and rosemary is a tried combination. That suggests to me that going down the path of a Braggot or at least a "honey ale" will give you a flavour combination that you "know" works.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Whorehound and mugwort go well with newt's eyes if you can get them.

$50 says this is the first and last time you add this shit to your beer. If I see a FWK full of bat's tits, I'll eat my hat made from fugglearseflaps.

There's a reason people make beer from malt hops and yeast ... it doesn't taste like there's a bustle in your hedgerow.

As much as I hate to agree wholeheartedly with Nick... +1

There is a reason that dead beers died.... the people who were drinking them got a taste of that nice malt and hops stuff that the Czechs were making and decided "If Dad wants to keep drinking the cat piss and pinecone hooch that's "traditional" in the this villiage, he can go for his life, but I'm not drinking that shit anymore! Hand me a pint of Budvar thanks..."

No one drinks Gruit... because gruit is shit and they'd rather have a beer.

 

[Goldenchild]

Your opinion and your entitled to it. But all you guys are doing here is stifling curiosity. People have different tastes and some like to experiment with things not so traditional in modern beers.
Guessing you both wouldn't brew a wit then either? As adding coriander, chamomile and zest is I just plain crazy!

 

[freezkat]

too much rosemary can be toxic

 

[brucearnold]

too much rosemary can be toxic

I don't think people are looking at putting any more rosemary in the pot than you would on a Sunday roast. Hardly classified as large amounts that the non-quoted study suggested is required.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Your opinion and your entitled to it. But all you guys are doing here is stifling curiosity. People have different tastes and some like to experiment with things not so traditional in modern beers.
Guessing you both wouldn't brew a wit then either? As adding coriander, chamomile and zest is I just plain crazy!

not at all - you might note that immediately above i make a suggestion as to what a half decent flavour match for rosemary in a beer (ish) beverage might be.

I merely point out that when you are talking about a drink as old as beer, you're unlikely to find a flavour combination that is completely untried; and that rather than thinking that diversity in beer has been killed off by some sort of conspiracy to promote bland beer - I think its been killed off by the fact that people realized that beer made in certain ways, with certain ingredients is actually better. Perhaps less "interesting", but better. In the same way as the mad bloke who hangs around at the train station has had a life that is more "interesting" than mine - but I'll take my more boring, but infinitely more palatable life any old day thanks. if rosemary in a beer was much good - theres a damn fine chance you'd have tasted it before.

I think that if you have to struggle to think what sort of beer you could use an ingredient in, then probably the answer is none. If you taste something and immediately a beer flavour combination leaps to mind, or you taste a beer and think "wow, this sort of beer would taste awesome with some **** in it" - thats when you are onto a winner. Like citrus and corriander in a Wit - been done, is good, nearly died out but saved because it was good.

Too many good flavour combinations to try, to waste time and effort on stuff that you need a shoehorn and some halucinogens to even imagine working - let alone things that have been used before and were abandoned because something manifestly better came along.

 

[sim]

and then theres history. have a lick of an encyclopedia.

i agree with your point thirsty, and that its got to do with trends. A trend im noticing superceed Budvar's simple awesomeness is "beer is so cool to me right now what the frig else can i do/put in it".

and, i think it should be pointed out that the reason half those historical ingredients died out is we found out they were dangerous for us to consume.