Brewing without hops: Suggestions wanted
I’m giving this comment its own post because it likely would go unnoticed at the bottom of an older thread.
Technical information about brewing without hops fits more comfortably in a homebrewing blog, but I’ve mentioned gruit here and do have a category for ingredients. So if you have suggestions for Tom fire away — links to lengthy posts at homebrew blogs or recipes at homebrew sites are welcome.
I am completely out of my depth here, but I suspect that bad things are going to happen to the economy and it makes sense to attempt brewing on a small scale if we who live on remote Pacific islands are going to be bartering on a larger scale, for two reasons….naturally, the first is that people will want a bucket of beer…but the second is purely practical. All of our water is rainwater and it must be held in catchment systems…which can fill up with things you don’t want to drink. So, given a choice between boiling water or using the same wood to brew beer, which is safe to drink, beer wins.
Hops, however, won’t grow in the tropics. Will someone please point me to a book that explains how to make beer or ale with heat but without the traditional hops? Obviously I am a neophyte, but this may well be something I need to learn at an accelerated pace.
Thanks to all,
I am sorry for picking a thread basically at random. I did a search and this popped up.a hui hou
Tom
I will be the first to mention lavender, because I gave my lavender plants their spring trimming yesterday.
Posted: March 16th, 2008 under Ingredients.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Tom,
You may want to start at http://www.probrewer.com and look at “alternative bittering plants”. It mentions quite a few plants and books for brewing.
Isn’t the basic goal of an alternative bittering plant in beer to balance the sweetness of the malt with the bitterness of the plant and also to inhibit bacterial growth in the finished product?
Perhaps a little tropical botanical education is a good goal to start with if you want to use local plants- cheat the learning curve and listen to locals.
Education doesn’t always equate to wisdom.
March 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
you might be able to get some hop varieties to grow in the tropics. i know i’ve seen some recommended for hot climates, though they didn’t say anything about humidity.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner is a simple comprehensive introduction into brewing with anything but hops (120 recipes). Hops is still in its infancy as a bittering agent in beer. Gruit was the ale of Europe for 700 years, then during the 16th and 18th centuries the world’s first drug laws were established making the use of any other herb or seed besides hops illegal with severe penalties. Primary thanks for this goes to the Catholic Church, but this issue provided a spring board for the Protestant reformist, so we can not leave them out.
This excerpt is from the book,”Gruit ale stimulates the mind, creates euphoria, and enhances sexual drive. The hopped ale that took its place is quite different. It effects are sedating and anaphrodesiacal. In other words it puts the drinker to sleep and dulls sexual desire.”
Like Todd said, hops acts as an antimicrobial agent, inhibiting any contaminents. I’ve done a few herbal beers, one had bayberry leaves (similar to gruit, effects were stumulating) and the other had sage, you’ve got to drink them fast or they get skunky.
It has quite a few recipes for tropical brewers also. Their is one for Palm beer, drill a hole in a palm tree colloct a few gallons of its sap (sap is sterile when it comes out of the tree) put in primary fermenter and add some yeast. Ferment until complete add priming sugar, bottle and consume.