Rosemary In Beer

[Goldenchild]

Yep some good points there I do agree with you beer is better with just malt and hops and more combinations one can brew in a lifetime. But at the same time i also like experimentation. Sure there's always gunna be better beer out there but there's no harm in trying something different.

As for rosemary in a beer a quick google search 'rosemary beer' showed multiple entries from the American forum Homebrewtalk
Seems the beer of choice to try it in is a saison. Didn't read much more into as I'm not planning on a rosemary beer but there is pages of stuff out there.

 

[Nick JD]

The Phases of Brewing:

Part One: Kit Beer

Here, the brewer begins. He mixes some goo and sugar with some hot water in a big barrel and adds water and yeast. It pleases him that it's cheap; it shocks him that it tastes cheap.

Part Two: Extract

Our diligent and enthusiastic brewer finds out that kit beer is made by robots and chemicals and vacuums and decides to add real hops to dried malts. He's happy, but those "real beer" flavours are still denied. Now he has a fermenting fridge, things are picking up ... and he can't now believe that the seasons dictated his beer's taste.

Part Three: All Grain

He has an epifanny (same as a female orgasm but real) and decides to actually make beer from things beer is made from. Then he goes a little bit mad - because he sees that he can make a three hundred IBU IIPA that's so malty it's like being caught underneath a combine harvester in a barley field. His beers become assulting and angry.

Part Four: Additions

He's now started down the dark path of adding fruit and spices to his beer. He bargains, "Why not add molten chicken arseholes? Everyone like's KFC. Surely everything I like the taste of deserves to be in the beer I drink?" Then the guilt sets in when his friends says, "This tastes like Pasito and chicken stock, dickhead. Where's the beer?" He's depressed.

Part Five: Resolution

He starts making delicious lagers and accepts he'd been so foolish as to think there was any reason why 90% of the beer drinkers of the world drink clean, refreshing, well-made lagers.

 

[manticle]

That fact that you struggle to make the ladies tremor in sexual satisfaction and therefore believe it the work of magic fairies makes me doubt the rest of your list.

I like lagers. I like sour beers. I like well balanced apas and IPAs. I like historical beers and modern day beers. I like brewing to style and experimenting with ingredients.

Give it a shot GC. Don't overdo it and make it the right beer and I reckon you'll probably work something that's quite nice. Might not be a quaffer or a house ale but not everything needs to be.

 

[Nick JD]

:lol: :lol:

Who wants 20L of rosemary beer in their cupboard?

Just buy her a vibrator.

 

[manticle]

I like to think of it as a companion rather than a competitor.

 

[Goldenchild]

Nickjd- Geez I dread the day I'm where your at in brewing and making solely lagers.

90% of beer drinkers think that is the only beer. Or as there led to believe by the lager megaswill brewers of the world it needs to be as crisp, flavorless an clear as the water it's made from but then still alcoholic. To be a good beer!

Lagers are great when it's hot out and ya really thirsty and imo every other beer has it's time and place .

What's step 6?

Realizing that your wasting your time making boring lagers. And going back to the megaswill where we all started?

 

[Rina]

epifanny smh

 

[Nick JD]

Nickjd- Geez I dread the day I'm where your at in brewing and making solely lagers.

Not solely lagers, just not soley ales.

I was looking through the BrewMate recipe list yesterday and there's like only a handful of lager recipes in there. That's a bit shit. People get wound up in Ales and yet the world has chosen.

Your average punter has more than enough access to ales and has chosen lagers. Why?

My guess is most people don't want their beer to taste of fruit.

 

[manticle]

Actually industrialisation and a bunch of other things come into play.

Market preference isn't solely driven by consumers but that's a discussion for another day.

I believe good lagers have been unfairly treated by most beer geeks and brewing nerds and placed in the too bland basket and I love many different types of them. However, particularly in this day and age, popularity and quality do not always go hand in hand (otherwise Katy Perry trumps Bach).

 

[Nick JD]

Actually industrialisation and a bunch of other things come into play.

Market preference isn't solely driven by consumers but that's a discussion for another day.

I believe good lagers have been unfairly treated by most beer geeks and brewing nerds and placed in the too bland basket and I love many different types of them. However, particularly in this day and age, popularity and quality do not always go hand in hand (otherwise Katy Perry trumps Bach).

Katy Perry does trump Bach. Bach doesn't have fireworks coming out his clacker.

I've also often wondered why the harder-to-make beer has become the standard? Please explain.

I can pump ales out way quicker than lagers. Why did the industry choose the expensive beer if the masses did not?

 

[brucearnold]

So how is that discussion on rosemary beer going?

Do we need to start a new tread on tradition beers and their place in today's society?

 

[Nick JD]

So how is that discussion on rosemary beer going?

