In brewing’s contemporary landscape of attention-seeking India pale ales, it seems out of the four primary ingredients that constitute “beer”—malt, water, yeast, and hops—it's the hops, hops, and more hops that are getting the most attention. Like gin, which can be flavoured by any number of different things but which must utilize juniper to be labelled as such, the inclusion of hops is a legal pre-requisite to market beer in some countries.
But this wasn't always so. In fact, this hop requirement is vexing from a broader historical perspective, as beer dates back to the early Neolithic age, while hop usage in brewing is a significantly newer phenomenon, at roughly 1,000 years old.
Prior to this standardization of recipes to require hops, a miscellany of local bittering flowers, herbs, and spices—known as a gruit—were used to flavor and preserve beer, without which, the fermented wort would remain unseasoned, unbalanced, and insipid (again, much like gin). Common botanicals included rosemary, myrtle, yarrow, and wormwood, as well as lavender, nettle, lemon balm, sage, and fennel seed. Like hops, the melange of wild and medicinal herbs provided flavour as well as antiseptic properties to keep unwanted micro-organisms at bay.
These traditional hopless ales, also known as gruits, meld well with today’s foodie priorities—think local and foraged, with botanicals that change with the seasons. Below, find seven unique examples from modern craft brewers that are equally as good as a complex, cold-weather brew as they are refreshing in hotter weather. They run the flavour gamut in showcasing proprietary blends of hop substitutes, while including just enough of those ubiquitous green cones to appease government entities.
De Garde Fleur Desay
While Oregon’s De Garde is most well-regarded for its juice-like sour fruit beers, some of its most exciting offerings are more subtle farm house releases. For its gruit Fleur Desay, a flowery character is supported by a tart underpinning and woody background, courtesy of maturation in Chardonnay oak barrels. This oddity’s for the wine lovers out there.
Dupont Cervesia
Belgium’s revered Brasserie Dupont produces what is generally considered the archetypal saison. Its traditional Cervesia has the same flawless yeasty, farmhouse character as the rest of its portfolio, while surprising on the palate with many herbs and spices. Drink it as a terrific apéritif, yielding notes of black pepper, clove, and mint.
Freigeist + Kissmeyer Solo Gruit Vibrations
Solo Gruit Vibrations is a set of two separate recipes, a light and dark, brewed in collaboration between Germany’s experimental Freigeist and Danish cult favourite Kissmeyer. The pale-coloured riff contains seabuckthorn, bitter oranges, and rosehips and tastes citric and herbal. The dark-hued version utilizes lavender, rosehips, spruce twigs, and elderberries and is more tart and rather toasty.