CHAPTER NINE

RECIPES

It’s time to get your hands dirty! Now that you’ve got a grasp on the history of beer, ale, gruit, and their many variations, you’ve got a strong foundation for moving forward with creating your own concoctions. For some of these recipes, it will be helpful to revisit the instructions on how to brew in chapter 8, as I will go into less detail on process here, but for some of the simpler ones, you can jump right in. Although I’ve loosely categorized each set of recipes by style, if you want to brew by historical methods and according to your own creativity and whims, it’s worth keeping in mind that you needn’t get hung up on style. Beer styles evolved over the years and in modern times have become somewhat regimented, particularly when it comes to competitive brewing. I have no problem with competitive brewing but I’m more interested in using styles as a guideline and starting point, understanding the effect of different ingredients and sugar ratios, and brewing with what ingredients I have managed to obtain locally (when possible) or grown or foraged myself. This is how styles developed—people brewed with what their local environment provided and developed unique styles that over time became associated with their region. Once brewing became commercialized, it became necessary to develop specific, repeatable recipes that could be easily reproduced on a large scale. That being said, it can help the brewing process to have some expectation as to what the final product should taste like. Hence, I have divided recipes into the following categories:

Simple Ales

Something very close to our modern idea of beer can be made using simple household items and ingredients, with various types of processed sugar (cane sugar, brown sugar, molasses), or even honey serving in place of grains. The following recipes are my variations on traditional recipes, as well as some of my own creations.

Simple ales are a great drink for a hot summer afternoon.

Notes on Measurements

Water

For all 1-gallon (4 L) recipes, you may not end up with the full gallon due to displacement of water by the addition of ingredients, but you can always add a bit more during racking and bottling. For 5-gallon (20 L) recipes, I suggest starting with 5½ gallons (22 L) of water for extract recipes and 6 gallons (24 L) for all-grain recipes (this allows for additional water to be soaked up by grains and used in sparging). Remember that you will always lose some degree of volume throughout the boil and fermentation processes. Generally it’s best to just accept that, but you can always increase volume by either adding a bit more water, or adding water blended with a sugar (which will boost alcohol level but also increase fermentation time) to keep from watering the brew down.

Yeast

For each recipe, I will recommend the ideal yeast first, along with a couple of other options. For the most part you can use whichever yeast you have on hand, but certain flavors will require certain yeasts. Unless I recommend otherwise (as in for higher-gravity beers such as bragots), the amount of yeast used for 1-gallon (4 L) batches should be approximately ½ teaspoon dried yeast, or ½ cup (125 mL) barm (from an actively fermenting batch or a wild yeast starter). For 5-gallon (20 L) batches, you can generally use the full packet of a commercial yeast, or use 3 to 4 teaspoons dried yeast or 1 to 2 cups (250–500 mL) barm. Note that dried yeast comes in packets of anywhere from 5 to around 11 grams. Generally, one packet will do. For any beer, erring on the side of a bit too much yeast is better than not adding enough, particularly for those with higher gravity / sugar content. If you don’t have an active ferment within 24 hours of adding the yeast, add another couple of teaspoons and wait another 8 to 12 hours. If there is still no sign of fermentation, proceed to the troubleshooting section at the end of this book.

Ginger Beer

What follows is based on what I have found works best for a simple ginger beer. You may wish to adjust the amounts of ginger to taste. I like ginger, but it can easily become overpowering. I found that my early attempts were flavorful, but the ginger didn’t really come through. The proportions for this recipe are what I recommend for a beer with a pronounced but not overwhelming ginger flavor.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) brown sugar, light brown sugar, or cane sugar

2–3 ounces (57–85 g) fresh gingerroot, chopped or bruised (double, triple, or even quadruple if you like a strong ginger flavor)

Juice of ½ small lemon, 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice, or 1 ounce (28 g) cream of tartar (a common substitute for citric acid)

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Bruise the ginger lightly by squeezing it with your finger or pressing with a spoon or butter knife and drop it into the pot. Add the lemon juice or cream of tartar.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and shut it off after half an hour.
  5. Let the liquid cool to milk-warm (warm to the back of your hand) and add the yeast; then leave overnight with a cloth covering the pot (I should note that sometimes I just sprinkle the yeast directly into the jug during the next step with similar results).
  6. Strain the solids out and pour into a 1-gallon (4 L) jug or other container with an airlock.
  7. Allow to ferment fully, prime with sugar or honey, and bottle.

Many early recipes call for bottling this shortly after it begins fermenting, making for a carbonated, low-to-no-alcohol “soda” more akin to a modern ginger ale. If you prefer to do this, use about a quarter of the sugar, skip step 6, and go straight to bottling. Just be extra vigilant that you open, vent, or refrigerate the bottle within no longer than 24 hours. The built-up CO2 can cause anything from light fizzing, to gushing, to exploding bottles if left too long unattended. Refrigeration will slow fermentation significantly. You can safely keep this in the refrigerator for weeks or months if you want but it’s best drunk young. If you bottle in plastic soda or water bottles, you can gauge carbonation by monitoring the expansion of the plastic. When the bottle is firm it’s ready.

Ginger Beer Variations

In perusing old brewing recipes, I often find ginger referenced as the sole root in a beer, but many other roots and flavorings were used in traditional brewing, often along with ginger, including burdock, dandelion, sarsaparilla, and sassafras. Additional flavoring ingredients included allspice, birch bark (and many other barks), coriander, juniper, wintergreen, and vanilla beans. You can use as many or as few if you want, provided you use small quantities of each. One combination I particularly enjoy is ginger and coriander. The idea for this recipe came from my friend Devon Young, who writes the blog Nitty Gritty Life (nittygrittylife.com). A homesteader and trained herbalist, Devon blogs on subjects such as farming, gardening, cooking, and fermentation while running a holistic health care practice and farming 10 acres (4 ha) in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with her husband and children. Devon is well versed in the history of brewsters and alewives and considers herself a brewster.

Although she learned winemaking from a modern, technical standpoint, she doesn’t consider herself to be very technical when she’s making wine, beer, and mead. “I am very untraditional, as I like to work with various herbs and spices to craft my ferments,” she explained. “There are wonderful bitter, tannic, and pungent herbs that make for really delicious brews, meads, and wines. I am particularly fond of mugwort and sages for lighter-style brews and various sweeter and spicier herbs and spices to craft super-unique ales.” Her take on cleanliness and attention to detail is that clean equipment and moderate temperatures are crucial for a good ferment. She stores her fermentation equipment in its own well-cleaned area, and works to minimize cross-contamination, as she also ferments many food products through lactic fermentation.

I enjoy a cold glass of ginger-coriander ale on a hot summer day, and my kids love it when I prepare it for them as a natural soda. Here is Devon’s recipe with my slight variations.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) cane sugar

8 ounces (227 g) fresh gingerroot, chopped or bruised

1 ounce (28 g) lightly crushed dried coriander seed

2 tablespoons dried orange peel granules (I sometimes use 2 wedges of a freshly sliced orange instead)

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add all the other ingredients (except the yeast).
  4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and shut it off after half an hour.
  5. Let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Herbal and Wild Simple Ales

The recipes here are barely the tip of the iceberg of what is possible with a little bit of herbalism and foraging knowledge. Just be sure you fully understand what you are brewing with and that your ingredients have been ethically harvested and are free of pesticides or other human-made contaminants. For any of these, you can substitute sugar with 1 pound (0.5 kg) to 1½ pounds (0.75 kg) of light-to-dark dry malt extract to make a grain-based beer.

Note: Unless specified otherwise, all herbal measurements are for dried herbs. Double measurement for fresh herbs, as dried herbs have more concentrated flavors.

Juniper Simple Ale/Digestif

I like to use this mix of ingredients for grain-based beers and meads as well. It reminds me of Scandinavian liqueurs and schnapps that balance bitter with sweet. These drinks work well as a digestif, as they contain carminative herbs, which have chemical properties that aid with digestion. Not everyone likes the bitterness, but I find it’s well worth developing a taste for, particularly since it’s balanced well with a sweet, fruity flavor.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

½ pound (0.25 kg) cane sugar

½ pound (0.25 kg) light brown sugar

1 teaspoon dried wormwood

1 teaspoon dried mugwort

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 tablespoon juniper berries

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add all the other ingredients (except the yeast), reduce the heat to medium-low, and shut it off after half an hour.
  4. Let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Spruce Simple Ale

Spruce was a common flavoring and preservative ingredient used along with or instead of hops, and often brewed with molasses. I provide grain-based recipes for spruce beer later on in this chapter, but for now, here is a simple ale version. As with any simple ales, you can use molasses, brown sugar, cane sugar, honey, or any combination. Most traditional recipes call only for molasses, but I find molasses to be a bit much when used exclusively, so I usually go with brown sugar or half brown sugar / half molasses.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

½ pound (0.25 kg) cane sugar

½ pound (0.25 kg) molasses

½ ounce (14 g) low-alpha hops (optional)

2–4 spruce tips (more or less depending on the intensity of their smell/flavor)

½ teaspoon brewing yeast, ale yeast, or bread yeast, or ½ cup (125 mL) barm

Spruce or pine needles can be added during the boil, during fermentation as a tea or extract, or just before bottling.

