Gruit
Encyclopedia
Gruit is an old-fashioned herb
mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer
, popular before the extensive use of hops
. Gruit or grut ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit.
Gruit was a combination of herbs, some of the most common being mildly to moderately narcotic: sweet gale (Myrica gale
), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris
), yarrow
(Achillea millefolium), ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea
), horehound (Marrubium vulgare
), and heather
(Calluna vulgaris). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer including different herbs to produce unique flavors and effects. Other adjunct herbs included black henbane, juniper berries
, ginger
, caraway
seed, aniseed, nutmeg
, cinnamon
, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative
qualities.
Some traditional types of unhopped beer such as sahti
in Finland
, which is spiced with juniper berries
and twigs, have survived the advent of hops, although gruit itself has not.
The 1990s microbrewery
movement in the USA and Europe saw a renewed interest in unhopped beers and several have tried their hand at reviving ales brewed with gruits, or plants that once were used in it. Commercial examples include Fraoch (using heather flowers, sweet gale and ginger) and Alba (using pine
twigs and spruce
buds) from Williams Brothers in Scotland; Myrica (using sweet gale) from O'Hanlons in England; Gageleer (also using sweet gale) from Proefbrouwerij in Belgium; Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittany (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops); Artemis from Moonlight Brewing Company
in Santa Rosa, California (using mugwort and wild bergamot
, Monarda fistulosa, also known as bee balm or horsemint); and Bog•Water from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
in Vankleek Hill, Ontario
, Canada (using Bog Myrtle).
) and the late 16th century (Great Britain
). In 16th century Britain, a distinction was made between ale, which was unhopped, and beer, brought by Dutch merchants, which was hopped. Currently, however, ale
usually refers to beer produced through a top-fermentation process, not unhopped beer.
The phasing out of gruit from brewing is linked to various factors. A possible political factor would be the general emancipation of princes (mainly German) from the political influence of the Roman Catholic Church
in a movement that eventually was to lead to Martin Luther
's protestations turning into a fully-fledged uprising of those princes against the authority of Rome, in what is known as the Reformation
. Princes wanting to undermine the power of the Church therefore tended to promote brewing with hops rather than gruit, to try to cut off this revenue for the monastic orders who had a monopoly on it.
Some authors present the switch to hops as a Protestant crackdown on feisty Catholic tradition, and as a Puritan move to keep people from enjoying themselves with aphrodisiac and stimulating gruit ales by imposing the sedative
effects of hops instead. However, the switch to hops started in Germany some four or five centuries before the Reformation. Its later gradual enforcement in the 15th and early 16th centuries can in part be traced through legislation drafted by political rulers before the Reformation started.
For example, the Bavarian Purity Law
, which stipulates that the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops, dates from 1516, the year before Martin Luther
initiated the Reformation by posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg
. Earlier still, in 1434, the Statuta Thaberna in Weissensee, Thuringia
, already restricted beer brewing ingredients to malt, water and hops.
Another factor behind switching from gruit to hops may have been concern about public health. With stimulating, psychotropic and ultimately poisonous plants such as henbane
(Hyoscyamus niger) or even deadly nightshade
(Atropa belladonna) being used routinely in brewing, local lords tended to want to edict a workable rule-of-thumb for the spicing of beer, preferably using a single, non-toxic herb which would be easier to monitor than a complex mix. Hops are easily cultivated in much of continental Europe and, their innocuousness being relatively clear, were ideally suited to the task.
The use of hops also has the advantage, in perception or fact, that beer made with hops lasts longer and resists spoilage better than that made with gruit. For example, as recently as the late 19th century, India Pale Ale
was developed with a higher alcohol and hops content to withstand the voyage from England to India. This preservative effect is thought to have had a large impact on the early movement to switch over, although other plants commonly used in gruit mixes, for example sage, rosemary
or bog myrtle, also have antiseptic
properties likely to extend the shelf life
of beer.
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
, popular before the extensive use of hops
Hop (plant)
Humulus, Hop, is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The female flowers of H. lupulus are known as hops, and are used as a culinary flavoring and stabilizer, especially in the brewing of beer...
