Unknown flower, Molde, Norway

If you look at books on herbs, and even quite a few books on traditional brewing, it seems like just about every herb known to man has at one time been used in brewing. Which, given how many people were brewing over how long a period of time, might well be true. However, if you try tracing this information backwards to see what it's based on, you draw a blank. The only thing you see are these endlessly repeated assertions that such and such a herb was used in brewing. How reliable is that?

And as I've argued before, that a herb was used in beer is not in itself sufficient information. If one person did it once, and then never again, probably the result wasn't very good. If it became common over a bigger area, probably it worked well. Unfortunately, hardly anyone seems to have looked seriously at that.

Not only that, but we should know in what type of beer they were used, which parts of the plant were used, when to harvest it, how to add it to the beer, and how much to use. Sadly, none of the floras or beer books go into this, or, when they do, it's not based on the tradition. Which is a shame, seeing as the tradition is the result of centuries of experimentation.

This is where the 1950s survey of Norwegian farmhouse brewers comes in handy. It gives us quite a lot of data on brewing in the period 1850-1950 which we can mine to see what clues we can gather. One of the questions is "Do people remember if other plants besides hops have been used to add flavour to the beer?" Below I made a diagram counting the number of replies which say they know or think an ingredient has been used.

Diagram of survey answers

As you can see immediately, next to juniper all the other herbs are relatively rare. In fact, out of 128 answers which give enough information on this point to be useful, 125 say juniper was used. Not only that, but for all the other herbs the replies say things like "some people use it", "my grandma said she heard of people using it", or even "people must have used it in the past". Juniper, on the other hand, is explicitly included in the recipes given in almost all 125 of these replies. So the dominance of juniper is even greater than the numbers suggest.

In fact, of the other ingredients, only once do I recall seeing the ingredient mentioned as part of the recipe. In the other cases people only mention these herbs when pressed, which suggests that they don't normally use them. That matches my experience with visiting traditional brewers over the last couple of years. It also matches the dozens of recipes I've dug up from various sources. None of those mention any sorts of herbs, either.

So ingrained is the use of juniper that many respondents, when asked what's used to add flavour to the beer beyond hops, completely forget to mention the juniper. Even though they five questions later specify that, "yes, juniper infusion was always used." One hastily amends his "hops only" answer by adding "But juniper was so to speak a fundamental ingredient in brewing together with malts and hops." In other words, it's so central he doesn't even think of it as an additive.

On the headings below I'll put the number of replies in parentheses after the name.

Hops (127)

Hops in the kettle, Kaupanger, Norway

All the replies say hops were used, except one, but that reply is generally very terse and it may simply be that the respondent did not know much about brewing beer. Not entirely sure what to make of this reply. However, in general very little hops was used. So little, in fact, that it mainly served to protect against infection, and probably added very little aroma, or even bitterness. Most of the bitterness would come from the next ingredient.

Juniper (125)

Making juniper infusion, Rælingen, Norway

I've written about juniper before, and note that it's Juniperus communis, but let's recap quickly. You use branches, with green needles, usually the thinner branches. It doesn't seem to matter what time of year you collect the juniper, but people usually do it a few days before brewing. You use enough to fill the kettle pretty well, but without squeezing the juniper together. And you use it to make juniper infusion for the mashing and sparging, plus a few branches in the mash to serve as a filter.

There's a lot of variation in how people want the juniper, but at least the above is common, and works. In some parts of the country the infusion is boiled for hours, while in other parts they don't go above 80C.

Anyway, I think we can fairly conclude that while Norwegian farmhouse ale without juniper infusion is not totally anomalous, neither is it normal.

St. John's Wort (13)

In Norwegian this is called "perikum," but unfortunately it's a genus with 490 different species. Only 5 of these grow in Norway, which makes things easier, and a respondent kindly specifies the Latin name Hypericum quadrangulum. Unfortunately, that particular name is ambiguous, but from various clues I think I can establish that Hypericum maculatum, spotted St. John's-wort, is meant.

Sadly, the answers contain precious little useful information about how to use it. Most just say it used to be used, they heard of it being used, they assume it must have been used, etc. Some say it was used for colour, some for taste. One reply says it was "mixed in the malts," so presumably that means it was added to the mash. Another says it was "mixed with the beer," which seems to mean it was added after fermentation.

