<an amber ale with herby notes. Made with foraged yarrow and heather, and shedloads of honey.>
Brewing your own beer can seem a terrifying prospect to the newbie, with all this talk of specific gravity and sparging and liqoring down and the presence of tremendous beards. But beer is good, and making stuff is good, and at the end of the day if you can follow a recipe you can brew a decent ale. Don't be put off by the technical sounding ingredients, they are easily sourced on the web or at a homebrew shop - use your local one if you can and trust their expertise. Ours is Hops and Vines in Witney and they are fantastic and also surprisingly lacking in intimidating facial hair. You will need some fairly big gear - a catering size stockpot to boil up the ingredients, a fermenting bucket (read: a bucket with an airtight lid and airlock), and either a pressure cask or 20 odd litres worth of empty airtight, preferably glass, bottles (swingtop are best, but you can manage with screw tops). You'd be amazed at how easily such stuff can be obtained though. There doesn't appear to be a loft in Oxfordshire that doesn't contain some sort of homebrew kit. Ask around and keep an eye on freecycle. Make sure you sterilise everything thoroughly before use.
This Easter I was in the Isle of Man visiting family, and being a compulsive forager took the opportunity to gather some heather in the mountains. If you aren't a fortunate mountain dweller any garden grown common heather will suffice. The yarrow is a traditional herb to use in beer, one of the main herbs used in gruit to add bitterness to your brew before hops were grown in England. It looks like a green feather, and can vary in size from the tiny wee examples you'll find lurking in your lawn to huge leaf spikes akin to pheasant feathers.
The recipe I followed was one adapted from the River Cottage for the Guardian Word of Mouth blog:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/aug/03/viking-heather-beer-recipe. It'll give you a beer that is halfway between our modern amber ales and what a 15th century beard might have enjoyed down the pub. A couple of notes though. The hops you use (though there are very few) will have a major effect on the taste of your beer - choose something in keeping with the other flavours. I went for Bramling Cross (after much faffing around) which have a sort of blackcurrant flavour that (happily) went well with the honey. Use the best honey you can afford but honestly, supermarket own brand is fine.
Once you've finished the fermentation you'll have something around 4% ABV, and flat. So flat. Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar per litre of booze in a sealed container that can handle pressure and leave for another week or so to condition - fermentation will restart and create bubble, and a little extra alcohol. Pour (carefully!) and enjoy.
Brewing your own beer can seem a terrifying prospect to the newbie, with all this talk of specific gravity and sparging and liqoring down and the presence of tremendous beards. But beer is good, and making stuff is good, and at the end of the day if you can follow a recipe you can brew a decent ale. Don't be put off by the technical sounding ingredients, they are easily sourced on the web or at a homebrew shop - use your local one if you can and trust their expertise. Ours is Hops and Vines in Witney and they are fantastic and also surprisingly lacking in intimidating facial hair. You will need some fairly big gear - a catering size stockpot to boil up the ingredients, a fermenting bucket (read: a bucket with an airtight lid and airlock), and either a pressure cask or 20 odd litres worth of empty airtight, preferably glass, bottles (swingtop are best, but you can manage with screw tops). You'd be amazed at how easily such stuff can be obtained though. There doesn't appear to be a loft in Oxfordshire that doesn't contain some sort of homebrew kit. Ask around and keep an eye on freecycle. Make sure you sterilise everything thoroughly before use.
This Easter I was in the Isle of Man visiting family, and being a compulsive forager took the opportunity to gather some heather in the mountains. If you aren't a fortunate mountain dweller any garden grown common heather will suffice. The yarrow is a traditional herb to use in beer, one of the main herbs used in gruit to add bitterness to your brew before hops were grown in England. It looks like a green feather, and can vary in size from the tiny wee examples you'll find lurking in your lawn to huge leaf spikes akin to pheasant feathers.
The recipe I followed was one adapted from the River Cottage for the Guardian Word of Mouth blog:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/aug/03/viking-heather-beer-recipe. It'll give you a beer that is halfway between our modern amber ales and what a 15th century beard might have enjoyed down the pub. A couple of notes though. The hops you use (though there are very few) will have a major effect on the taste of your beer - choose something in keeping with the other flavours. I went for Bramling Cross (after much faffing around) which have a sort of blackcurrant flavour that (happily) went well with the honey. Use the best honey you can afford but honestly, supermarket own brand is fine.
Once you've finished the fermentation you'll have something around 4% ABV, and flat. So flat. Add 1/2 teaspoon sugar per litre of booze in a sealed container that can handle pressure and leave for another week or so to condition - fermentation will restart and create bubble, and a little extra alcohol. Pour (carefully!) and enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment