Got interested in Gruits and enlisted the aid of my homebrewer friends to try it. They are each making a batch...and I decided, what the hay..might as well try brewing myself. Armed with Stephen Harrod Buhner's Sacred and Herbal Beers, and a lot of Googling and advice from my friends, I set out on a Gruit ale (at the same time as a Gruit Mead with Heather tips and Myrica Gale).
My Gruit Ale was just racked to secondary and the only thing bad so far is that I didn't make enough!! Started out with 1 gal batch..which ended up less due to headspace and lots of blowoff during early fermentation. Probably bad to rack so early, but am going on vacation in a few days and was afraid I wouldn't get to bottle before leaving, so better to let clear and condition a little in secondary rather than leave on the trub for an extra week... right?
1 lb Briess Golden Light DME
0.25 lb Light Brown Sugar
1 oz Cara Pils
1 oz Crystal Malt 20L
10 g Myrica Gale (dried)
10 g Yarrow flowers (dried)
6 g Bog Labrador Tea (Ledum groenlandicum)
1 pkt (7 g) Coopers Ale yeast
Set 1 gal tap water boiling. Placed the CaraPils and Crystal malt (cracked with a rolling pin) in a muslin bag to steep while heating along with a muslin bag with 5 g Yarrow, 5 g Myrica Gale and 6 g Labrador Tea. Removed the malt when temp hit 180 deg, but kept the herbs in for a 25 min boil.
DME and Brown Sugar added as boiling began and boiled with herbs for 25 min.
After boil, when temp was down to about 140 deg, steeped another muslin bag with 5 g Yarrow and 5 g Myrica gale (don't know why I chickened out on the Bog Labrador Tea..figured I should go slow the first time). Steeped herbs for ~15 min then cooled the wort in ice to ~80 deg F. Poured into 1 gal jug and made up volume with tap water to the shoulder of the jug.
OG = 1.061
Should probably have filled it more since it wasn't enough headspace anyway!
Rehydrated yeast and pitched. Aerated by shaking and put fermentation lock on.
Bubbles in the airlock at about 4 h post pitch! Woke up at 4am and decided to check the beer... FOAM all up through the airlock! Removed and covered with sanitized muslin bag and plastic bag. Let sit overnight. Replaced air lock at 8:30 am. 1 h later... overflow with foam again.
Replaced muslin and plastic while rigging a blowoff tube into container of sanitizer.
Foamed and bubbled away like CRAZY for another 24 h or so at which point I replaced the airlock and let stand. Not much activity.
No activity and starting to clear at 5 day mark. Racked to secondary, lost a little more volume, of course. Most advice says NOT to make up with water in secondary, so I am leaving it as is.
SG= 1.012 WOW! 6.4% ABV... was shooting for somewhere around 5.5-6. Gallon batches just not enough!! Probably won't get much more than a six pack by the time I bottle. Live and Learn.
My Gruit Ale was just racked to secondary and the only thing bad so far is that I didn't make enough!! Started out with 1 gal batch..which ended up less due to headspace and lots of blowoff during early fermentation. Probably bad to rack so early, but am going on vacation in a few days and was afraid I wouldn't get to bottle before leaving, so better to let clear and condition a little in secondary rather than leave on the trub for an extra week... right?
1 lb Briess Golden Light DME
0.25 lb Light Brown Sugar
1 oz Cara Pils
1 oz Crystal Malt 20L
10 g Myrica Gale (dried)
10 g Yarrow flowers (dried)
6 g Bog Labrador Tea (Ledum groenlandicum)
1 pkt (7 g) Coopers Ale yeast
Set 1 gal tap water boiling. Placed the CaraPils and Crystal malt (cracked with a rolling pin) in a muslin bag to steep while heating along with a muslin bag with 5 g Yarrow, 5 g Myrica Gale and 6 g Labrador Tea. Removed the malt when temp hit 180 deg, but kept the herbs in for a 25 min boil.
DME and Brown Sugar added as boiling began and boiled with herbs for 25 min.
After boil, when temp was down to about 140 deg, steeped another muslin bag with 5 g Yarrow and 5 g Myrica gale (don't know why I chickened out on the Bog Labrador Tea..figured I should go slow the first time). Steeped herbs for ~15 min then cooled the wort in ice to ~80 deg F. Poured into 1 gal jug and made up volume with tap water to the shoulder of the jug.
OG = 1.061
Should probably have filled it more since it wasn't enough headspace anyway!
Rehydrated yeast and pitched. Aerated by shaking and put fermentation lock on.
Bubbles in the airlock at about 4 h post pitch! Woke up at 4am and decided to check the beer... FOAM all up through the airlock! Removed and covered with sanitized muslin bag and plastic bag. Let sit overnight. Replaced air lock at 8:30 am. 1 h later... overflow with foam again.
Replaced muslin and plastic while rigging a blowoff tube into container of sanitizer.
Foamed and bubbled away like CRAZY for another 24 h or so at which point I replaced the airlock and let stand. Not much activity.
No activity and starting to clear at 5 day mark. Racked to secondary, lost a little more volume, of course. Most advice says NOT to make up with water in secondary, so I am leaving it as is.
SG= 1.012 WOW! 6.4% ABV... was shooting for somewhere around 5.5-6. Gallon batches just not enough!! Probably won't get much more than a six pack by the time I bottle. Live and Learn.
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