I saw a couple of comments on here about Gruit beers and I searched around on the net to find out more about them. The herbs like yarrow, myrica and mugwort seem readily available over eBay (though they are vended by strange occult shops that claim the herbs have magical purposes.) I just had a few questions that some of you might know the answers to if you have made herb beers before,

Would one use about the same amount of these herbs as hops? For example in a 5 gallon brew I would usually use 1-2 oz of hops would those measurments be appropriate for gruits? Though I have noticed some of you use much more hops, I'm just wondering whether we are talking ounces, grams or pounds of herbs. Are there any really good combinations, or really horrible ones I should try to avoid?

What colour (color) and alcohol strength would a Gruit beer typically beer? For the most part I use extracts (and some small partial mashes) because all I have is a small kitchen to work in. I'm alright at approximating colour, taste, strength if I know what I'm aiming at, but I've never tried a Gruit so I'm absolutely in the dark on this.

Would a Gruit traditionally use honey as a fermentable, maybe half and half with malt like a Braggot, or a bit less?

I found a recipe for a Gruit beer but the bittering herb used was Hensbane which is highly toxic. Apparently it was used traditionally but the recipe itself contained "warning: do not drink more than 5 of these in a day". The toxic effects include hallucinations and going delerious. This sounds like a bit more than I want from a beer. Are there any other traditional herbs that should be avoided because they are poisonous?

If anyone has any Information or experience at all with Gruits I'd appreciate some pointers. When I asked at the brew shop yesterday the guy had never heard of them. Cheers,

Joseph.

Here's how the local homebrew club in my area went about making a gruit ale:
http://deadyeast.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27

The traditional herbs to use would be Yarrow, Sweet Gale, and Marsh Rosemary. I'd stick with these, and steer way clear of anything anything else to start with. Also, you'll be paying a premium for crappy, dried out herbs if you buy through one of those mystical shops. Stick with a well known place like Wildweeds, or some other herb warehouse. Even through an herbal warehouse, Marsh Rosemary might be hard to find.

I don't see why you couldn't use honey to boost the ABV of the gruit, but I wouldn't use too large a quantity. To my way of thinking, you want to end up with a big, malty, high-ish ABV beer, not a braggot. I'd say that color would be totally up to your discretion, as would the amount of herbs to be used. Get the herbs, measure up some water and brew some herbal tea, and see what works for your taste. Then scale up.

Hope this helps some!

Cheers,
Dave

Thanx for the link, gave me much to ponder. Marsh Rosemary has popped up in a few discussions I've found but seems difficult to locate. I do have a mead recipe that calls for regular rosemary, but I think theyr'e unrelated herbs. I think I'll start off doing just a two gallon brew when my smaller fermenter is free. I have the feeling the results will be fairly unpredicatable.

Marsh Rosemary is very difficult to locate! I don't know how much help it'll be, but it also apparently goes by the names:
Wild Rosemary
Sea Lavender
Statice
Limonium

Cheers,
Dave

Here is a link for good info: http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm
They have recipes too.

I think I would avoid hensbane. I think it contains arsenic and atropine(?).

hereticzero wrote:I think I would avoid hensbane. I think it contains arsenic and atropine(?).

I read a report someone gave of drinking too much Hensbane beer and it sounded pretty horrible. I've located most of the herbs mentioned on that page though (except the marsh rosemary). Some things I've thought about, a few recipes I've seen have bulked up the alcohol with Brown sugar, but this is probably inauthentic as I don't think sugar cane was used for sugar in Gruit times (its only been the last 100 or 200 hundred years that its been used) so I think Honey would be a better additive. Also I'm assuming that these beers would not have been carbonated, though no recipe I've seen mentions it one way or another.

Thanx for that link hereticzero,

Joseph.