Day 5
Gravity 1.015. No need for extra nutrients. This will go dry on its own. Flavor is good, but I'm trying to access whether I need to dry hop with herbs or not. The problem is that I don't know what flavor each is contributing. Let's remedy that problem.
Gruit Herb Flavor Analysis
Since I will be dry hopping herbs, I need a simple taste analysis to determine what flavor is coming from where and what needs reinforcement. For this purpose, I'm simply taking a bit of the herbs and chewing them up to get the flavor (and hoping the stimulant effects aren't too much). I also tried a few extra herbs that I have in my toolbox. My notes below:
1. Sweet gale - A very mild wintergreen flavor with an astringency that implies a dry beverage. Good to balance a sweet beverage and give a nice cooling effect on the palette.
2. Yarrow - Extremely flowery with a honey-like component. A slight bitterness at the end, but it's almost like a bee pollen bitterness rather than hops.
3. Marsh Rosemary - Rosemary is the perfect description, only very mild in comparison to true Rosemary. It also has a small peat-like element in the aftertaste that you would not want to overdo.
4. Meadowsweet - A marshmallow like flowery flavor with a mellow, slightly tart finish. I would use this to reinforce a flowery aroma.
5. Mugwort - Definitely bitter, but not as bad as you would think. It also has a spicy note that could be nice to work with. After some time passes, the spiciness fills your entire mouth. This would be a cool effect with hot peppers!
6. Horehound - Exactly like meadowsweet, but you would need triple the amount of horehound to get the same amount of flavor.
Based on the above, the current Gruit BOMM has lots of yarrow, appropriate amounts of Marsh Rosemary, but not enough Sweet Gale; therefore...
Dry hopped with 2.5 grams Sweet Gale in a sanitized muslin bag.
Better brewing through science!
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