Gruit Ale.....14th Century Recipe!

[WalesAles]

Pics of Gruit!.........

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww33 ... 936c2f.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww33 ... 0ea416.jpg

Mucky or what!

WA

[Monkeybrew]

Pics of Gruit!.........

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww33 ... 936c2f.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww33 ... 0ea416.jpg

Mucky or what!

WA

WTF, all I can think is WTF Mun!

[timbo41]

What yeast was that?

[WalesAles]

What yeast was that?

timbo,
Wilko Kit Yeast and Safale US 05.

WA

[Monkeybrew]

The long awaited Gruit Ale!

I got a good hiss on opening the 330ml bottle and was met by a powerful herby aroma.

It poured a very dark brown colour and produced a tightly packed creamy coloured head that lasted until the glass was emptied.

The aroma from the glass was all herbs and I couldn't put my finger on it until I read the recipe and discovered it was the Rosemary that was standing head and shoulders above everything else. The first sip was more Rosemary, strong Rosemary in fact and then the slightest hint of the base beer kit. As I carried on drinking the Rosemary just kept coming, along with an alcoholic warmth from the nigh on 8% ABV of the beer.

I applaud your experimentation WA and thank you again for hand delivering some of your brews to me. You have acheived your goal with this brew IMO, because it is strong in alcohol and herbage notes, but I have to say that it isn't totally to my personal tastes, but that shouldn't detract from another good brew from Wales!

Cheers

MB

[WalesAles]

Cheers Monkey!
I told you it`s a Marmite Beer (Love it or Hate it)!
Hamish (Head Brewer) in the Fat Pig Pub in Exeter told me to use a lot less Rosemary next time! Yes, there will be another!
This will be an ongoing project of refining it to the Nth degree!
I followed the recipe, so I didn`t know any different!

WA

[ArmChair]

Wales Ales - Gruit Ale 7.9%

Opens with a good hiss and pours a deep brown colour, with a ruby red hue. The head is a thick fluffy pale brown colour, that leaves good lacing and stays all the way down the glass.

On the nose, the first thing you pick up is ginger and thyme then a rosemary undertone. I can not pick up any malt, due to the amount of herbal aromas coming out the glass.

On to the taste, and at first I thought I was drinking mud.... Sorry but that's the first flavour that came to mind. Then comes this big hit of rosemary, that then develops into a gingery lemongrass flavour. The body is rather thin for an
8% ale, but you can taste the alcohol there, it has a warming feel and a dry finish.

It's not an ale for me sadly.

[WalesAles]

Thank You Armchair,
I told you `Love it or Hate it`!

WA

[WalesAles]

Had to have one!

Absolutely Bloody Lovely Mun!

WA

[Laripu]

Somewhat inspired by this thread (and an article on ancient abbey ale), I made a gruit ale too. Initial gravity was 1.090. I used a total of one ounce of various herbs, as follows:
Lavender, juniper, wormwood: 7.1 g each
Marjoram: 4.2 g
Bay leaf and rosemary: 1.5 g each

The hop rate was a low 26 IBU (low for such a high gravity ale).

Among the fermentables was 2 lb of Brazilian Pepper Honey, and 14 oz of Asian (!) candi sugar. Grain was 8 lb of Belgian pilsner malt, 5 lb of malted wheat, and a pound of unmalted wheat. For good measure, a pound of very light coloured DME. Hence: 1.090.

The yeast I used was WLP530, which I've read is Westmalle. It's been in primary for 17 days, and the airlock still blups three times a minute. I don't expect to be drinking this beer until June. It will be called Ant-warp, and the label will use the Escher picture of ants in a Moebius strip.

Etymological note about the word "gruit". The present day German word for herbs is "kräuter", and the Dutch word for herb is "kruid" (pronounced kraut). You can see the resemblance.

[WalesAles]

Lari,
SG 1090!
Bloody Hell Mun! That`s going to be a nice `Session` Beer!
Please keep us informed on this Brew!

WA

[Laripu]

Lari,
SG 1090!
Bloody Hell Mun! That`s going to be a nice `Session` Beer!
Please keep us informed on this Brew!

WA

Yeah, a passed-out session.

I'll post a preliminary label soon, and the progress as it happens.

[WalesAles]

Lari,
SG 1090!
Bloody Hell Mun! That`s going to be a nice `Session` Beer!
Please keep us informed on this Brew!

WA

Yeah, a passed-out session.

I'll post a preliminary label soon, and the progress as it happens.

Lari,
How is the Gruit going?

WA

[Laripu]

Lari,
SG 1090!
Bloody Hell Mun! That`s going to be a nice `Session` Beer!
Please keep us informed on this Brew!

WA

Yeah, a passed-out session.

I'll post a preliminary label soon, and the progress as it happens.

Lari,
How is the Gruit going?

WA

Bulk aging. I plan to bottle in about 2 or 3 weeks.

I know I promised to post the label, and I still intend to, but I've been posting from my phone, haven't got to my computer.

Here's the base picture for the label for Ant-warp gruit ale:

Edit: I deleted the base picture. See two posts down for the finished label.

[Laripu]

I bottled today.
I had saved some of the blow-off (a little over a litre) and that was terrible. It had been sitting on a thick yeast cake, and got autolysis off-flavours. It kind of made me apprehensive, but without cause: the main batch of the beer is fantastic, and will be better with a month of bottle conditioning.

It has a bit of a floral taste, which I think is down to the lavender. It is clearly a beer as we think of beer, but the gruit flavours make you kind of scratch your head and go "Huh? Wha? Hmmmmm."

It finished higher than I expected. I thought it would get down to 1.021. Probably that's because I reduced temperature during the aging, down to 66°F=19°C. I think the WLP530 wants it warmer.

I'll post the label tomorrow, probably.

FG 1.029, 8% abv
Recipe:
8 lb Pilsner malt
5 lb wheat malt
2 lb Brazilian Pepper Honey (added after boil)
1 lb light DME
1 lb unmalted wheat
14 oz candi sugar
Hops to 26 BU:
0.5 oz Citra, 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz, 15 minutes
0.5 oz Citra 15 minutes
Spices added to kettle during sparge, then boiled:
Lavender, juniper, wormwood: 7.1 g each
Marjoram: 4.2 g
Bay leaf and rosemary: 1.5 g each
WLP530 abbey ale