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar and molasses until fully dissolved.
  3. Add the hops (optional).
  4. Heat at a low, rolling boil, shut off the heat after half an hour, and add the spruce.
  5. Let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Oak Bark and Mushroom Beer

For details on brewing with bark and mushrooms, see chapter 7.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) cane sugar

1 ounce (28 g) fresh or ½ ounce (14 g) dried shiitake, wine cap stropharia, or other mushrooms

Juice of ½ small lemon, 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice, or 1 ounce (28 g) cream of tartar

1 small handful (about ½ ounce/14 g) oak bark (or substitute other hardwood bark)

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

Recently harvested oak bark cambium.

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add all the ingredients except the oak bark and yeast.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and shut it off after half an hour.
  5. Add the bark, let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Yarrow and Meadowsweet Simple Ale

You don’t necessarily have to use both herbs in this recipe, but can double the amount of one if that’s all you have. Adding in some of the leaves will help provide some bittering/herbal flavor.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) cane or brown sugar, or 1 pound (0.5 kg) dry malt extract

1 ounce (28 g) fresh or ½ ounce (14 g) dried yarrow flowers

1 ounce (28 g) fresh or ½ ounce (14 g) dried meadowsweet flowers

½ ounce (14 g) fresh or ¼ ounce (7 g) dried meadowsweet and yarrow leaves

Juice of ½ small lemon, 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice, or 1 ounce (28 g) cream of tartar

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add all the ingredients except the yeast.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and shut it off after half an hour.
  5. Let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Wormwood and Meadowsweet Simple Ale

This beer can be made to taste very much like a hopped grain beer brewed by modern methods, with or without the hops and grain. I’ve noted a few variations you can try, so you can adjust this recipe to your tastes. The wormwood definitely provides bittering, but not everyone can handle it. I personally prefer just a hint of it over the flavor of most super-hoppy beers, but you’ll need to try it for yourself and decide.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) cane or brown sugar (or substitute 1 pound/0.5 kg dry malt extract)

½ ounce (14 g) fresh or ¼ ounce (7 g) dried wormwood

Optional substitute for wormwood: 1 ounce (28 g) Fuggle or other low-alpha hops

1 ounce (28 g) fresh or ½ ounce (14 g) dried meadowsweet flowers

½ ounce (14 g) fresh or ¼ ounce (7 g) dried meadowsweet leaves

Juice of ½ small lemon, 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice, or 1 ounce (28 g) cream of tartar

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add all the ingredients except the yeast.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and shut it off after half an hour.
  5. Let the wort cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment for about 2 weeks, prime, bottle, and begin sampling in about a week.

Small Mead

Technically drinks derived from fermented honey are considered mead. Depending on how much honey you use, mead can vary in alcohol content from 2 percent ABV to as much as 18 percent. Meads with 10 percent ABV or higher can take several months to fully ferment, and longer to age for drinkability, although the use of a strong yeast and the addition of nutrients can speed up the process. Small mead, sometimes called short mead (or marketed by meaderies as “session mead” or “craft mead”), can be ready to drink within weeks of starting fermentation. It’s basically simple ale made with honey instead of sugar.

Small meads made the traditional way (without the use of store-bought nutrients or other additives) should employ some sort of spice or fruit to cover up off flavors. Straight honey-water meads (known in mead-competition circles as a show meads) with no more additives than minimal flavor and fermentation enhancers (acids, tannins, and nutrients) often require several months of bottle aging to mellow out harsh or off flavors. Adding spices and larger amounts of citrus, and using a smaller ratio of honey to water, can make for a quicker drinkable mead. One popular citrus-and-spice combination is orange wedges with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and ginger. This nearly foolproof recipe makes for refreshing mead that drinks very much like a simple ale. Provided you keep to a similar honey-to-water ratio, you can experiment with all kinds of spices and citrus fruits. Think of the following as a blueprint that you can use to experiment to your heart’s desire. Note that you can use any honey, but lighter varieties—such as wildflower honeys—work best. In place of the suggested spices, you can also visit your herb garden or go on a hike and collect whatever edible plants call out to you; flowers such as violets, dandelions, and rose of Sharon/hibiscus work well.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1½–2 pounds (0.75–1 kg) honey

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

10–12 raisins or equivalent amount of other dried fruit

½ orange or lemon, cut into wedges, or ½ cup (125 mL) orange juice, or ¼ cup (60 mL) lemon juice

Suggested flavoring additions (use as many as you dare): 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 1 whole nutmeg, 2–4 thin slices ginger, 2 cardamom pods, ½ star anise pod

PROCESS

  1. Mix the honey and warm water (60–70°F/15–21°C) in a 1-gallon (4 L) jug.
  2. Place a lid (tightly) on the jug and shake it vigorously to aerate the must, or use a thin stirring implement such as a chopstick to stir it while carefully swirling the jug.
  3. Add the flavoring ingredients.
  4. Add the yeast or barm.
  5. Place an airlock in the vessel and leave it in a warm, dark area to ferment for 2 to 3 weeks.

You can rack it halfway through the process and filter out the solids if you want. I usually give this mead 3 to 4 weeks and then start tasting it by carefully pouring a small glass. When I like it, I filter the solids out and pour the liquid into a container with a spigot, making sure to finish it off over the next week or two before it turns to vinegar. Another option is to transfer it to flip-top bottles while there is still some residual fermentation, adding just a bit of honey or sugar to ensure carbonation. Refrigerate after 24 hours and open carefully. Small meads are good to drink carbonated in the summer, or warmed as a mulled mead with additional spices and a slice or two of orange or lemon in the winter.

Juniper Small Mead/Digestif

This is a small mead clone of the Juniper Simple Ale/Digestif recipe if you would rather use honey instead of sugar.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1½–2 pounds (0.75–1 kg) wildflower honey or other light honey

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

10–12 raisins or equivalent amount of other dried fruit

1 teaspoon dried wormwood

1 teaspoon dried mugwort

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 tablespoon juniper berries

Brewing yeast, ale yeast, bread yeast, or barm

A small mead in the works resting among several other meads.

PROCESS

  1. Mix the honey and warm water (60–70°F/15–21°C) in a 1-gallon (4 L) jug.
  2. Place a lid (tightly) on the jug and shake it vigorously to aerate the must, or use a thin stirring implement such as a chopstick to stir it while carefully swirling the jug.
  3. Add the flavoring ingredients.
  4. Add the yeast or barm.
  5. Place an airlock in the vessel and leave it in a warm, dark area to ferment for 2 to 3 weeks.
  6. Rack and filter, wait another week or two (sneaking samples to check its progress), bottle (if desired), and enjoy after a good meal.

Grain-Based Beers

Be sure to visit the sections on brewing with extract and all-grain brewing before tackling these. If you already know how to brew with grain, then have at it! Because I have already provided details on process in the techniques sections of chapter 8, I’ll simply provide basic recipes here and note where anything varies from standard.

Wheats and Farmhouse Ales

In order to brew authentic farmhouse ale, it may become necessary to depart from some deeply ingrained practices.… If we don’t make the effort to experiment with a variety of brewing methods, we can get boxed in by habit and inflexibility.

—Phil Markowski, Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition1

Farmhouse ales are a persnickety bunch. Belonging to Belgian and French traditions, their brewing processes stray from what is generally accepted for British and German beers. From fermentation temperatures, to ingredient selection and treatment, to using multi-strain yeast and bacteria cultures—brewing farmhouse ales is about finding the proper balance among art, creativity, and technicality. While brewers have come up with a somewhat clear definition of what exactly makes a farmhouse ale, if we want to be truly authentic, we can ignore it for the most part. This is because historic farmhouse ale was pretty much what it sounds like: a rustic ale brewed in a farmhouse as an extension of the harvest within a particular region. Recipes and resultant flavors varied both by season and by each farmer-brewer’s unique approach. Due to the fact that these were “peasant ales” brewed in rural areas and weren’t well documented, we know little about precisely how they were brewed. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a basic blueprint we can start with, but farmhouse ales brewed in your own home (whether or not you live in a farmhouse) should be about experimentation and working with local and seasonal ingredients to the best of your ability.

