Borage
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The Epworth Brewer
Borage
I'm starting to experiment with recipes and a friend has offered me as much Borage as I want. All I can find out about it via a search engine or on here is that it can be used to make a beer, as nettles are. But I can't see any reference anywhere to anyone using it in normal Barley/Hopped beer. It is a herb that apparently is similar in smell and taste to cucumber. That tends to put me off. Has anyone ever dabbled with Borage and if so what was the outcome?
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The Epworth Brewer
Re: Borage
Just a quick update on this. I have boiled 2 samples of this stuff in a pan. One with the flowers and one with just the leaves. Although there is definitely something worth experimenting with it certainly won't be in a pale ale. The petals and their stems (too fiddly to separate) turned the water the same colour as Rio's Olympic diving pool. The leaf boil came out golden, but turned green within an hour of being left to stand.
It's supposed to have a hint of cucumber but to me it was more like ginger at first before a more mellow taste took over. I would say it could be used as a type of tea infusion.
I'm going to grab a lot of this herb and freeze it for the winter months when I'll give it a bash, possibly in a Porter.
It's supposed to have a hint of cucumber but to me it was more like ginger at first before a more mellow taste took over. I would say it could be used as a type of tea infusion.
I'm going to grab a lot of this herb and freeze it for the winter months when I'll give it a bash, possibly in a Porter.
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gnorwebthgimi
Re: Borage
I think you are currently leading the field in Borage brewing research, good man.
Just a couple of thoughts for you:
The use of Borage may pre date the use of hops (which were banned
in the UK at one point). Dating back that far the malt used would have been kilned before steel was wildly available and would have been darker but probably not as dark as porter.
I would be tempted to use it to balance out the sweetness of a copper beer as a substitute for some of hops you would usually use for bittering, or better still drop it into dark mild with chocolate malt not Black malt or roasted barley, which I think might over power it.
Please up date with the results of what ever you do.
Just a couple of thoughts for you:
The use of Borage may pre date the use of hops (which were banned
in the UK at one point). Dating back that far the malt used would have been kilned before steel was wildly available and would have been darker but probably not as dark as porter.I would be tempted to use it to balance out the sweetness of a copper beer as a substitute for some of hops you would usually use for bittering, or better still drop it into dark mild with chocolate malt not Black malt or roasted barley, which I think might over power it.
Please up date with the results of what ever you do.
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BenB
Re: Borage
Yes, all the recipes I've seen were essentially gruit with borage instead not in addition to hops. If you google "borage ale" you'll get a link to a Google book with a recipe for one example.