I’ve recently been getting in to beer mixology, experimenting with adding various bitter herbs to my beer, being inspired by Gruit, the herbed, pre-hops style of medieval ale. My most recent Belgian Saison homebrew was a little bit “meh,” so I thought “why not spice things up?” These days I’m pretty much always keeping a jug of …
Continue reading “Pseudo-Gruit – Chartreuse Tart Saison – Herbed as an Afterthought”
My inauthentic attempt at replicating 14th century Mongolian airag, a lightly fermented drink produced of mare’s milk. The neem honey is marvelously floral and a little bit spicy. Not spicy hot, but earthy spice. It’s absolutely remarkable and boldly stands out from standard honey. For the one I dared serve, scroll down to 2nd attempt. …
“And she mixed them a potion with barley and cheese and pale honey added to Pramnian wine, but put into the mixture malignant drugs to make them forgetful of their own country. After she’d given them this and they’d drunk it down, next she struck them with her wand and drove them into her pig …
BeerSmith Recipe: Silk Road Sweet and Spicy Milk Stout
Next to my forthcoming Circe’s Elixir, Twin Suns Saison has been my most involved beer to date. This is Morgue Brewing’s first “official” collaboration, as the label playfully notes: “A spectacularly sophisticated nectar collaboratively brewed by Morgue Brewing with wildflower honey lovingly handcrafted by the bees of Hamilton Hives and artistically accented with label art …
I got fancy this time. 4 gallons organic farm fresh apple cider Belgian Ardennes Wyeast 3522 yeast Tastes great, of course. Wonderful Belgian aroma. Clean semi-dry taste. Largely all of the spices precipitated out, to my dismay. Perhaps it would be best to “dry hop” with some spices. I’m trying that now with my 2015 …
My latest cider brewed with Nottingham brewer’s yeast. Tastes good if you plug your nose. Otherwise, there’s an unfortunate dirty sock aroma. Red Star Côte des Blancs yields a far superior cider.
In my “learning to like Belgians” quest (beer, not the people), I decided to take a stab at a saison. Chimay and Trappist styles are certainly enjoyable, but I had yet to develop a great fondness for the overly estery quality of Belgian ale. High time to broaden the palette. A second motivation is to …
Two things in my quest for antiquity: (1) I continue to have this yearning to brew beer without hops. Don’t get me wrong. IPA is my go-to beer of choice, but hops is, from my perspective, a fairly recent additive to beer — in the last mere 8 or 9 centuries. (2) I’m curious about …
I just impressed myself.