Farmhouse brews were usually made in the winter to store up a provision of beer for the busy sowing and harvesting seasons. For this reason, they needed to last through the following winter. Two primary ways of doing this were to increase the alcohol content and to boost the hopping rate. While hop-heavy beer was more refreshing, high-malt beer provided more nourishment.2 Originating in the Flanders region of Belgium, these ales would eventually come to comprise two styles: the French bière de garde (beer for keeping) and the Belgian saison (season). Given the vast range of ingredients and flavoring characteristics that make up ales made in even these narrowed-down style definitions, the recipes I’ve experimented with may or may not approximate either. Think of it as brewing “in the spirit of the thing.” Note that all of these recipes feature wheat, and all feature some amount of kettle or mash adjuncts. These were often characteristics of farmhouse brews, since wheat was a common grain to grow and harvest, and adjunct sugars were often added, for economic reasons if nothing else.

Spiced Saison

This brew drinks crisp and refreshing, with just the right amount of maltiness. The banana aroma typical of wheat beer is present but not overpowering, and everything is nicely balanced by the spice additions. Note: As with other recipes, I have truncated descriptions of the brewing process unless any of the steps differ from the description of the all-grain brewing process in chapter 8.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

6 pounds (3 kg) pilsner malt

2 pounds (1 kg) wheat malt

Extract Alternative

3 pounds (1.5 kg) plain light dry malt extract

3 pounds (1.5 kg) wheat dry malt extract

½ pound (0.25 kg) pilsner malt (steep for half an hour before the boil)

Flavoring Ingredients

1 ounce (28 g) Hallertau hops at 60 minutes

2 ounces (57 g) Indian sarsaparilla at 20 minutes

1 star anise pod at 20 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6½ gallons (26 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Wheat or Belgian ale yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. All-grain: Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6½ gallons (24–26 L) of wort.
  2. All-grain and extract: Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Wheat beer looks and tastes beautiful in a fluted glass.

Saison Spices

You can vary the spice additions for this brew to produce a wide range of flavors, with results that range from subtle to bold. As with hops, spices should be added so that their character is barely noticeable, with a result that is well balanced and teases you as to what exactly it is you taste with each drink. However, any ingredient can be increased by a couple of ounces (grams) if you would like that flavor to be the star. Remember, strongly flavored spices such as star anise, cloves, and ginger can easily become overpowering. You can use some or all of these ingredients depending on your preferences, and in whatever quantity you desire. And remember that the later you add them, the more pronounced their effect will be. Note that the amounts I recommend are for subtle effect in a 5-gallon (20 L) batch. Also, except where stated otherwise, the quantities are for amounts in powdered form (for best effect, they should be purchased whole and ground or crushed just before using).

Table 9.1. Spices for Saisons and Other Wheats

Spice

Notes and Recommended Amounts per 5 Gallons

Allspice

1⁄5 ounce (6 g) or 3–4 crushed seeds

Cardamom

2–3 whole pods

Cinnamon

1 ounce (28 g) or a 2- to 3-inch (5–7.5 cm) stick

Cloves

1⁄5 ounce (6 g) or 3–4 crushed seeds

Coriander

½ ounce (14 g); use Indian coriander if you can find it

Cumin

¼ ounce (7 g)

Curaçao (bitter orange)

½ ounce (14 g)

Ginger

2 ounces (57 g) usually does it for a subtle effect, but you can double or even triple if you want a more pronounced ginger flavor (note that this is for whole, fresh ginger; use about ½ teaspoon in powdered form)

Grains of paradise

¼ ounce (7 g)

Licorice root

½ ounce (14 g)

Nutmeg

1⁄5 ounce (6 g) or 1–2 crushed seeds

Star anise

1–2 pods coarsely crushed

Sweet orange peel

1 ounce (28 g)

Spiced Orange Wheat (Partial Mash)

This simple wheat uses mostly extract for those who want to play around with wheat flavors but don’t want to invest in the time and effort of brewing an all-grain wheat. Oatmeal or unmalted wheat is often used in this type of brew for flavor and to provide a thick mouthfeel. You’ll get more of this effect when brewing with all grain, but I’ve found that they still impart some pleasant notes when done as a partial mash. Take care to only use the zest (outer skin) of the orange, as including the white pith can make for a rather … challenging drink. Some of the juice can be used if you feel it needs a stronger orange flavor, but I recommend adding it in small amounts at bottling until you’re satisfied with the taste.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

6 pounds (3 kg) wheat DME

1 pound (0.5 kg) pilsner malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) oatmeal (I usually use thick-rolled—because that’s what I have on hand for my breakfast—but instant can impart more oatmeal character)

Flavoring Ingredients

½ ounce (14 g) Hallertau hops at 30 minutes

1 ounce (14 g) Tettnanger hops (or another low-alpha variety such as Saaz) at 30 minutes

½ ounce (14 g) Hallertau hops at 5 minutes

Zest of 2 oranges (or ½ ounce/14 g Curaçao) at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) grains of paradise at 5 minutes

2 ounces (57 g) fresh ginger at 5 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Wheat or Belgian ale yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Mash the grains and oatmeal in 2 gallons (8 L) of water for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Remove the grain bag and let any excess liquid drain back into the wort without excessively squeezing the grains.
  2. Add another 4 gallons (16 L) of water, bring to a boil, cut off the heat, add in the extract grains, and bring the mixture back to a low boil while continuously stirring.
  3. Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Juniper Herbal Wheat

This recipe employs some traditional flavors common to Scandinavian and other early ales. It’s a good candidate for what early herbal beers would have tasted like. When first testing this recipe, I used wheat simply because I had a bag of it I needed to finish off, and because it was a common grain in early ales. I also added a bit of flaked barley to give it some heft, and some honey for extra fermentables.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

Grains

1½ pounds (0.75 kg) wheat pale malt (or substitute 1½ pounds wheat or other DME)

1 pound (0.5 kg) flaked barley

Flavoring Ingredients

1 teaspoon dried yarrow at 30 minutes

2 teaspoons dried meadowsweet at 55 minutes

½ tablespoon juniper berries

1 cup (250 mL) raw honey (any variety; as close to from-the-hive as possible) at 60 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

2 gallons (8 L) springwater or filtered tap water (or 1 gallon/4 L for extract alternative)

English or Belgian ale yeast, or barm

ALL-GRAIN PROCESS

  1. Steep the grains in a grain bag in 2 gallons (8 L) of water for 1 hour at 152 to 156°F (67–69°C). Remove the grain bag and let any excess wort drain back into the pot without excessively squeezing the grains.
  2. Open the bag and slowly pour in sparge water heated to 180°F (82°C), through a mesh screen if possible. Work the grains around with a spoon in between pours to break up the goop created by the flaked barley.
  3. Set the bag in another pot, pouring whatever else drains into the extra pot into the boil kettle after it sits for a bit.
  4. Bring the wort to a low boil while continuously stirring.
  5. Boil for 60 minutes, adding ingredients according to the schedule, cool, rack into a fermenter, add the yeast, and ferment.
  6. Drink this while it’s still fermenting and cloudy (preferably with a meal) for the most authentic experience, or fully ferment, prime, and bottle.

