Gruit: Beer Gone Hopless
To some, beer without hops makes about as much sense as a beach without sand. One of the driving forces of the craft beer explosion over the past decade has been hops pushed to the limits of what our palates can take.
I remember having a C-Note Imperial IPA at New Old Lompoc in Portland in the fall of 2007. It was one my first over-the-top-hopped IPAs at 100 IBU, and it totally blew my mind. I fell in love and began my personal quest for hops.
I still love their flavor and character, but once you reach the a certain point in your journey, it’s hard to find anything truly revolutionary in the world of hops. What is a beer explorer to do? Perhaps the answer lies far in the past, to a style of beer long forgotten.
Beer traces its roots back for more than 10,000 years. However, the use of hops in beer only dates back to around the 11th century. Widespread use of hops didn’t really catch on until the 15th and 16th centuries. So what did brewers do before hops?
In the olden days, brewers would use all sorts of herbs and spices to flavor their beer. One particular style of herbal beer, popular in medieval Europe, was called gruit. The base herbs used in gruit usually consisted of bog myrtle, rosemary and yarrow. Recipes and references to gruit vary widely as to other herbs used, and the exact proportions were generally kept secret by church authorities.
(Quick tangent: The politics of gruit are interesting. Apparently, the church at the time required that all beer be made to the gruit style, but they didn’t give out the recipe, thus creating a beer monopoly for the church. If you wanted beer, you had to go to the church. It was, in effect, a beer tax. There are some theories that the Reinheitsgebot required the use of hops as the only acceptable herb in beer as a form of retaliation against the church’s gruit. The Reinheitsgebot was passed as law in 1516, one year before Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, thus beginning The Reformation. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.)
Other herbs used in gruit depended on what grew in region in which the beer was brewed. Gruit could have included sweet gale, mugwort, juniper berries, heather, ginger, caraway seeds, aniseed, bay leaves, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Aside from politics, one of the other contributing factors to the demise of gruit was the occasional use of toxic plants or herbs that gave patrons a slightly different buzz than they were used to, and could make them sick. That was primary motivation to the Reinheitsgebot, as laws were put in place to assure consumers that they knew exactly what they were drinking.
On a personal note, I will attest that the couple gruits I’ve made have had somewhat of a stimulant effect. It was certainly a different type of buzz, even after just one. (I promise that nothing illegal went into those beers.)
Since there is very little historical documentation about gruit, and it’s an uncommon style that few modern-day brewers have attempted, getting the amounts and proportions of the herbs right can be tricky. I’ve homebrewed two gruits, and while each turned out drinkable, they were a little on the medicinal side.
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| In the “herb lab,” preparing ingredients to go in the gruit. |
I can imagine the miracle “tonics” of the early 20th century coming out something like this. “Step right up, try my miracle gruit tonic! It cures everything: influenza, sore throats, chicken pox, the gout, and rheumatism! You will be more alert, and it will even make your hair shinier! Step right up!”
There are not many commercial examples of the style today, but they are poping up here and there. Though not a true gruit, Alba Scots Pine Ale was the first hopless beer I had tried. New Holland, Cigar City and Dogfish Head have also tried their hand at gruits and hopless beers.
The craft beer world is driven by experimentation and the quest to find the “next big thing.” Now that hops and alcohol content have been thoroughly explored and pushed to their limits, is it possible that the future of beer lies in a modern twist on this forgotten style?
The possibilities are endless. There is an entire world of herbs and spices that can add new layers of adventure to the beer we drink. I’m not implying hops will go away, but I’ve had some excellent beer brewed with basil, camomile, juniper, mint, pepper, cardamom… the list goes on and on.
I doubt traditional gruits will become the rage some day, but I think that we can learn a lot from them and come up with some interesting flavor combinations today. It takes creativity, experimentation and a willingness to fail in order to develop a tasty herbed beer.
I, for one, am looking forward to what the boldest of brewers have in store for us beyond the hops.
For those curious, here is the recipe for the latest gruit I brewed earlier this summer. Credit also goes out to General Lordisimo, who was co-brewer with me in this effort. Be warned, it’s heavy on the cardamom and juniper.
11 lbs 2-row
4.5 lbs Munich
2 lbs wheat
0.5 lbs peat smoked 2-row
0.5 lbs roasted barley
Mashed at 148 deg for 60 min.
60 min:
15 bay leaves
0.5 oz star anise
30 min:
1.5 oz crushed juniper berries
1.0 oz cardamom
2 g sweet gale
0.25 oz caraway seeds
0.5 oz rosemary
10 min:
1.5 oz crushed juniper berries
2 g sweet gale
0.5 oz rosemary
1 oz fresh ginger
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
OG: 1.052
32 Comments to “Gruit: Beer Gone Hopless”
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I have some trouble with your use of historical data.
First, “gruit/gruut” is mediaeval Flemish/Dutch. I have never heard the German or English pendant words. The taxes on gruut in Flanders were definitely in the hands of the laic lords – not the church. In Brugge, you can find the “Gruuthuuse”, now a museum – the house of the Lords of the Gruut.
I would really like to see the text of the German Catholic church on hops.
The more as one, if not the very first description of hops as an alternative for other herbs in beer, comes from Hildegarde von Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess… That’s the first half of the 12th century, 400 years before the Reinheitsgebot…
Oh, and the prime motivation of the Reinheitsgebot wasn’t anywhere consumers’ protection. In fact, it was double: 1) if the brewers could only use hops, the taxes were easier to collect for the Archduke,
2) the restriction to barleymalt (as opposed to wheatmalt) was at least as important: the bakers were pressing duke Wilhelm, as the (richer) brewers were buying all the wheat, whereas the barley was of no use in the bakeries.
[...] what a “Gruit” is in a great article by my fellow HopPress writer Brian Cendrowski called “Gruit: Beer Gone Hopless”. Though I am, without any doubt, an unrepentant hop head, I did not miss the hops one bit in [...]
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