. Gruit or grut ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit.
Gruit was a combination of herbs, some of the most common being mildly to moderately narcotic: sweet gale (Myrica gale
Myrica gale
Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the genus Myrica, native to northern and western Europe and parts of northern North America. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 1–2 m tall. Common names include Bog Myrtle and Sweet Gale...
), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia vulgaris is one of several species in the genus Artemisia which have common names that include the word mugwort. This species is also occasionally known as Felon Herb, Chrysanthemum Weed, Wild Wormwood, Old uncle Henry, Sailor's Tobacco, Naughty Man, Old Man or St...
), yarrow
Yarrow
Achillea millefolium or yarrow is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo, or "little feather", for the shape of the leaves. In antiquity, yarrow was known as herbal militaris, for its use in...
(Achillea millefolium), ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea
Glechoma hederacea
Glechoma hederacea is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family Lamiaceae. It is commonly known as Ground-ivy, gill-over-the-ground or Creeping Charlie. It has numerous medicinal uses, and is commonly used as a tasty salad green in many countries...
), horehound (Marrubium vulgare
Marrubium vulgare
Marrubium vulgare is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, northern Africa and Asia....
), and heather
Calluna
Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
(Calluna vulgaris). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer including different herbs to produce unique flavors and effects. Other adjunct herbs included black henbane, juniper berries
Juniper berry
A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which give it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice,...
, ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
, caraway
Caraway
Caraway also known as meridian fennel, or Persian cumin is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe and Northern Africa....
seed, aniseed, nutmeg
Nutmeg
The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...
, cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
qualities.
Some traditional types of unhopped beer such as sahti
Sahti
Sahti is a traditional beer from Finland made from a variety of grains, malted and unmalted, including barley, rye, wheat, and oats; sometimes bread made from these grains is fermented instead of malt itself...
in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, which is spiced with juniper berries
Juniper berry
A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales, which give it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of species, especially Juniperus communis, are used as a spice,...
and twigs, have survived the advent of hops, although gruit itself has not.
The 1990s microbrewery
Microbrewery
A microbrewery or craft brewer is a brewery which produces a limited amount of beer, and is associated by consumers with innovation and uniqueness....
movement in the USA and Europe saw a renewed interest in unhopped beers and several have tried their hand at reviving ales brewed with gruits, or plants that once were used in it. Commercial examples include Fraoch (using heather flowers, sweet gale and ginger) and Alba (using pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
twigs and spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
buds) from Williams Brothers in Scotland; Myrica (using sweet gale) from O'Hanlons in England; Gageleer (also using sweet gale) from Proefbrouwerij in Belgium; Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittany (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops); Artemis from Moonlight Brewing Company
Moonlight Brewing Company
The Moonlight Brewing Company is an American microbrewery founded in 1992 by Brian Hunt in Santa Rosa, California, USA. It is known for its flagship beer, Death & Taxes, which is popular in Sonoma County, California...
in Santa Rosa, California (using mugwort and wild bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Wild bergamot or Bee Balm is a wildflower in the mint family widespread and abundant as a native plant in much of North America. This plant, with showy summer-blooming white flowers, is often used as a honey plant, medicinal plant, and garden ornamental...
, Monarda fistulosa, also known as bee balm or horsemint); and Bog•Water from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company, also known as Beau's Brewing Company or simply Beau's, is a microbrewery located in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, 50 minutes east of Ottawa....
in Vankleek Hill, Ontario
Vankleek Hill, Ontario
Vankleek Hill is a community in Champlain township in eastern Ontario, situated south of Hawkesbury on Highway 34.This agricultural based community became a thriving community in the 1890s and still retains many of the buildings and structures which were present then...
, Canada (using Bog Myrtle).
Historical context
The exclusive use of gruit was gradually phased out in favor of the use of hops alone in a slow sweep across Europe occurring between the 11th century (in the south and east of the Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
) and the late 16th century (Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
). In 16th century Britain, a distinction was made between ale, which was unhopped, and beer, brought by Dutch merchants, which was hopped. Currently, however, ale
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
usually refers to beer produced through a top-fermentation process, not unhopped beer.