EXTRACT PROCESS

  1. Steep the flaked barley in a grain bag in 1 gallon (4 L) of water for half an hour at 152 to 156°F (67–69°C). Remove the grain bag and let any excess liquid drain back into the wort without excessively squeezing the grains.
  2. Add the extract and stir until fully dissolved and settled into a gently rolling boil.
  3. Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Sassafras Forest Wheat (Extract)

Sassafras has been used traditionally for medicinal and flavoring purposes for millennia. You can use sassafras flavoring if you prefer, but I like to use the real thing. I also like to add little bits of the forest when making this, such as spruce tips and oak bark. Sometimes I add ½ teaspoon of dried orange peel for flavoring, but the spruce usually provides enough citrus if you want to go with a true forest beer. A low-alpha hops (about ¼ ounce/7 g) can also be added 30 minutes into the boil if you desire. You can really take this basic formula and substitute various flavoring ingredients, malts, and yeasts to make what sounds good.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

Grains

1 pound (0.5 kg) wheat DME (or substitute the same amount of pale malt for a pale ale, or cane sugar for a simple ale)

Flavoring Ingredients

1 teaspoon chipped sassafras root or bark

2 teaspoons oak bark cadmium at end of boil

1 spruce tip at end of boil

½ teaspoon dried orange peel (optional)

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Brewing, wheat, ale, or bread yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water just to a boil in a stockpot.
  2. Stir in the DME or sugar until fully dissolved.
  3. Add the sassafras.
  4. Reduce the heat to maintain a slight boil.
  5. If you’re using hops, add about ¼ ounce (7 g) of a low-alpha hops such as Golding at 30 minutes.
  6. After 60 minutes, cut off the heat, and add the remainder of the ingredients.
  7. Cover, let cool, strain into a fermenter, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Early European and British Beers

To some degree all of the beers in this section are based on recipes that were common throughout Europe, but particularly in Britain, from the 18th century going back into the mists of time. Their common thread is that they are all malty, grain-based beers. Many feature adjuncts such as honey or molasses, and many are flavored with herbs and spices. Try a couple of them and sit back while you’re sipping and mulling over the flavor, transporting yourself to a time when these beers nourished and brought enjoyment to many a person, whether in the home, while socializing in an alehouse, or in the cabin of a ship bound for distant lands.

Spruce Pale Ale (Extract/Mini Mash)

Although molasses and brown sugar are the core ingredients of simple ales, you can make excellent beers more suited to modern tastes using malted grains and malt extract (I do like to add a bit of molasses for a degree of authenticity, though). Nearly any style can be brewed with spruce, but lighter, malty styles such as pales and browns complement the flavor of spruce the best. You won’t need to add hops, as spruce has its own preservative qualities, but a small amount to provide just a bit of hoppy bitterness and aroma isn’t a bad idea. The proper time at which to add spruce tips is up for debate. Many modern spruce recipes call for adding them during the boil, just as with hops. I’ve made flavorful spruce beers this way with milder-flavored spruce, but subjecting them to the rigors of boiling can bring out strong, overly resinous flavors. Generally, it’s best to add them after cutting off the boil and waiting around half an hour before cooling the wort. Or make a tea from the tips, taste the tea to determine its strength, and add it to the secondary fermentation.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

3 pounds (1.5 kg) dry light pale malt extract

1 pound (0.5 kg) crushed pilsner malt grains

2 pounds (1 kg) crushed pale malt grains

½ pound (0.25 kg) crushed Carapils malt grains

¼ pound (113 g) crushed caramel malt grains

1 pound (0.5 kg) blackstrap molasses

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 ounce (28 g) low-alpha hops such as Saaz (optional)

4–6 spruce tips (more or less depending on the intensity of their smell/flavor)

British ale yeast, brewer’s yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Steep the crushed grains in a grain bag or cheesecloth in 1½ gallons (6 L) of water at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C) for 1 hour. Remove the bag and set it in a strainer over the pot. Rinse the grain by pouring 2 quarts (2 L) of 180°F (82°C) water over it. Drain the bag for 10 minutes, pressing gently with a spoon from time to time.
  2. About halfway through the steeping process, start boiling 4 gallons (16 L) of water in a large brewpot. Stir in the extract until you have a low rolling boil with no foaming.
  3. If you’re adding hops, add ½ ounce (14 g) at 30 minutes.
  4. At 60 minutes, add the remaining hops and spruce.
  5. Give it 20 to 30 minutes before chilling to give the spruce flavor time to infuse into the wort. Alternatively, add 1 cup (250 mL) of spruce tea now or to the primary fermentation along with your yeast (or rehydrate your yeast in the spruce tea).
  6. Cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Spiced Dark Ale

This beer comes close to being a porter, but I think of it more as a dark ale. You can vary its level of thickness by using a bit less or a bit more Blackprinz, or trying out some different adjunct dark malts. Keep in mind that Blackprinz was developed to be a dark malt with no bitterness, so other dark malts will impart more bitterness. Black Patent Malt (sometimes just “Black Malt”) can be a good alternative. Its flavor is often described as “sharp” or “acrid,” but I’ve only found it to be subtly so. Even in the amounts recommended here, the spices come through fairly strongly. In my mind they balance well with the bitterness of the dark grains, and the hops provide a nice counterbalance. Use less spices or add more hops if you don’t want the spice flavor to come through as strong. This is the perfect ale to use for wassail (see chapter 2).

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

10 pounds (5 kg) Light Munich malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) Blackprinz malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) beechwood smoked malt

Extract Alternative

8 pounds (4 kg) plain amber DME; steep remaining adjunct grains for half an hour before the boil

Flavoring Ingredients

1 ounce (28 g) East Kent Golding hops at 30 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) grains of paradise at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) fenugreek at 5 minutes

3 pods cardamom at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) orange peel at 5 minutes

3 whole cloves at 5 minutes

4 whole allspice seeds at 5 minutes

1 cinnamon stick (about 2 inches/5 cm in length) at 5 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 quart (1 L) wildflower honey (this beer can also handle a darker honey) at end of boil

1 pint (500 mL) molasses

British ale yeast, brewing yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. All grain: Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6½ gallons (24–26 L) of wort.
  2. All grain and extract: Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

A spiced dark ale ready to be drunk or warmed and made into a wassail … and then drunk.

Heather Ale

Although you can make ales with all manner of edible flowers, heather ale has its own special place in history and legend, covered in detail in chapter 2. You can make a pretty tasty version of this legendary ale, although it’s hard to say if it has the same kick as the mind-altering heather ales supposedly made by the Picts, Scots, and Vikings. Wearing a kilt or Viking tunic, or covering yourself in blue paint and tattoos like the Picts while drinking it, may add to the effect. I’ve found that some dried heather can add a strong herbal flavor. Try to find the freshest heather you can, or consider making a tea from the flowers first to add before bottling and adjust to taste.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

8 pounds (4 kg) pale malt

¾ pound (0.4 kg) Briess Carapils malt

¾ pound (0.4 kg) caramel malt

Extract Alternative

6 pounds (3 kg) pale DME; steep remaining adjunct grains for half an hour before the boil

Flavoring Ingredients

¼ pound (113 g) dried heather tips at 55 minutes

1 ounce (28 g) Fuggle or other low-alpha hops (optional) at 30 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) wildflower honey (heather if possible) at 60 minutes

British ale yeast, brewing yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. All grain: Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6½ gallons (24–26 L) of wort.
  2. All grain and extract: Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Brewing with Honey: Welsh Ales and Bragots

Honey-based beers, including bragots and Welsh ales, enjoy a long-standing tradition in the British Isles. Bragots have substantially more honey and can technically be considered mead as much as beer. Pegging down exactly what constitutes a Welsh ale can be difficult, but in later records it was shown to contain less honey than bragot, and by the 1800s it was brewed with no honey (or occasionally with brown sugar or molasses in place of honey).3 It is almost definitely a direct ancestor of bragot, and is often referred to in Anglo-Saxon texts as sweet, strong, dark, or in one case as “glutinous, heady and soporific.”4 It was likely a high-malt brew, lending it strength, but also sweetness due to fermentation completing before the malt sugars were fully converted. Like bragot, honey may have been used in the initial fermentation, or as a sweetener before drinking. In addition, it may have had a smoky flavor, as the malt was often kilned over a fire.5 Both bragot and Welsh ale were highly esteemed in Wales and Ireland, and often show up as payment for land rent, being worth more than standard ale and less than mead.6 I’ve hunted down echoes of recipes in older texts, and have come across some more modern attempts at emulating them. The recipes included here are a combination of the two. The core ingredients in my Welsh-style ales and bragots are: brown malt (sometimes with a bit of roasted malt thrown in), smoked malt, honey, molasses or brown sugar, grains of paradise, and a few additional spices such as ginger, cinnamon, licorice root, or cloves. As with any style, use these recipes as starting points to modify as you please since there are no hard-and-fast rules. I will differentiate each type of Welsh ale with a name that most accurately resembles its overall coloring and flavor profile.

