Beer Brewing Herbs

If you like beer you may be interested in growing some of your own ingredients. Hops are the most common herb used in beer and are used for  bittering. They are relatively easy to grow and make a nice vine to grow up your deck or elsewhere.

hops

I've been reading "The Homebrewer's Garden" by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher which details many of the other herbs that are and have been used in beer.  I was not only amazed at how many herbs have been used in beer but also realized that I grow many of these herbs.

Hops are my favorite as I am a fan of great IPA's. They not only bitter the beer it but to create a variety of unique flavor profiles that include floral, piney and citrus. There are some beers that taste very similar to grapefruit juice just becasue of the hops they use. If you are not a beer drinker you may not realize that there are actually many different varieties of hops all producing different aromas and flavors in a beer because of their alpha and beta acids.
 
We grow hops here on the farm and use them in dream pillows as they are a good for destress and to promote sleep. You may have experienced relaxation after you've had a few beers! Hops are also good for skin care and help decrease irritation and promote hydration. I've written about the benefits of hops before, here.

thyme

There are additional herbs that are used in beer for bittering, flavoring and giving the beer a nice aroma.

Herbs used for bittering include yarrow, horehound, sage, dandelion, costmary, and clary sage. They are typically added at the beginning of the boil phase and need to be balanced with hops which are also bitter.

Flavoring herbs include rosemary, hyssop, borage, oregano, mint, bee balm/monarda, lemon balm, sweet woodruff, marjoram and thyme. Add these carefully as they can have rather strong flavors. They can be added at the beginning or near the end of the boil.

Other herbs can be added for aroma including rosemary, hyssop, lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, bee balm, elder flowers. If adding them for aroma they are added toward the end of the boil. 

Yarrow apparently was commonly used to bitter beer before hops were used, a beer known now as Gruit Ale. I don't know if any commercial brewers use this but I did find a lot of interest in it on several beer brewing websites.

Other herbs that I grow that are used in beers are Horehound, Coriander, Summer savory, Nasturtium, Raspberry Fruit, Rhubarb, Rose Hips and Valerian leaf. Not mentioned in the book, but herbs I think would be great in beer include rose petals, red clover, violets, calendula, salad burnett, and feverfew.

I'd love to taste a good hoppy IPA that is flavored with lavender. I've seen several Saison styles with lavender but never an IPA. So, local breweries, make my dream come true please!

Besides using these herbs in beer, they can be used for skin care and bath herbs. Beer Spa is a concept that is gaining in popularity and many of these herbs can be used in conjunction with beer to provide skin benefits. We just put on a beer spa event and hope to do more in our area.

Cosmetic Science for Middle School

Part of the mission statement of our company is to educate. In today's world when there is so much fear of chemistry I love the opportunity to help educate youth about opportunities in chemistry. Yesterday I participated in a presentation for a GEMS group; Girls in Engineering, Math and Science. The day was sponsored by a local high school leadership group and invitations were sent to middle school girls. There were 4 presenters and the girls circulated through the 4 classrooms for presentations. It seemed like the main theme and interest was robotics so cosmetic chemistry was a little different - its nice to let girls know how chemistry applies to their everyday life.

We made bath fizzies and talked about the chemical reaction involved between the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid. In case you are interested, the equation is below:

NaHCO3 + C6H8O7 → CO2 + H2O + Na3C6H5O7

The reaction between an acid (citric acid) and a base (sodium bicarbonate) yields a salt and water; in this case trisodium citrate and water. In this particular reaction, one of the products is also carbon dioxide which is a gas released and is what produces the fizziness in the bath. 

Here is the bath fizzy formula we used:

1 cup baking soda

1/3 cup citric acid

1.5 ounce kokum butter  (melted)

0.5 ounce rice bran oil (infused with horehound)

6 ml fragrance oil

Melt butter, mix with other ingredients and mold into a muffin tin. Let set for awhile so the butter hardens. 

Another important thing we talked about was how to pronounce ingredients in an attempt to discredit the misnomer that 'if you can't pronounce it then its toxic'. I want girls to be smart enough to expand their vocabulary rather than be intimidated by new words and assume things are toxic just because they've never heard of them. We went over the ingredient list for their bath truffles to make sure they could pronounce everything. 

