Hacking Your Home Brew: Hop Substitutes & Herbal Admixtures

The home brewing and craft brewing movement has brought good beer to practically the entire world. The sweet punch of quality malts and earthy zing of hops arises in many variations, but the ingredients most often used are those prescribed by the Reinheitsgebot.

The Reinheitsgebot was the German beer purity law of 1516, which established barley, hops, water, and yeast as the only ingredients legally allowed in the beer brewing process. I, for one, think that the time has come to move on to more innovative brewing, beers that scoff at the Reinheitsgebot - beers that include more than just water, malt, hops, and yeast. Some German brewers like Schneider-Weisse are starting to push the limits.

Using different herbal admixtures to brew beer is one way to enhance the excitement of home brewing. By stepping out of the box of “brewing as usual”, you open a whole world of new and unique beverages. By brewing without hops, you can actually provide beer for those rare folks who are allergic to the hop plant, giving them the chance to enjoy a cold one so often denied to them. This article will discuss some ways to use different herbal admixtures to enhance your home brew and some herbs that can be used in the place of hops.

Ancient traditions of brewing beer can show us the world of beer varieties that were so rudely taken away by the German beer purity law. For example, before the law was passed, towns and villages throughout Europe had their own time-honored recipes that often included herbs besides hops. There are still recipes existent that have been handed down, mostly through research of the notebooks and almanacs of ancient times. (See sources for historical brewing.)

Some ancient beer recipes have included Yarrow, Mandrake, Wormwood, Mugwort, or even Henbane. Many of these herbs have been known for many ages to offer powerful medicine, and have been rumored to be ingredients in the mythological flying potions of the witches of old.

According to Science News, new evidence has been discovered linking ancient brewing techniques to the use of Henbane, Carrot Seeds, and Mugwort. The article, “2,550-Year-Old Celtic Beer Recipe Resurrected” By Bruce Bower of Science News, was reposted at Wired.com. The article states that the evidence was found at an archaeological site being used to document Celtic tribal life in Southern Germany. The evidence found dated back 2,550 years, and consisted of what archaeologists assume was a malt producing facility that produced malt for the ancient settlement’s beer brewing.

The ‘facility’ for malting grains consisted of “Six specially constructed ditches… were used to make high-quality barley malt, a key beer ingredient, says archaeobotanist Hans-Peter Stika of the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. Thousands of charred barley grains unearthed in the ditches about a decade ago came from a large malt-making enterprise…” The article also postulates what the beer might have tasted like by quoting the Roman Emperor Julian, who, in a 1,600 year old poem, described the experience of the smell of Celtic beer as smelling “like a billy goat.” With modern brewing technology, I would hope that we can attempt to re-create these kinds of beers - without the goaty smell and taste.

The inebriated effect of Wormwood is most notably expressed in the drink Absinthe, which has been illegal for some time, but is making a revival. According to some legends, disreputable innkeepers would put wormwood in beer that was going sour to mask the bad beer taste with the herbs bitterness. Yet other brewers would add the Wormwood, not only for it taste, but also the inebriatory effects of the plant, which some ethno botanists say is possibly due to the Thujone content. Thujones are also present in the Yarrow plant, which has attained mythological status as the healing plant used to treat the wound of Achilles. Mythological and topical healing qualities aside, it is quite possible that the ancient brewers had discovered the Yarrow plant’s intoxicating qualities through experimentation.

One great resource for determining what kind of herbal admixtures to try out is “Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers” by S. H. Bruhner. This books lists many different ancient beer recipes, almost none of which contain the ingredients list mandated by the Reinheitsgebot. The book also discusses the cultural context in which the beers were brewed and imbibed, including mythological references to the plants that are included in the recipes and mythological references to the drinks themselves in some cases.

The book talks about beer in broad strokes, using the word beer to refer to alcoholic beverages made with base sugars from corn, agave, honey, rice, saguaro cactus pulp, and with many other unconventional but ancient techniques. The herbal admixtures mentioned in the book include Heather, Calamus, Wormwood, and Anise, just to mention a few. There is an index at the back of the book of herbs that have been known to be used in brewing Meads in the middle ages, and that section alone is ten pages. I used this book as my brewing bible for the first five years of my home brewing hobby.

Keep in mind that if you do decide to use intoxicating herbs in your beers, as a matter of course, remind anyone you serve this beer to that it is a highly inebriating herbal beer, and may cause uneasiness, hallucinations, and other weirdness. Not to do so could lead to dangerous situations, including both mental and physical health complications. Some people are allergic to Nightshades, and can have such strong reactions as Anaphylactic shock – which requires a trip to the emergency room for most folks. So be careful and try not to poison yourself or anyone else.

/	Christian Lavender is a homebrewer in Austin, TX and founder of Kegerators.com and HomeBrewing.com.