Welsh Brown Ale

Brown ales were originally an all-malt British style of ale, although their strength, flavoring, and many other factors varied. Because this recipe produces a brown, almost copper-colored ale I thought this was the best designation for it.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

10 pounds (5 kg) Muntons Maris Otter malt (or other pale malt)

1 pound (0.5 kg) cherrywood-smoked malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) Briess Carapils malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) caramel malt

Extract Alternative

8 pounds (4 kg) plain amber DME; steep remaining adjunct grains for half an hour before the boil

Flavoring Ingredients

1 ounce (28 g) Fuggle hops at 60 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) grains of paradise at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) licorice root at 5 minutes

3 pods cardamom at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) coriander at 5 minutes

2 whole cloves at 5 minutes

2 whole nutmeg seeds at 5 minutes

1 ounce (28 g) fresh ginger at 5 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 quart (1 L) wildflower or other light honey at end of boil

British ale yeast, brewing yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. All grain: Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6½ gallons (24–26 L) of wort.
  2. All grain and extract: Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Welsh Porter

This one always gets rave reviews from tasters. It’s definitely a meal of a beer. Very dark and thick, it lies somewhere between a porter and a stout. The combination of chocolate malt with cherry wood malt gives it a strong, smooth flavor without being overwhelming. Even though it feels like a meal-and-a-half going down, I find myself immediately craving another.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

10 pounds (5 kg) pale ale malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) cherrywood-smoked malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) chocolate malt

Extract Alternative

6 pounds (3 kg) plain amber DME; steep remaining adjunct grains for half an hour before the boil

Flavoring Ingredients

1 ounce (28 g) Fuggle hops at 60 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) grains of paradise at 5 minutes

¼ ounce (7 g) licorice root at 5 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 quart (1 L) wildflower or other light honey at end of boil

British ale yeast, brewing yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. All grain: Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63–68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6½ gallons (24–26 L) of wort.
  2. All grain and extract: Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.

Spiced Bragot (Extract)

This basic, pale ale extract bragot can be modified as you desire with different extracts, honeys, herbs and spices, and hops. You can pretty much add this same amount of honey to any beer to make it a bragot. Just be sure to use a yeast that can handle the high alcohol content (usually around 10 to 14 percent ABV). Since bragots were traditionally spiced, this recipe calls for only spices. Hops were eventually added, though, and modern bragots often contain hops. Most bragots can handle a high level of mid- to high-alpha hops, but will need to be aged six months to a year for the hop bitterness to mellow out. Consider experimenting with additional spices, but go light.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20L)

Grains

6 pounds (3 kg) plain amber DME

2 pounds (1 kg) pale DME

Flavoring Ingredients

½ ounce (14 g) grains of paradise at 5 minutes

½ ounce (14 g) chopped fresh or candied ginger at 5 minutes

2 whole cloves at 5 minutes

1 cinnamon stick (about 2 inches/5 cm in length) at 5 minutes

1 cup raisins at 60 minutes

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

9–12 pounds (4.5–6 kg) light- to medium-bodied honey such as sourwood or wildflower at 60 minutes

2 packets (10 g) Lalvin ICV D47 wine yeast or Safale US-05 ale yeast (you can also use 2 cups/500 mL barm, but keep in mind this will require a high-alcohol-tolerant yeast)

PROCESS

  1. Bring the water to a boil, carefully add the extract, and stir constantly to keep the wort from sticking to the bottom.
  2. Once you have a steady boil and are past the danger of overboil, set a timer for 60 minutes.
  3. Add ingredients according to the schedule.
  4. Cut off the heat, chill the liquid to pitching temperature, and rack into a 5- to 6-gallon (20–24 L) fermentation vessel (preferably a bucket), being sure to splash as much as possible to aerate the wort.
  5. Add the yeast and place a cloth over the bucket, leaving in an open fermenter for 12 to 24 hours to ensure sufficient aeration.
  6. Once it starts fermenting, monitor it and clean up any messes (these can produce a lot of krausen).
  7. When fermentation slows down after about a week, rack to a secondary fermenter and monitor until fermentation is complete (a clarified, still beer, or a steady reading on a hydrometer for a couple of days).
  8. Rack into a bottling bucket and prime with ½ cup (125 mL) of honey (you can also leave out priming and drink this still like a wine).
  9. Bottle and try to age for at least a few months, if not longer.
  10. Drink it like a Viking … or a Yeti.

Nordic Beers

This section is woefully deficient in fully embracing the gamut of styles and variations on styles in what is an extremely rich history of brewing in Northern Europe. Like French and Belgian farmhouse brewing, what makes each style presented here “proper” is elusive, as each region and each brewer had a unique style, brewing technique, and heirloom yeast strain. I’ll cover the basics of what most of these brews have in common and then provide some information and recipes on how you can work to emulate variations on each style in your own “farmhouse.”

The best-known traditional Northern European beer is Finnish sahti, but other related beers exist in Nordic and Baltic countries (Scandinavian and Baltic countries are connected by the Baltic Sea and have experienced much cross-migration and integration throughout history), including: koduõlu in Estonia, gotlandsdricka in Sweden, maltøl in Norway, and kaimiškas in Lithuania.7 In addition, Germany has traditional beers that are more like farmhouse brews than they are the regimented Reinheitsgebot beers. These include rauchbier (smoked beer) and gose (which was traditionally a spontaneously fermented, cold-mashed beer).

Sahti

To enjoy a “true” sahti, you’ll probably have to travel to Finland. Beer produced in this style is so tied to the land and regional yeast strains that it would be very difficult to reproduce it authentically. On top of that, it’s not known for its ability to keep and is usually drunk young. As Petteri Lähdeniemi of Finlandia Sahti (one of the few commercial sahti breweries) noted in a 2016 interview, “You can travel across Finland and find all different kinds of sahti. Some would argue that sahti has many sub-categories and prefer to call it just ‘ancient beer’ rather than sahti because of the various styles.”8

Ales in the sahti vein are often made of both malted and unmalted grains. Barley is most common, but rye, oats, and wheat are also sometimes used as adjuncts. One thing that seems near universal is the use of juniper (the branches are used as a grain-bed filter, and berries are sometimes used as well). A sort of poor man’s sahti was sometimes produced by boiling juniper twigs and berries down to an extract, or blending sugar, water, and juniper twigs, and fermenting the mixture with baker’s yeast. No malt was used other than sometimes very small amounts for flavor.9 In some cases alder twigs were used, or alder bark shavings added to the brew to improve its flavor or act as a preservative.10 While the yeast used for sahti was traditionally an heirloom strain unique to each brewer, these days it is usually bread yeast (the same yeast was traditionally used for both brewing and baking). While you may get close with a standard ale yeast, you’d get a better approximation of true sahti by using a Finnish baker’s yeast. I have read on homebrewing forums that the difference in flavor between sahti brewed with Finnish baker’s yeast and that brewed with other strains is so minimal that there isn’t much reason to go to the effort unless you want to be truly authentic. One characteristic that Finnish yeast produces is high levels of phenol, which imparts a banana-like aroma akin to what is found in Hefeweizens and some Belgian brews, so you could probably get away with using a Hefeweizen or Belgian yeast strain. Or create a yeast starter and ferment it with your own house strain!

While some sahti brewers today use hops to make sahti more palatable to modern tastes, they weren’t traditionally used (except sometimes in very small amounts for their antiseptic effects). Many of the same herbs we find in herbal beers were used, although the actual evidence of which herbs were used, how much, when they were gathered, and when they were added to the boil (or even to the malt) is frustratingly lacking. I tend to just go with the herbs that work for my other herbal brews and hope I’m at least being somewhat respectful of tradition. Some herbs that we can say with a fair bit of confidence were used include Saint-John’s-wort (Hypericum maculatum), bog myrtle (Myrica gale), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), and caraway (Carum carvi).11

Traditionally, sahti—and all Finnish brews for that matter—was made at home in two large wooden vessels; one served as a mash tun, and the other was a troughlike vessel (kuurna) used for lautering. Since it would be a fire hazard to heat a wooden vessel from the outside, brewers would use the hot-rock method to heat the mash. The only heat came from the rock. Some modern sahti brewers boil the mash rather than the wort as a nod to this tradition, while others boil the wort (anywhere from one minute to five hours). This results in a beer with a short shelf life, but it also has an interesting grainy texture and flavor, and a wholesome, nutritious body much like the fabled “beer as food” of yore.12

