Sage ale

[Druss]

After doing a lot of reading up on 'gruit' ales, and not being patient enough for my Coopers Dark Ale kit to arrive, I started some sage ale in the meantime using this recipe:

Water to one gallon
453g malt extract
453g brown sugar
1 Oz fresh sage
1/2 Oz licorice root
Yeast

Hopefully this won't end in disaster, its my first ever attempt at brewing beer so fingers crossed :?

 

[Cononthebarber]

Now that is an interesting idea, I love the smell and taste of sage in food. Never thought of its use in brewing...I will be interested to see how this turns out...good work on the experiment :thumb:

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Interesting.

 

[thedrayman]

I attempted to make a Sage ale about fifteen years ago and it turned out to be one of my few 'failures'. Unlike my later brews, which I cask, I bottled the sage ale and it just never cleared. I even found a bottle last year during our house move and it still hadn't cleared. All 'points' where reached correctly during the making (strike temperature, mash temp, length of boil, etc.) and the only thing I can think of which caused the cloudiness, is the sage itself. Sage does seem to be a bit 'oily' compared to other herbs I've used so I'm wondering if that was the problem.

I do wish you luck with your brew and hope it comes out okay (I'd like to be proved wrong, as I do love the flavour of sage and would consider having another go at a brew with it). My best 'herb' beer was made with Basil which, to me, is very similar in taste to hops.

 

[Druss]

I had considered doing a basil version but it was all a bit spur of the moment and I had some sage growing in the garden. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on gruit ale but I have high hopes for this, it's now developed a thick white foam inside the demijohn and the airlock is bubbling like crazy.

 

[thedrayman]

Good luck with it, Deano. If it turns out okay I'm 'up-for-a-taster' as I'm in Gosport too. :

 

[Druss]

Ah, where abouts? I live in Leesland.

 

[thedrayman]

Victoria Street, just down from the Five Alls.

I've been full-mash brewing for over 35 years now and am in the process of 'going legal', so I can supply a couple of the local pubs with my ales (see viewtopic.php?f=13&t=39915).

If you need any help or hints-and-tips, I'm happy to help if I can (although it's been a long time since I brewed with malt extract), just PM me or email me at the address on my website. http://www.newtownbrewery.co.uk

Cheers

 

[Druss]

Ah, I know it well, I quite often walk past there on the way into town.

That's quite a setup you have there :shock: my arrangement is quite the opposite, just making room in my draughty old shed and hoping its not too cold to brew in there lol. I've been brewing wines for a while now (on and off for the last fifteen years or so but just got into it properly recently) but this is my first stab at beer brewing. I've been an ale drinker for a long time so I finally plucked up the courage to attempt my own. Moved the whole operation into the shed recently as SWMBO is t-total and 'hates the smell of alcohol' :thumb:

Good luck with the 'going legal' thing, I can only imagine how complicated a venture that must be.

 

[Druss]

Opened the first bottle of this today (only managed to get four 500ml bottle out of the whole lot, inexperience and an unfortunate spillage incident led to the small yield) and I'm pleasantly surprised. My first instinct was 'wow this is strong!' (it turned out at around 8% ABV) but the flavour is strangely nice and seems to change over the course of a mouthful (if that makes any sense). The sage flavour is still noticeably present but with a definite malty note to it. Just the right level of fizzines and crystal clear too, I think I may put another batch on as soon as possible.

 

[thedrayman]

Well done, Deano, sounds like you did 'good'. :thumb:

 

[pintpuller]

Ooh,
never heard of sage beer, would it work with other herbs? I love thyme, especially lemon thyme, I wonder if I could do a brew with that... I've plenty growing in garden and seedlings the greenhouse.
Off to do some googling!

:)

 

[Crawfordid]

Have you made any more sage recipes? Going to try a combination of sage beers over the next few weeks as a little experiement! What sort of malt extract did you use?