Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Hi all,

First time poster, short time reader, and hopefully will be able to attend the next meeting.
Anyway...
I'm trying to find something I can brew that my wife might enjoy. She doesn't enjoy the hoppy flavors in the beers she's tried. She doesn't mind a couple of the lambics that she's had - mainly the frambois lambic, but I'm quite intimidated by what I've read about the production (wild yeasts? Wow...)

After doing a little bit of research, I think that gruit might be something she'd enjoy.
With my limited expertise and lack of equipment to do anything more than a simple grain infusion in an extract, I haven't found a good recipe that I'd feel comfortable trying to make.

Has anyone on the forums made a good gruit, and more importantly, from extract, and would like to provide hints and tips for a still fairly new brewer?

Thanks!
T. Powersox

Hi and welcome to the forum. Feel free to stop by any of the meetings.

I haven't tried to make a gruit personally. Maybe someone else can chime in. Have you thought about a fruit beer? Most are a bit easier and take less time then a sour. Sweet or melomel (fruit) meads might be another thought.

Brew on! Tom

Hello,

Welcome to the forum, and hopefully to the club. I hope you make it down to one of the meetings sometime, we have a pretty good time and the members are great resources amongst the many other benefits.

In regards to the gruit, I've had several commercially made gruits as well as made my own. I was curious what beer tasted like before hops and always looking for funky and unique brews and in this day and age gruit is pretty rare. Plus for awhile we had the hop scare so it made sense to investigate alternatives. Plus although I like hops, I don't consider myself a "hop head". Well after the experience my deduction is there is likely a reason hops have taken over in popularity of the gruits.. yes..yes.. I like history too and I know the church had something to do with it, but today's beer is much different from its elders.

First off, I'm not exactly sure what part of the hopiness your wife does not like about big IBU beers or maybe its the strong aroma. The thing you have to consider is that the gruits are just as pungent as many of the big IBU beers. The agents used in gruits can be fairly overwhelming, and if you don't use enough they can be fairly malty and sweet.

My suggesting would be to look for beers that are low on the hop scale, either the bitterness and/or aroma depending on what turns you off from hopped beers. I love the aromas of a big NW citrusy hopped beer, but don't look forward to the bitterness.

There are tons of great beers out there that don't have lots hot hop character, try a fruit beer, blonde, scottish beers, belgian wit, mild, ciders, meads, berliner..etc. Lots to play with before you need to get to gruits.

I know this doesn't answer your question but when I first started brewing I tried making a few beers my wife would like too. Basically they were clones of commercial beers she likes (Boulevard Wheat, Blue Moon, etc). Of course, they never turned out exactly like the commercial brews, so she wasn't too big into them. In the end, I ended up drinking most of those beers anyway. Now, I just make sure we have on hand the commercial beers she likes and I just brew for myself. Its far more enjoyable that way.

Otherwise, my suggestion would be to figure out what styles she likes and go from there. If neither of you are sure what styles she likes, go get a few mixer sixers at hy vee or benz of a lot of assorted styles and do some experimenting.

Step 1: Fill corny keg with margaritas
Step 2: Tell her you brewed Tequiza for her
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Get laid


Welcome to the board. Hope to see you at a meeting.

How long have you been brewing? If you are just starting out I wouldn't try something unusual like a gruit or lambic until you get the process down. Too many things can go wrong with a simple beer, so if you are trying to do something odd you might have a hard time figuring out flaws or odd flavors.

Like others suggested, I'd try a blonde ale or a cream ale. Look for one of those fruit infuser pitchers like Tom Burns uses. You can experiment with different fruits or fruit mixtures to figure out what she likes. That way you are not throwing away the whole batch if it doesn't work out.

I'm still fairly new at brewing - have my third batch (ever) sitting in primary right now. 1st batch served its purpose as a means to cook brats, the second batch is drinkable but with some off flavors (should hopefully be able to make the tech meeting where off flavors are discussed... if it's allowable for a not-yet-member to bring a bottle for dissection, I'll bring a couple), and I hope this 3rd batch ends up a lot better. Fingers crossed.

T. Powersox

brownbeard wrote:Step 1: Fill corny keg with margaritas
Step 2: Tell her you brewed Tequiza for her
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Get laid


Welcome to the board. Hope to see you at a meeting.

A friend does kegged margs on his pontoon boat. It can be quite the party starter.

tompb wrote:

brownbeard wrote:Step 1: Fill corny keg with margaritas
Step 2: Tell her you brewed Tequiza for her
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Get laid


Welcome to the board. Hope to see you at a meeting.

A friend does kegged margs on his pontoon boat. It can be quite the party starter.

That guy at NHC last year had a keg of mohitos. That was good too.

I've contemplated a keg of dark-and-stormies (good ginger ale, dark rum, and lime juice) w/ home-made ginger ale. That seems a little too dangerous to have on tap.

TappedOut wrote:I've contemplated a keg of dark-and-stormies (good ginger ale, dark rum, and lime juice) w/ home-made ginger ale. That seems a little too dangerous to have on tap.

No more dangerous then a big beer!