Appalachian Sahti

Since I live at the foothills of the Appalachian mountain range, I prefer to think of my sahtis as Appalachian variants on Finnish brews. I can procure pretty much all of the ingredients locally—including herbs—and bread yeast, wild yeast, and barm are no problem, so really the only thing missing is my not being in Finland. Since eastern red cedar is actually a type of juniper, I can procure it locally, although I prefer to use spruce tips for flavoring, as the flavor of North American juniper isn’t quite the same as the Scandinavian variant. I’m not always able to obtain my grains locally, but while there may be some differences in the way they’re grown and roasted in Finland, I’m still using pretty much the same types of grains that a Finn would use. Note that much of what makes a “proper” sahti is the process of brewing with all grains and whole ingredients; you can come close to the flavor with extract but I recommend going as all-grain as possible if you want it to feel and taste more authentic.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

5 pounds (2.5 kg) pilsner malt

4 pounds (2 kg) light Munich malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) rye malt

Extract Alternative

6 pounds (3 kg) plain amber DME; steep remaining adjunct grains for half an hour before the boil

1 pound (0.5 kg) rye malt

Flavoring Ingredients

Several juniper branches, 2–4 feet in length (0.6–1.2 m); use eastern red cedar in the eastern US, Rocky Mountain juniper in the western US, or spruce if you can’t locate either

1 ounce (28 g) crushed dried juniper berries (or substitute hawthorn berries)

¼ ounce (7 g) meadowsweet flowers at end of boil

¼ ounce (7 g) yarrow flowers at end of boil

1 ounce (28 g) Saaz or other low-alpha hops (optional) at 60 minutes

Optional (for stone-beer method): 4–5 solid, non-porous rocks (see sidebar in chapter 8), such as granite, that will fit with ease into your mash tun and kettle

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Bread or wheat yeast, or barm

1 quart (1 L) wildflower or other light honey at end of boil

PROCESS (ALL-GRAIN, STEINBIER METHOD)

  1. Prepare a pit, line it with rocks or bricks to retain heat and keep dirt off your heating stones, and place the stones on the bricks. Build a fire and stoke it for 2 to 3 hours, allowing coals to build over the rocks.
  2. Grind the malt, lay some juniper or spruce branches at the bottom of the mash tun, pour in about one-quarter of the grain, set more branches in the mash tun vertically, and pour in the rest of the grain.
  3. Start heating 3 gallons (12 L) of water in a pot over the fire around an hour before mashing the grains.
  4. Slowly lower one of the larger rocks into the strike water, preferably with a perforated metal basket.
  5. Place the rock back in the fire and pour enough of the water over the grains to just cover them. Then place one of your smaller rocks in the center of the mash tun using tongs, taking care to avoid touching the sides.
  6. Quickly place a lid on the mash tun and provide additional insulation by whatever means you can (such as by wrapping it with a blanket). You may need up to 2 hours to get sufficient enzyme conversion. Resist the urge to be scientific. I have monitored my mash with a thermometer and, while at times I barely reached 140°F (60°C), I still drew off a wort that produced a tasty (albeit cloudy and grainy) beer of around 3 to 5 percent ABV. To raise the temperature, you can place the rock back in the fire and substitute one of the other rocks, but try to approach this from an ancient perspective and don’t stress the technical details.
  7. Alternatively, perform a multiple-step infusion mash using whichever heating method you desire, including rocks. First, heat your strike water to 134°F (57°C) and blend with the grains in your mash tun. Every 15 to 20 minutes, pour small amounts of near-boiling (200°F/93°C) water over the mash to slowly raise the temperature. Do this four or five times until you reach a mash-out temperature of about 160°F (71°C).
  8. Once you’re comfortable that you’ve received a full-enough conversion (remember, this isn’t the most efficient method for achieving full conversion), mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 5½ to 6 gallons (22–24 L) of wort.
  9. To boil the wort with rocks, place hot rocks carefully in the water (it doesn’t hurt to wear protective clothing and goggles in case they shatter). Prepare for lots of hissing and steaming. You’re not going to get a long boil this way, and may not even quite reach the boiling point, but you’ll definitely be cooking the wort. Feel free to stoke the fire some more and cook the wort over a grate (or on a large, flat rock in the fire).
  10. If you’re doing a standard boil, add the flavoring ingredients at the end, or steep them for 15 minutes to half an hour if you’re heating the old-fashioned way. Add honey (optional) after the boil or just before adding the yeast.
  11. Allow the wort to cool until it’s warm to the back of your hand (or speed it up with a wort chiller), rack and filter out the solids, add the yeast, and ferment.

I like to drink my sahti and other ancient cloudy beers in a stein or mug, as glasses were used more once people learned to appreciate the look of a clarified beer.

DRINKING AND BOTTLING

Sahti is traditionally drunk young, either flat or while still fermenting. I begin sampling mine about three days after initiating fermentation. It has a malty and not-at-all-cloying sweetness with just a hint of bitterness. I find it very refreshing at this stage. The grain flavor is definitely present—it really does feel like you’re drinking a meal. I still like it when it goes flat, but usually reserve a couple of gallons to bottle-carbonate. With the preservative power of the honey and herbs, it keeps as long as a standard beer, although sometimes it picks up a hint of sourness.

Gotlandsdricka and Rauchbier

Rauchbier is German for “smoked beer” and hence is more of a process description than an actual style. Gotlandsdricka is a Swedish ale made with smoked malt. It also sometimes incorporates honey, making it similar to Welsh ale. Prior to the industrial revolution, most beers were smoked beers, as malt was smoked as part of the process of drying and roasting it over a fire. In some regions of Germany and Sweden, the tradition of smoking malt stuck around, hence we have some smoked beer styles. Pretty much any style of beer can be a rauchbier, although traditionally they were barley-based lagers like Helles and Märzen.

Gotlandsdricka’s name comes from the remote island of Gotland off the southeast coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea. Gotland means “good land” and dricka means “drink.” So, essentially, this is “Gotland’s drink.” One of its primary flavoring components is juniper branches, which also serve as a mash tun filter as with Finnish sahti. Also like sahti, this is a farmhouse brew, and has been brewed in various forms for generations, with each farmhouse/family having its own recipe. Some say this style dates as far back as the Vikings, although I haven’t seen any direct evidence for this. We can assume that the methods and recipes that have been passed down had their roots in Viking times, but until I see direct archaeological evidence for this I’ll just go with “this is probably how the Vikings did it.” The methods and ingredients are fairly similar to those of sahti, with some variations.

Smoking malt using indirect heat to avoid overly charring the malt. I smoke my Scandinavian brews with a bit of soaked juniper or spruce branch along with the wood chips.

The first step for any smoked beer is to of course smoke the malt. You can purchase smoked malt, but the commercial versions I’ve used have never been very smoky. I smoke my own in my smoker via the indirect-heat method by placing the malt in a metal pan on one side and heating a couple of pieces of charcoal on the other. I then take juniper or red cedar branches and chunks of wood such as hickory or mesquite that I soak thoroughly in water beforehand, and drop a couple on the coals every hour or so. Traditionally (and still today in Gotland), the malt was smoked over a fire for about a week. Beechwood is often referenced in brewing literature but people likely used whatever wood was available. I find that smoking my malt for four to five hours and then leaving it in the smoker overnight once the coals have died down imparts enough smoky flavor. I usually let it get hot enough for some of the grains to roast as well. The following recipe is my own take on the brew.

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS (20 L)

Grains

6 pounds (3 kg) pale barley malt

4 pounds (2 kg) rye malt (smoke all or a portion of it, or replace 1 pound/0.5 kg of it with 1 pound of any commercial smoked malt)

1 pound (0.5 kg) unmalted flaked wheat

½ pound (0.25 kg) rice hulls (optional; for extra filtering due to the wheat)

Extract Alternative

6 pounds (3 kg) plain amber DME

1 pound (0.5 kg) rye malt, smoked (steep for half an hour before the boil)

Flavoring Ingredients

Several juniper branches, 2–4 feet (0.6–1.2 m) in length; use eastern red cedar in the eastern US, Rocky Mountain juniper in the western US, or spruce/pine if you can’t locate either

1 ounce (28 g) crushed dried juniper berries (or substitute hawthorn berries)

¼ ounce (7 g) meadowsweet flowers at end of boil

¼ ounce (7 g) yarrow flowers at end of boil

1 ounce (28 g) Saaz or other low-alpha hops (optional) at 60 minutes

Optional (for stone-beer method): 4–5 solid, nonporous rocks (see sidebar in chapter 8), such as granite, that will fit with ease into your mash tun and kettle

Water, Yeast, and Kettle Adjuncts

6 gallons (24 L) springwater or filtered tap water

Bread or wheat yeast, or barm

1 quart (1 L) wildflower or other light honey at end of boil

PROCESS (ALL-GRAIN, STEINBIER METHOD)