Do we need to start a new tread on tradition beers and their place in today's society?

Rosemary is good with Lamb. Dip a wad of it into your beer and see if it improves it. It didn't? Well, there you go.

Mmmmm, Katy Perry.

 

[manticle]

Katy Perry does trump Bach. Bach doesn't have fireworks coming out his clacker.

I've also often wondered why the harder-to-make beer has become the standard? Please explain.

I can pump ales out way quicker than lagers. Why did the industry choose the expensive beer if the masses did not?

You can. At home. Major breweries can pump out stuff quicker than you can do either.

There's a million historical reasons why pale lager became the norm, some of which are to do with customer preference and some of which are to do with industrialisation, homogeneity and how much easier that is to market (or dictate customer preference).

It's a blend, not a black or white deal which is why you prefer your pale lagers to CUB's.

Bach kissed a girl too.

I know it's OT moderators but it's about beer, it's a friendly discussion so please for the love of just letting things be, stop deleting stuff that shouldn't be deleted.

To make it on topic: Take 3 or 4 types of your favourite beer or beer you think rosemary may work in. Steep a bit of fresh rosemary in each. Taste. If you think the flavour combo works, make up a recipe around that.

Alternatively, find a trad or US contemporary recipe and brew that.

 

[Nick JD]

I know it's OT moderators but it's about beer, it's a friendly discussion so please for the love of just letting things be, stop deleting stuff that shouldn't be deleted.

GLaDOS has no use for your banter. There will be no cake.

EDIT: a new wave of moderators will sure soon tire of their generalisimoistics.

 

[sim]

...so, anyway. incedentally a rosemary lager has been on my list of things to brew for the last year. just happens i dont find much time to brew lager ...but thats another story. i think rosemary will go very nicely with a nice crisp lager, perhaps a bigger alcohol content give it a bit of warmth. dont imagine it will be a house favourite, certainly not at the top of the list, but hey how good is beer?!

 

[Newbee(r)]

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

Sounds like some interesting beers to come!

The book 'The home brewer's garden' by Fisher.J., and fisher.D. covers most of these. some excerpts if helpful:

Elderflower : 57g as dry hops or 450g to 2.7kg of berries for sweet honey flavour to the beer
Heather: imparts a spicy, complex bitterness and deep purple colour to the beer
Horehound: very bitter - warming, almost menthol quality 28g of dried horehound at boil commencement
juniper: 2 tablespoons late in boil for ginlike flavour. leaves added to secondary give bittersweet aroma.
Lavender: complex bitterness similar to heather. 14g late in boil
rose hips: citrus flavour and red colour 7 to 28g late in the boil
rosemary: 42g fresh leaves late in the boil or dry hop for piney scent to the beer

From memory, mugwort is toxic at high levels.

*Inspired and heading out into the garden with torch and scissors...*

 

[flano]

OK
I made it...kegged it and tried it...let it sit for a few weeks and tried it again.

It is weird .
Wont be doing it again.

It tastes a bit like beery green cordial with a bit of detol or something in it.
It is quite over powering.
I only used a handful too.

one or two is ok ...just.

 

[mikec]

LOL.

Or maybe SOL (snigger out loud).

Thanks for the update mate, you're a brave man.


I think there are some things best left untried. Bacon beer comes to mind. It's one of those things that probably sounded like a great idea to someone, but I've tried it and it tastes like, well, it's gross.

 

[evildrakey]

OK
I made it...kegged it and tried it...let it sit for a few weeks and tried it again.

It is weird .
Wont be doing it again.

It tastes a bit like beery green cordial with a bit of detol or something in it.
It is quite over powering.
I only used a handful too.

one or two is ok ...just.

One thing to remind people is that Rosemary is unusual amongst herbs. It's flavour is VERY dependant on season and growing year - also the variety of Rosemary.... Hmmm... Kind of like Hops. And if I said, all hops taste the same and make my beer taste bitter, I'm sure the moderators would 'accidentally' unsubscribe me.

Rosemary in the spring and summer is lighter and more floral, in the autumn and winter it's much more piney and resinous... The Rosemary in my Brisbane Garden is very piney and resinous all year round where as my Adelaide Garden has a much lighter tasting rosemary that varies by the seasons.

So, please watch your assumptions. My recommendation is that a rosemary beer would be lovely if you used fresh flowers and leaves in late spring from a nice, floral variety... I have a friend in Auckland who has made Hungary Water. Which is an Aquavitae done with loads of fresh rosemary. When he delivered it, it came in 20 small bottles... 5 bottles from different cuts on the still run and 4 runs done in 4 seasons... Every bottle was different and I was completely astounded...

 

[flano]

Very piney is a good description

It is like I know the flavor but can't put my finger on it.
I am saving what's left for the slab club meet.

I Should get paid out on accordingly.