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I'm thinking about the next brew, and want to kick it up a notch. I have heard of beers that don't use hops. I don't know where to start in my research, so I apologize for the broad question, but what kind of beers are there that don't use hops? If you have brewed any of these styles, do you recommend me to try them (or recommend I NOT try them)? Thanks. |
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http://gruitale.com/ has got a few recipes and lots of info about beers spiced with things other than hops. I recently brewed up one of their Sage Ale recipes, it's just about done fermenting and it's pretty good, really interesting flavor since sage isn't especially bitter. The discovery world museum near my house has got an archaeologist brewer that runs a brewing seminar called Ale Through the Ages where they look at various parts of the world and history and brew some beer based on the archaeological evidence about their alcoholic endeavors. We recently brewed a beer based on findings in Henan, China, spiced with wormwood, and chrysanthemums. Anyway the guy who runs it has a blog at http://distantmirror.wordpress.com/ where he posts the recipes and info about past beer he's made for the series. here's one with no hops but a ton of other stuff: http://distantmirror.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/brewing-a-medieval-mumm-ale/ |
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I think that in order to be considered beer, it has to have hops in it. Gruit is an example where the bittering comes from something besides hops. There are a whole bunch of things like this I think. I'll try to find more examples. |
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Cambridge Brewing Company had a really nice gruit with heather and many other herbs in it that I can't remember. I talked to the head brewmaster about it (we were there for a beer dinner) and he told me about his experimentation. All I can say is that getting one to come out really well takes a lot of trial and error. So I'd say skip it, only because you gave me the option in your question to say NO. |
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