  1. Prepare a pit, line it with rocks or bricks to retain heat and keep dirt off your heating stones, and place the stones on the bricks. Build a fire and stoke it for 2 to 3 hours, allowing coals to build over the rocks.
  2. Make a porridge from the malted wheat while you’re waiting, cooking over low heat for at least half an hour, stirring regularly.
  3. Smoke and grind the malt, lay some juniper branches at the bottom of the mash tun, pour in about one-quarter of the grain, set more branches in the mash tun vertically, add the wheat porridge and rice hulls, and pour in the rest of the grain.
  4. Start heating 3 gallons (12 L) of water in a pot over the fire around an hour before mashing the grains.
  5. Slowly lower one of the larger rocks into the strike water, preferably with a perforated metal basket.
  6. Place the rock back in the fire and pour enough of the water over the grains to just cover them. Then place one of your smaller rocks in the center of the mash tun using tongs, taking care to avoid touching the sides.
  7. Quickly place a lid on the mash tun and provide additional insulation by whatever means you can (such as by wrapping it with a blanket). Give it 2 hours to get as much enzyme conversion as possible if you’re able.
  8. Once you’re comfortable that you’ve received as full a conversion as you can, mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 5½ to 6 gallons (22–24 L) of wort. The gravity for this can vary, but I usually get around 1.030 to 1.050. Remember, it can always be increased with additional honey or sugar.
  9. To boil the wort with rocks, place hot rocks carefully in the water (it doesn’t hurt to wear protective clothing and goggles should they shatter). Prepare for lots of hissing and steaming. You’re not going to get a long boil this way, and may not even quite reach the boiling point, but you’ll definitely be cooking the wort. Feel free to stoke the fire some more and cook the wort over a grate (or on a large, flat rock in the fire).
  10. If you’re doing a standard boil, add the flavoring ingredients at the end, or steep them for 15 minutes to half an hour if you’re heating the old-fashioned way. Add honey (optional) after the boil or just before adding the yeast.
  11. Allow the wort to cool until it’s warm to the back of your hand (or speed it up with a wort chiller), rack and filter out the solids, add the yeast, and ferment.

DRINKING AND BOTTLING

This drinks very similarly to sahti, depending on which yeast you use, how much wort extraction you managed, and other factors. Drink it slowly with a meal, or make a tea of whichever herbs you have on hand with a bit of honey just before drinking if you feel the flavor isn’t quite to your liking. This can sometimes be a rather tasty brew and other times it can be … unique, due to the many difficult-to-control factors that come with traditional heating methods. However, you can adjust any of the factors you desire by using the rocks for heating only one portion of the process (I recommend the wort in this case), skipping the juniper branches, using spruce instead, and so on. Remember, this is farmhouse brewing. Come up with your own recipe and technique and save the yeast for future batches if you like it. Start your own tradition!

Indigenous American / South American and Corn-Based Beers

There are various ways to brew with corn, and chicha is as good a place as any to start. This is a purely corn-based brew, although it is often flavored with fruit such as pineapple or berries (which technically makes it a fruitillada). It can be served sweet, young, and barely fermented, or fermented into alcohol and drunk dry with just a bit of sweetness (and varying degrees of sour). I prefer the traditional way of drawing out the enzymes and sugars through the introduction of saliva, but it’s not always easy to convince people to join you in a chewing and spitting party, let alone convince them to drink the final product. Hence I make 1-gallon batches, which means I don’t have to chew as much and can keep it all to myself, except for my braver acquaintances. Really, though, if you can get past the squeamishness of the initial chewing, there’s nothing to be concerned about, as any germs in the saliva are long gone by the time the chicha is boiled and fermented.

Chicha de Muko

When made with the spit method, you are making Chicha de Muko (muko is the term for the spitballs of corn). For a more modern (but still ancient) interpretation of chicha complete with barley grains, I recommend the book Ancient Brews Rediscovered and Re-Created by Patrick McGovern, which has a homebrew recipe that he and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery created.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

1 pound (0.5 kg) whole organic purple corn kernels, plus an extra ½ pound (0.25 kg) or so, as you will lose some during the chewing process; or use 1 pound (0.5 kg) malted corn for chicha without spittle

2¾ gallons (11 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 cup (150 g) grits or polenta, ¼ pound (113 g) flaked corn, or ¼ pound (113 g) feed corn

½ pound (0.25 kg) piloncillo or light brown sugar

Cinnamon, cloves, Curaçao, coriander, etc. (optional)

¼ pineapple, 2 slices (no peel) of an orange, 1 pint (220 g) strawberries or any other berry, and 1 pint (220 g) mango chunks or any other fruit to make a fruitillada, a delicious traditional South American corn beer with fruit (optional)

Brewing yeast or ale yeast (Belgian yeast is good for this), or barm

PROCESS (SKIP TO STEP 5 IF USING MALTED CORN)

  1. Rinse and then cook the corn on low heat in just enough water to cover it for 1 to 2 hours, or until it is soft enough to chew; or soak it in warm water overnight. An alternative method is to coarsely grind the corn in a blender first, though I’ve found this creates a powdery mess that is even more unpleasant than chewing whole corn.
  2. Chew, chew, chew and spit, spit, spit. Try to keep the saliva from dispersing too much into the corn and causing it to liquefy. The best way to do this is to form a ball from it by placing it between your tongue and the top of your mouth. This also keeps it from the back of your mouth, preventing you from swallowing it or gagging. Keep in mind throughout the process that moistened purple corn creates purple liquid and splattering is inevitable. Be prepared to clean up or blame someone else if you forget to.
  3. Place the spitballs/muko on a cookie sheet or dehydrator drying rack and dry them in an oven, in a dehydrator, or out in the sun. Once they’re fully dry, keep them in a cool, dry area until you’ve accumulated enough. Give yourself several days, or even weeks, to do this. Even with the help of friends, this is a slow process and will drive you nuts with its jaw-numbing repetition if you try to do it all in one sitting.
  4. When you’re finally ready for brew day, start by heating 2 quarts (2 L) of water. Add the grits, polenta, or flaked/feed corn to the water and stir well. Heat the mixture on medium-low heat, stirring regularly to keep the corn from sticking to the bottom.
  5. Next, heat 2 gallons (8 L) of water to 160°F (71°C) in a large stockpot. Place the muko and corn porridge in a grain bag, breaking apart any stuck-together corn into small chunks. Steep the bag in the pot for 1 hour at 150 to 155°F (66–68°C). Take care to not let the bottom of the bag stick to the bottom and burn by using a false bottom or metal spoons, and raise the bag up and down a few times every 15 minutes to help disperse the wort sugars.
  6. Lift the bag, sparge with 1 quart (1 L) of 180°F (82°C) water, and allow to fully drain. It doesn’t hurt to have an extra pot on hand to minimize the mess. Drain about 1 quart into the extra pot and then have a helper pour it back over the grain bag to draw out any extra sugars.
  7. Add the piloncillo or brown sugar, and stir to dissolve.
  8. Boil the mixture for an hour, stirring occasionally.
  9. Add the optional spices in a spice bag at the end of the boil.
  10. Remove from the heat, cool for half an hour, and add the flavoring fruit. If you’re using fruit for wild yeast, save some or all for the transfer to the fermentation vessel.
  11. Transfer to an openmouthed crock or jar, cover with a cloth, and stir a couple of times daily for about a week.
  12. Ladle into cups straight from the crock/jar and drink while still fermenting, or proceed to the next step.
  13. Rack into a 1-gallon (4 L) glass jug and allow it to clarify and further ferment for 3 to 4 days. Either way, it should reach around 3 to 4 percent ABV.
  14. Prime with ½ cup (100 g) of cane sugar, and bottle.
  15. Whether you’re drinking straight from the fermenter or bottling, drink it as soon as possible, as it will sour with age due to the lack of antibacterial ingredients. I prefer this the traditional way, straight from the fermenter while still fermenting. It’s sweet, delicious, and mildly alcoholic.

Modernized Chicha BiaB

For those who can’t handle the thought of saliva beer, you can malt the corn as detailed in “Malt Your Own Grain at Home,” a sidebar in chapter 3.

