Beer Foragers of the World Unite

[clibit]

If you are a regular forager in the undergrowth for beer ingredients, perhaps we can have a thread in which people share the knowledge of wild beer ingredients.

Personally, I have never used any foraged ingredients, but I am interested in giving some a try. The likes of spruce tips, heather tips, bog myrtle, elderflower, elderberries and nettles are all possibilities. If you have used anything you found out there in nature, or even the garden, to make beer, tell us about it. Where did you get it, what time of year, how did you use it, what were the results like?

 

[Dutto]

ROSE HIPS

Ingredients:

1kg of rose hips.
1kg of sugar.
For wine:
o Cup of strong Tea.
o Teaspoon of Pectolase.
o Half teaspoon of Yeast Nutrient.
o Wine Yeast of choice.
Water

Method

Coarsely chop the rose hips in batches using a food processor blade. (I tried using an electric mincer and broke it!)

Add chopped rose hips to 1 litre of water, bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Strain the pulp through two thicknesses of muslin cloth into a clean bowl and squeeze out as much juice as possible.

Return the pulp to the pan with a second litre of water, bring to the boil and again simmer for 15 minutes. In the meantime rinse out the muslin cloth.

After 15 minutes strain the pulp, again through two thicknesses of muslin cloth, into the same bowl as the first batch and again squeezing out as much juice as possible.

Note: The double thickness of muslin is to ensure that the fine hairs found inside the rose hips are removed. (As a kid I used to dry out the hairs and use them as a substitute for “Itching Powder”! We were poor and had to make our own amusement in those days! :whistle:)

At this stage it is time to decide whether you are making Rose Hip Wine or Rose Hip Syrup.

Rose Hip Wine

Dissolve 1kg of brewing sugar (dextrose) into the filtered liquid and bring it to the boil for five minutes.

Add:
o One cupful of strong tea.
o One teaspoon of Pectolase.
o Half a teaspoon of Yeast Nutrient.
o Sufficient boiled and cooled water to bring the volume up to 4.5 litres.

Pour into a sterilised DJ and at 20 degrees celsius pitch with a Wine Yeast of choice, fit the air-lock and leave somewhere warm to ferment out.

With an OG of +/- 1.085 a FG of 1.000 will make a dry rosé wine with an ABV of +/-11%.

Serve chilled it makes a great summer’s afternoon drink.


Rose Hip Syrup

Bring the filtered liquid to the boil and reduce the volume by about a half (or more if you want a thicker syrup).

Add 1kg of ordinary sugar (sucrose) to the liquid, allow it to dissolve and boil for five more minutes.

Pour into sterilised bottles or jars and put them in a cool place until needed.

Rose Hip Syrup is rich in Vitamin C and can be taken as a winter vitamin supplement . It also tarts up a desert when drizzled over vanilla ice-cream.

Just realised I have Posted a Wine Recipe under "Beer Foragers of the World Unite"! Sorry, I hope it is okay. How about including "Wine" in the Title? :thumb:

 

[Notlaw]

This interests me... and our lass is bang into all this stuff, so I can get some brownie points for this sort of thing.

 

[clibit]

Hey Dutto. I wonder if anyone has ever used rose hips in beer?

 

[Dutto]

Hey Dutto. I wonder if anyone has ever used rose hips in beer?

I would probably have tried it out but I only heard of Candi Sugar after I had made wine from some Rose Hip Syrup I found in the shed.

I think it would give a "lift" to a light Pilsner or a Lager but there would always be the danger of the hops overpowering what is a delicate flavour.

Worth a try though! :thumb:

 

[MyQul]

Hey Dutto. I wonder if anyone has ever used rose hips in beer?

In the GH book, in the Herbs,Flowers,fruits and spices section it says for rose hips, "Use rose hips sparingly to lend character to festive and strong beers..."

 

[clibit]

American brewers seem more likely to use rose hips, they tend to use them mostly in saisons, it would appear.

 

[Herb]

I'm quite interested in using foraged stuff for beer - but also stuff I can grow as I have an allotment.

 

[brumbrew]

I mostly forage for wine ingredients, but I have made potato beer from the spuds growing in the garden. Used boiled peeled potato with a kilo of light DME.

Smelled vile while fermenting and tasted the same for months. However I found a bottle of it in the shed a few months back. Opened it, poured a glass of perfectly clear and carbed beer.

Not exactly the best, but as an experiment and an ode to WW1 trench brewing it wasn't all that bad.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

The only trouble with "foraging" ingredients is that they dont taste very nice. If they did they would be grown commercially

 

[clibit]

I'm quite interested in using foraged stuff for beer - but also stuff I can grow as I have an allotment.

A Sprout Stout or a Turnip Tripel maybe. I have heard of people making beetroot stout/porters. Allotment fruits and foraged fruits are good options obviously. Blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, plums etc. Rhubarb maybe.

Juniper and sage sound like possibilities.

 

[clibit]

The only trouble with "foraging" ingredients is that they dont taste very nice. If they did they would be grown commercially

Go and say that on the wine forum!

 

[Notlaw]

The only trouble with "foraging" ingredients is that they dont taste very nice. If they did they would be grown commercially

Not always the case. It'll also be down to processing, harvesting and demand.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I can only think of one ingredient that you can forage ...Blackberries

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Not always the case. It'll also be down to processing, harvesting and demand.

Notlaw....can you name a ingredient worth foraging for?

 

[clibit]

Spruce and Heather beers are really good.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I can only think of damsons and blackberries
And if I pick blackberries I wont put them in a wine

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Spruce and Heather beers are really good.

Spruce and heather have no place in a beer

 

[MickDundee]

Spruce and Heather beers are really good.

And elderflower!

 

[MickDundee]

Spruce and heather have no place in a beer

******** - go and get yourself a bottle of Fraoch!