Gruit

My First Attempt at Gruit

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• published: 06 Feb 2012
• views: 3462

Today I brewed a gruit, A gruit is a traditional ale made without hops. The bittering, aroma, & flavoring ingredients I used are Heather Tips, Chamolile, Yarrow, Mugwort, & Hibiscus. In the video I document my process and recipe. The wort was extremely sweet and I think will ferment very well. I tasted the wort before pitching the yeast and think it will turn out great. It has a very red color. Grains: 9lbs Golden Promise 1lb Honey Malt 1lb CaraRed 1lb Melanoiden 40 minutes ½ oz Yarrow ½ oz Mugwort ½ oz Heather 20 minutes ¼ oz Yarrow ¼ oz Mugwort ¼ oz Heather ¼ oz Chamomile ½ oz Hibiscus 10 min irish moss 5 minutes ¼ oz Yarrow ¼ oz Mugwort ¼ oz Heather ¼ oz Chamomile ½ oz Hibiscus FINAL NOTES & THOUGHTS ON ORIGINAL BATCH: Next time I AG this recipe I will add more 2-row (probably 13lbs) double up on the Hibiscus additions. Chamomile I will either use less or stretch it out so it boils longer. Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast) was what I used...I'd leave that alone but if you cant find it try East Coast or Cally I think....those would probably be good too. NEW ATTEMPT TODAY 8-23-12 I am currently trying a higher gravity extract version of this...slightly different...in todays batch I used Fermentis SafeAle US-05 yeast (I couldn't find the Denny's today). I used 8lbs of amber extract and 4lbs of light extract & some extra of DME (approx 1/2lb?)...kept mostly the same herb additions & times...see below for changes CHANGES: first wort hopped with 1oz of Sterling (just to add bitter front end) I thought 1oz of hops at beginning would help with the high grav (1.082). Same boil time 60 minute boil, but start adding herb additions at 40 minutes.......I added new herb Damiana(1oz) stretched the Damiana out over the full 40 min (40, 20, & 10). I doubled the Hibiscus additions (2 oz total). I kept the Chamomile amount the same but stretched the Chamomile out over 40 min boil (instead of just 20 & 10 min addition) Yield just under 5 gallons (1.082 OG)...wort tasted very similar to previous batch but higher gravity....I think it will be fantastic....BHbrewing filmed a lot of this batch and he will be posting a video shortly about it and about my experience (an interview sort of) with the first batch, it should have a portion of us tasting the last bottle from the original batch (about 6 months old)