Here an anecdote comes in handy. The story is told of an old parson going senile who loves St. John's wort in his beer, and at a party of some sort, he happily crunches away at the flies in his beer, saying "I do so enjoy the taste of St. John's wort in my beer." The crunchy part of the plant seems to be the stem, which does give a nice red colour. So presumably whole plants were used (minus the root, obviously). And since the crunchy bits were still in there at the time of consumption, presumably the plant bits really were added after fermentation, as the reply above seemed to indicate.

One of the respondents also reports really enjoying the flavour of this herb, so I think this is one that's worth trying, particularly as it's also the most commonly mentioned.

Myrica gale (10)

This is a plant with a very long tradition for use in beer, going back to way before hops were used. In fact, it was found in Danish "proto-beer" from 1500 BC, and it's been described as historically the second main additive to beer after hops. Which I'm sure is accurate, and its use seems to have never died completely in Norway, although by 1900 it must have been quite rare.

Again details on how to use it are very sparse. One reply helpfully says "it was picked in autumn with leaves on". Several answers claim it was used to make the beer intoxicating (so you felt it in your head), and one hints that it gave headaches. This thing about headaches is repeated over and over in all kinds of historical sources from the 18th and 19th centuries, so there seems to be some substance to it. The answers don't say what part of the plant to use, but I've seen historical sources say the flowers were used, while other sources say the berries were used.

Home brewer Micro Maid made a Myrica beer for the Norwegian home brewing championship last year that won the prize for Audience Favourite. She used leaves picked in the forest, crushed in a kitchen blender, 23 grams for 26 liters of beer, boiled for 25 minutes. I tried the beer, and it really was excellent, with a lovely fruity flavour, not entirely unlike lime or yuzu. I never heard of this beer giving anyone a headache. The base beer was a helles bock brewed with lager yeast and a step mash. See recipe.

Jes Rønnow Lungskow has experimented with herbs in beer and he also says to add the Myrica during the boil, and adds that it's very bitter and fragrant. He recommends just 3-5 grams per 20-25 liters.

Achillea millefolium (7)

Known as "ryllik" in Norwegian this plant clearly has a history of use, but the replies contain nothing beyond "they used it if they didn't have enough hops" and "some used it to add flavour". Those are actually the most concrete responses.

Carraway (4)

This was traditionally a very popular plant for making herbal tea, and there is a bit more substance to the answers on this one. One reply includes it in the recipe and makes clear that you would use "a sprig" (doesn't sound like very much) in making the juniper infusion. Another says his mother used to add "a bunch" (so more than just a sprig) as part of the filter in the mash tun. A third reply says "some had a very little carraway in the beer". Whether that means they added it at the end is not clear.

I had a carraway beer at the Labietis brewpub in Riga, and thought it was quite good. From the flavour I would imagine that carraway would fit a wheat beer, or maybe even a wit.

Tansy (4)

Known as "reinfann" in Norwegian, this plant has clearly been used, but beyond two responses saying it was used to add a sharp flavour the survey tells us nothing more. Wikipedia says it smells of spice, so it might be worth a try.

The rest

Now we're down at the point where only 1-2 responses mention each ingredient, so I'll pass over the ones about which there's nothing much to say and concentrate on the ones that actually have some substance to offer.

Two replies say some people would use a little dried potato plant (the bit above ground) in the infusion to add colour. The second one goes on to add "this didn't give any good flavour, but the colour was so lovely." Hardly a ringing endorsement.

One respondent says "Others used potatoes. [unreadable] the potato beer was black in colour and so thick that it was not easy to drink."

The same respondent adds: "Some put tobacco on the bottom of the cask, but that beer wasn't [unreadable], it made you vomit." That sounds odd, because I've seen reports that tobacco was occasionally used in the Baltics and Finland. And I've had beer with a little tobacco in it with no ill effects. But maybe they used a lot. Who knows.

In short, I think we can take this survey to mean that in the period 1850-1950 additives other than hops and juniper were relatively rare. My guess would be that St. John's Wort, myrica, and carraway definitely were used to some extent, and maybe achillea, too. Unfortunately, nearly all the knowledge of how to use these herbs has disappeared, so experimentation will be needed to figure out how and where to use them.

There is, however, a good bit of evidence that there was more usage of these herbs (and a few others) in the past.

I stand by my earlier claim that farmhouse ales have a lot more to offer modern brewing on the process and normal beer style development side than with special ingredients like these. But they might still be worth a try.