INGREDIENTS FOR 3 GALLONS (12 L)

3 pounds (1.5 kg) purple corn kernels

5 gallons (20 L) springwater or filtered tap water (approximate; you’ll lose some in the mash)

1 pound (0.5 kg) flaked corn, or 4 cups (600 g) precooked grits or polenta

4 pounds (2 kg) pale malt

1 pound (0.5 kg) piloncillo or light brown sugar

¼ ounce (7 g) coriander at 5 minutes (feel free to add similar amounts of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, or Curaçao)

1 ounce (28 g) low-alpha hops such as Willamette or Fuggle at 60 minutes

Varying amounts of fruit for flavoring or wild yeast (optional)

Brewing yeast or Belgian ale yeast (any ale yeast will do), or barm

Muko balls soaked with saliva and ready for drying.

A 1-gallon (4 L) batch of chicha being brewed.

Corn can also be malted as an alternative to the chew-and-spit method.

PROCESS

  1. Malt the corn a couple of days in advance (see the sidebar in chapter 3).
  2. Bring 3 gallons (12 L) of water to 180°F (82°C). Add the flaked corn, grits, or polenta, the malted ground purple corn, and the ground malt to a bag, lower it into the water, and let it steep at 150 to 155°F (66–68°C) for 1 hour.
  3. Lift the bag and sparge with 1 gallon (4 L) of 180°F/82°C water. Drain the bag, set it aside in an extra pot, and add whatever drains out of it to the boil.
  4. Add the piloncillo or brown sugar, and stir to dissolve.
  5. Boil the wort for 60 minutes, and add ingredients according to the schedule.
  6. Remove from the heat, cool for half an hour, and add optional flavoring fruit.
  7. Cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle. This will hold up longer than traditional chicha due to the hops but it still has a short shelf life (try to drink it all within a month or two).

The traditional way to drink chicha, fruitillada, or any of its variants is to first pour some on the ground to give the earth its share, then offer some to the apus (mountain spirits) by blowing a bit from your glass into the wind. Next, greet your fellow drinkers with whatever greeting or toast you desire and clink your glasses together. While drinking it, be sure to exclaim “Chichitaaaaaa, chicherooooo!” after every couple of sips.13

Fruit and Vegetable Beers

I’ve outlined the technique for brewing with fruits and vegetables in chapter 7, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I’ve included two recipes for you to try, and suggest substitutions of similar ingredients if you want to experiment further or don’t have access to some of the ingredients.

Pawpaw Wheat (Extract)/Simple Ale

If you’re not familiar with the pawpaw (Asimina triloba), I highly recommend the book Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit by Andrew Moore. It’s a well-informed and engaging love song to this all-American fruit as well as a travelogue through the regions of North America where the pawpaw is prevalent. Although sometimes found in outlying areas, it tends to grow as far south as Louisiana and Alabama, as far north as Michigan and Illinois, as far west as Kansas, and it spreads nearly to the Atlantic on the East Coast. “Pawpaws are a river fruit,” says Moore. “They grow under many conditions and in many climates, but they’re most abundant and reliably found growing in the deep alluvial soil of American bottomlands, along creeks, streams, and great rivers from the mighty Mississippi to the Wabash, Susquehanna, Missouri, and Potomac.”14 I’m lucky enough to live in a region (eastern Kentucky) where they are prevalent.

Slice each pawpaw in half (or peel the skin off), deseed, lick your fingers clean, add to the wort after cutting off the boil, and drink when ready.

To be honest, I was only vaguely aware of pawpaws when I was growing up. After I read Andy’s book and met him, his passion for the pawpaw rubbed off and I began to seek out pawpaw trees. Turns out I didn’t have to go much farther than my front door to find groves of pawpaw trees along creeksides and even in public fruit tree groves. During their peak season (around mid-August to early September in my region) I watch for them to fall to the ground and snatch them up before someone else does, freezing them until I have enough for beer. Admittedly, it’s difficult not to eat them right from the ground. Opinions vary as to what constitutes a perfectly ripe pawpaw, but they’re a persnickety fruit and have no interest in ripening on the tree. Rock-hard until just before falling, they go through a period of soft ripeness with a bright yellow, custardlike filling. I prefer them at this stage for brewing, but letting them turn brown—which some people like to do—works fine, too. For this recipe you can swap out pawpaws for the same amounts of mango or banana, which are as close as it gets to similar-tasting fruits. I’ve also used persimmons in similar recipes. This beer can reach a level of sourness that doesn’t appeal to everyone. You can minimize this by adding a bit of hops or another preservative/bittering herb such as mugwort or yarrow. Or drink it within a couple of days of fermenting for a low-alcohol, sweet, and very refreshing lightly fermented ale.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

2 pounds (1 kg) pawpaws, mangoes, bananas, or persimmons

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) wheat DME (or substitute cane sugar for a simple ale)

½ ounce (15 g) low-alpha hops such as Willamette or Fuggle (optional)

½ ounce (15 g) fresh or ¼ ounce (7 g) dried mugwort or yarrow leaves (optional)

½ teaspoon crushed coriander

Juice of ½ small lemon, or 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice

Wheat, Belgian or bread yeast, or barm

Pawpaw or mango beer makes for a refreshing summer drink, particularly with a slice of orange.

PROCESS (SKIP TO STEP 5 IF USING MALTED CORN)

  1. Peel and deseed (if you’re using pawpaws or mangoes) the fruit and set aside.
  2. Bring the water to a barely rolling boil and stir in the extract or sugar.
  3. Add the optional bittering herbs and boil for half an hour.
  4. Cut off the heat and add the coriander, lemon juice, and fruit.
  5. Let the mixture cool, then transfer everything, fruit and all, to a bucket, crock, or other widemouthed fermenter (this can produce a lot of krausen) and sprinkle the yeast over the surface.
  6. Place the fermenter in a warm area with a cloth over it for 24 hours or until fermentation slows down.
  7. Filter out the solids and rack to a 1-gallon (4 L) jug with airlock.
  8. Prime with 2 tablespoons of cane sugar, and bottle.

Rhubarb Ginger/Simple Ale

I planted some rhubarb in a corner of the garden on a whim one year, primarily to use for brewing. If you plant it, be aware that it’s a hardy perennial and will stick around for quite a while. I tend to harvest mine in late spring and freeze it if I don’t use it right away. I’ve made rhubarb wine so I figured I may as well give beer a try. You can make a fairly authentic Belgian ale with rhubarb, as it will give the ale that characteristic Belgian tang due to its high level of tartness. As with pawpaw beer, bittering herbs or hops can be used to counteract any souring.

INGREDIENTS FOR 1 GALLON (4 L)

6–7 stalks rhubarb

1 gallon (4 L) springwater or filtered tap water

1 pound (0.5 kg) dark DME (or substitute brown sugar for a simple ale)

8 ounces (227 g) fresh gingerroot, chopped or bruised

½ ounce (14 g) low-alpha hops such as Willamette or Fuggle (optional)

½ ounce (14 g) fresh or ¼ ounce (7 g) dried mugwort or yarrow leaves (optional)

Juice of ½ small lemon, or 2 ounces (60 mL) lemon juice

Belgian or brewer’s yeast, or barm

PROCESS

  1. Clean the rhubarb thoroughly and remove all traces of leaves (which are toxic).
  2. Bring the water to a barely rolling boil and stir in the extract or sugar.
  3. Add the ginger and optional bittering herbs and boil for half an hour.
  4. Cut off the heat and add the lemon juice and rhubarb.
  5. Let the mixture cool, then transfer it to a fermentation jug (sliding the rhubarb in lengthwise) or bucket, and sprinkle the yeast over the surface.
  6. Place a lid (if you’re using a bucket) and airlock on the fermenter and let the mixture fully ferment.
  7. Prime with 2 tablespoons of cane sugar, and bottle.

Grog

Once you’ve made some successful brews and have a good idea of what amounts, ratios, and combinations of ingredients tend to work, you’re ready to cut loose, throw a bunch of stuff in a bucket or crock, and hope for the best. I’m not advising you to haphazardly mix random ingredients, but you can make some pretty interesting brews just by loosening up and having some fun. We know from archaeological evidence that the ingredients of what we now consider beer, mead, or wine would often be either brewed together or blended after fermentation into a type of grog. These grogs would often contain a large number of herbs. Once you’ve got enough brews going at once, or have various brews bottled, give grog a try. Sometimes when I’m racking multiple brews I’ll take a bit of each from various stages of fermentation and pour them all in a fermentation bucket, jug, or carboy together. More often than not, the result is plenty drinkable. This is a good way to remove yourself from the restrictions of styles and categorization. Your grog may not taste quite like a beer, quite like a mead, quite like a wine, or quite like a cider, but if it’s tasty, it’s tasty … and it may just give you an idea for a recipe to repeat.