Monday, November 14, 2011

(4) NABC Gruit Series.

Gruit Series

Beers in the olden style, sans hops.

Artemsia
What has science done?
Brown ale brewed with two-row barley and molasses, and flavored with mugwort (the "dream herb," related to sagebrush and a cousin of wormwood), sweet orange peel and chamomile. As with wormwood, mugwort is regarded as useful in repelling moths.
4.5% abv
0 IBU

Jenever
The horse of the hanged
No hops are used in Jenever, recalling the days before the magic cone came to be accepted as the chosen bittering agent in beer. Instead, crushed juniper berries balance the malt, and a touch of rye completes a tasty, bucolic scene.
5% abv
0 IBU

Strathpeffer
Honey and heather/Srath Pheofhair
Ale in the Scots Gaelic tradition, sans hops, with heather (a shrubbery) as the spice and honey to provide a mead-like sheen. It brings out the native sparkle of haggis, if you can find any hereabouts, and is named for the town in Scotland where a Pictish eagle is famously carved into a large stone.
6% abv
0 IBU

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