Sodium bicarbonate, Garcinia indica (Kokum) Butter, Citric Acid, Oryza Sativa (Rice Bran) Oil, Marrubium Vulgare (Horehound) Extract, Fragrance.

I ended up having some time left over, so next year I'll talk more about what a cosmetic chemist does on a day to day basis. I hope I stimulated at least some interest in chemistry. Have you ever taught young students about what you do?

Spring May Be Here

I probably do a similar post every year but I just can't help myself, I get so excited seeing all the new growth in spring. Here are some pictures around the farm.

Horseradish

Yellow Dock

Horehound.

Fennel and Parsley, we had both in our salad last night.

A little bit of green in the Lavender. I hope they fared well over the dry winter.

The Elderberry is leafing out.

The apples are also leafing out.

I love the little grape hyacinths.

Oregano - don't  you love pizza?

Plantain - many consider it a weed but we use a alot of it in skin care.

The hops are going wild and need to be strung up.

I think I should put my cross country skis away now. I didn't get to use them much this winter and I think the opportunity has passed (but you never know in Colorado).

Brewers Herbs

Beer is an ancient drink (and food) that I happen to be quite fond of. I especially like beer with lots of floral hops. Hops were not always used in beer though, and may not have been used until the 9th century. Before that, a mixture of herbs referred to as gruit was used to flavor beer. Although I don't brew beer, I do grow hops and other herbs so am interested in what herbs are used in beer. I recently read "The Homebrewer's Garden" by Joe and Dennis Fisher to learn more about herbs in brewing, a very interesting book by the way.

Here are some of the herbs from this book that grow in my gardens.

Anise Hyssop - provides a licorice flavor to beer.
Basil - adds a slightly bitter, spicy flavor.
Bee Balm - often used as a tea, bee  balm provides a bitter, minty flavor.
Borage - gives a spicy, cucumber like flavor to beer. This herb can also be steeped in wine.
Chamomile (Roman) - is said to be one of the 'secret' herbs in Celis White beer. It gives an apple-like flavoring.
Clary Sage - provides a balsamlike aroma to beer.
Coriander - this is a flavoring in one of my favorite beers; Belgian Whites.
Dandelion - yet another use for this common weed. Use the tender spring leaves in your salad and the larger leaves later in the season to bitter your beer.
Elder - the berries are best know for making wine, but they can also be used to flavor beer. The flowers can be used for 'dry hopping' as well.
Oregano - adds a distinctive flavor to beer.

Horehound - this herb can add a warm, menthol flavor. I wonder if horehound beer can be used to control coughs?
Hyssop officinalis - this herb is used in Benedictine and Chartreuse. Using it in beer provides a minty, medicinal scent.
Juniper - commonly used in gin, juniper can contribute this taste to beer as well.
Lavender - oh, the many uses of sweet lavender. I would love to try a pale ale flavored with lavender. Let me know if you know of one.
Lemon Balm - this is used in many liquours and can add a lemon scent/flavor to beer.
Mint - there are many types of  mint, and although I love a mint tea, I don't know how this would be in beer.
Rhubarb - great in a fruit crisp, this is one fruit that would be interesting in beer.
Rose hips - apparently rose hips are used in some beers from Poland and impart a citrus flavor and red color to beer.
Rosemary - before the use of hops in beer, rosemary was quite popular.
Sage - was used in fifteenth century English beer recipes and adds bitterness and camphorlike scent.
Savory, Summer - provide a peppery, oregano-like flavor and aroma.
Spruce - was popular during the American Revolution spruce adds distinct, woods taste that is popular in winter beers.
Sweet Woodruff - this herb is what makes May wine what it is but can also be used to add a mild, sweet aroma to beer.
Thyme - used to give beer a spicy aroma.
Valerian root - is commonly used as a sedative so what better place to use it than beer?
Yarrow - both the leaves and flowers can be used to bitter beer.

I'd love to see more 'herbal' beers so I hope that if you are a brewer this gives you some ideas - and don't hesitate to share with me! I'd love to write reviews!