Well, my brother and I recently attempted an experiment that some of you may be interested in. We brewed a Red Ale with no hops. Instead, we used Yarrow. As some of you probably already know, Yarrow is an herb that was commonly used in brewing Gruit Ale, an unhopped malted barley brew which was the precursor to hopped beer. Yarrow is a flower that grows wild in many states. It is a great bittering herb.
Today, I racked my Red Gruit Ale to secondary and took a taste. Wow! Yarrow is truly an amazing herb! The ale had a good bitterness, with a subtle Yarrow flavor. I liked it quite a bit, and my wife positively loved it! I would suggest that anyone that is kinda adventurous give it a try.
I will only use this herb for bittering though, because dry herbing with it would probably produce an overwhelming taste that I wouldnt care for. But as a bittering herb, it ranks right up there with hops. In fact, the common name for Yarrow in some countries is "Field Hops".
My next brew will probably use Yarrow for bitterness, with hops flavor and aroma additions. I expect great results.

Cheers
Dave

Tags: yarrow beer, beer with yarrow, yarrow brewing

Nice!! Where do you even get it? You might have found a solution to the hop shortage.haha

I picked it up from Wildweeds. However, it was a bit costly through them. You can find Yarrow at other bulk herb stores for quite a bit less. The cheapest I think I've found is at Monterey Bay Spice Co., for $5.70 per pound.
I dont think that it is the answer to the hops shortage, however, I DO think that it is a great tool to put in the ole toolbox.
I am very interested in trying this experiment with hops flavor and aroma additions. If it works very well, then cheap, low alpha hops like the Spalt Select that Jeepguy sells, would be just about perfect. That should seriously cut the cost per batch of beer down for me.
If any of you guys do try this, please let me know what you think. All input is appreciated.

Cheers
Dave

This is for all you guys that are planting hops rhizomes or have an existing hops garden.
If you would like to plant White Yarrow in your hops garden, I've found this place to order them for relatively cheap:
http://www.easywildflowers.com/quality/ach.mille.htm
Apparently, White Yarrow grows wild in EVERY state in the US, so you may be able to find them wild wherever you live. However, White Yarrow is know to attract beneficial bugs to your garden, which would prey on Aphids and such. So, if you have problems with Aphids on your hops bines, not only will Yarrow help, but you get an additional bittering herb to boot! I'll be planting some in my hops garden this year.


Cheers
Dave

I have recently become interested in making Gruit, but I want to start by using a single spice so I can understand the characteristics of each before I move on to more complicated recipes. Is there any chance I could get your original Yarrow recipe?

Cheers,

Jazong

The recipe was just your basic Irish Red ale, but replace the hops in the boil with 1/2 ounce of Yarrow boiled for 60 minutes, and another 1/2 ounce boiled for 30. I also used 1/2 ounce of mugwort boiled for 60 minutes, but if I had to do it all over again, I'd increase to 1 ounce Yarrow (maybe 2?) for 60 minutes, and 1/2 ounce for 30 minutes, taking out the mugwort altogether. It didn't add very much bitterness to the beer, and no flavor or aroma when boiled for 60 minutes.

Also, I probably wouldn't go with Irish Red as the base beer style. Besides roasted barley, there wasn't much malt flavor. I think the Yarrow would go great with a beer with some Munich and Chocolate malt in it. Something a bit more complex than an Irish Red.

While the Yarrow makes for a nice, and altogether unusual beer, I'd definitely add some other herb in the boil at 30, 15, or 5 minutes. Maybe Coriander and Cardamom Seed, if you are unable to get your hands on the 'traditional' gruit herbs. This should add a little more complexity to your beer. The Yarrow beer gets....boring...for lack of a better word, after a few beers. A little extra spice might help make a more interesting beer. Also, a more malt driven beer would go a long way towards fixing this.

One more thing, if you plan on making a high gravity brew (the Red Ale had an OG of 1.048), I'd add more Yarrow than what I suggested above...same as if you were using hops.

Good luck with your brew!

Cheers
Dave

Very cool, let us know how the finished product is!! I know of some people that are allergic to hops. Sounds like a great beer for them.

Thanks Dave. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you I just didn't know that I would not receive replies to my own posts. I have now subscribed to this thread so I should get notifications now. Maybe I will brew a Scottish or a Strong Scotch. possibly a Winter Warmer.

Cheers,

JAson

Wow, I never really thought about a Winter Warmer. That would probably be the most optimal use for Yarrow! A Strong Scotch would also be an interesting way to go. The strong flavor that would result from the use of 3 or 4 ounces of yarrow (thats what I'd use) would really balance out the malty sweetness of that style of beer. Actually, given that you want to try using the Yarrow without any other herbs or spices, the Strong Scotch is probably the route you'd want to go. Either way, it sounds great! Let me know what recipe you end up using. I've still got a few ounces of yarrow that need to be used! I would certainly try this experiment again!

As for receiving replies to your posts, heres what you can do:
Click User Control Panel
Click the Board Preferences tab
Click Edit posting defaults
under Notify me upon replies by default - select yes

That way, any time you post to a topic, you'll get email replies for that topic.

Hope that helps

Cheers
Dave

That sounds wonderful!! I recently brewed my first gruit/beer ever and it was a Yarrow Gruit Ale, but I don't think it turned out as it has a really sour taste. I'm thinking that there was/is an infection in our gruit. This is how we brewed it: We made the mash, sparged it, boiled it (with yarrow), cooled it, put it in the fermenter, added the yeast, added yarrow in a muslin bag and let it sit for a almost two weeks. I bottled it yesterday in 12 oz bottles using 1/2 tsp of cane sugar to prime each bottle. I opened one today to see if the flavor had changed and it has not. The gruit immediately fizzed out of the bottle and then I poured it into a glass. Man, it has a sour taste. What do you think went wrong. I don't think we sanitized things properly/long enough to achieve the properly sterile environment. Hence the gruit is sour and, well sour.

Hope to hear back, cause I'm going to try it again. This time I'm going to be sterile and not let it sit in the fermenter as long. I think it the primary should be done in about 5 days as the dry yeast is really quick.

Skeyeflyer

@skeyeflyer

My gruit had the same issue. When you dry hopped it with yarrow you introduced wild yeasts and bacteria to a brew that is more easily infected. It was almost 3/4 of the year before it occured to me that that is what was happening with mine. Same principle as making lambics by adding unwashed fruit to the beer.

I suggest letting the beer age a bit. After about 6 months I tried some of mine and found I liked the sour. I used a irish red as my base, and it worked well with the sour flavor. It will still have alot of pucker power, but you might enjoy it.

I find yarrow sneaking into alot of my beers lately. In fact I have a yarrow saison aging right now.... I think I may have gone yarrow crazy with it though

I drew completely different conclusions from my grut experiment. I'm not too keen on Yarrow, I think it has a kind of dried lawn clippings taste to it. I do like mugwort though, which to me has similar aroma characteristics to Wormwood but without the overwhelming bitterness.