The phasing out of gruit from brewing is linked to various factors. A possible political factor would be the general emancipation of princes (mainly German) from the political influence of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in a movement that eventually was to lead to Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
's protestations turning into a fully-fledged uprising of those princes against the authority of Rome, in what is known as the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. Princes wanting to undermine the power of the Church therefore tended to promote brewing with hops rather than gruit, to try to cut off this revenue for the monastic orders who had a monopoly on it.
Some authors present the switch to hops as a Protestant crackdown on feisty Catholic tradition, and as a Puritan move to keep people from enjoying themselves with aphrodisiac and stimulating gruit ales by imposing the sedative
Sedative
A sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....
effects of hops instead. However, the switch to hops started in Germany some four or five centuries before the Reformation. Its later gradual enforcement in the 15th and early 16th centuries can in part be traced through legislation drafted by political rulers before the Reformation started.
For example, the Bavarian Purity Law
Reinheitsgebot
The Reinheitsgebot , sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law" in English, was a regulation concerning the production of beer in Germany. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley and hops...
, which stipulates that the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops, dates from 1516, the year before Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
initiated the Reformation by posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg
Wittenberg
Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....
. Earlier still, in 1434, the Statuta Thaberna in Weissensee, Thuringia
Weißensee, Thuringia
Weißensee is a town in the district of Sömmerda, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 6 km northwest of Sömmerda, and 25 km north of Erfurt.-History:...
, already restricted beer brewing ingredients to malt, water and hops.
Another factor behind switching from gruit to hops may have been concern about public health. With stimulating, psychotropic and ultimately poisonous plants such as henbane
Henbane
Henbane , also known as stinking nightshade or black henbane, is a plant of the family Solanaceae that originated in Eurasia, though it is now globally distributed.-Toxicity and historical usage:...
(Hyoscyamus niger) or even deadly nightshade
Deadly nightshade
Atropa belladonna or Atropa bella-donna, commonly known as Belladonna, Devil's Berries, Death Cherries or Deadly Nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane...
(Atropa belladonna) being used routinely in brewing, local lords tended to want to edict a workable rule-of-thumb for the spicing of beer, preferably using a single, non-toxic herb which would be easier to monitor than a complex mix. Hops are easily cultivated in much of continental Europe and, their innocuousness being relatively clear, were ideally suited to the task.
The use of hops also has the advantage, in perception or fact, that beer made with hops lasts longer and resists spoilage better than that made with gruit. For example, as recently as the late 19th century, India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835...
was developed with a higher alcohol and hops content to withstand the voyage from England to India. This preservative effect is thought to have had a large impact on the early movement to switch over, although other plants commonly used in gruit mixes, for example sage, rosemary
Rosemary
Rosemary, , is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which includes many other herbs, and is one of two species in the genus Rosmarinus...
or bog myrtle, also have antiseptic
Antiseptic
Antiseptics are antimicrobial substances that are applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction...
properties likely to extend the shelf life
Shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine, chemicals, and many other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption...
of beer.
See also
- AdjunctsAdjunctsAdjuncts are unmalted grains used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredient , often with the intention of cutting costs, but sometimes to create an additional feature, such as better foam retention.- Definition :Ingredients which are standard for certain beers, such as wheat in a...
- Spruce beerSpruce beerSpruce beer is a beverage flavored with the buds, needles, or essence of spruce trees. Spruce beer can refer to either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages....
- Prohibition (drugs)Prohibition (drugs)The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent drug use. Prohibition of drugs has existed at various levels of government or other authority from the Middle Ages to the present....
- Walter de GruyterWalter de GruyterWalter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG is a scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. Its origins date back to 1749 when it was given the right to print books by King Frederick II of Prussia. -De Gruyter Mouton:...
(the old occupational surname "de Gruyter" means "the gruit-beer maker" in Low GermanLow GermanLow German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
)
External links
- Gruit history, brewing and recipes at gruitale.com
- Gruit recipe from Sean Sweeney
- Gruit recipe from Patrick Kaeding
- A Modern Brewer's Take on Gruit