Against All Hops: Techniques and Philosophy for Creating Extraordinary Botanical Beers

Description

This revolutionary brewing guide features unique botanical beers brewed without hops for a distinct, invigorating flavor. The technique is highlighted by George "Butch" Heilshorn, who brews this ancient ale regularly for his popular brewery in Portsmouth, NH, Earth Eagle Brewings. This throwback to traditional German brewing is technique-based and full of unexpected flavors that will blow a brewer's mind and palate. Butch serves the beer to packed crowds of beer enthusiasts. This back-to-the-future brewing features gruits -beers brewed with little or no hops- that rely on foraged roots, herbs and spices to flavor beer. These unique ingredients give the beer earthy, herbal notes instead of hops, fruit and spruce. At the brewery, a forager collects from woods, swamps and seacoasts for ingredients that provide an expression of locale; a reflection of time and place. Home brewers and professionals, looking for different flavor choices, can expand their horizons and push their brewing to new places with this outside-the-box technique for great beer. This book features 12 main recipes plus a myriad of variations and suggestions, with 60 photographs.

George "Butch" Heilshorn and his brother-in-law run Earth Eagle Brewings, a gruit bar, in Portsmouth, NH. He lives in Maine.

"A wonderful book! Truly a pleasure to read; I can't recommend it highly enough." --Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of Sacred andHerbal Healing Beers "This book captures Butch's commitment to the uniqueflavor opportunities offered by herbs, spices, flowers, trees and fungi--and even the occasional moose's head. Providing historical notes and information on the medicinal properties of the herbs used and where to find them, Against All Hops is a practical guide which motivates us to think outside of the box and get creative with our beer." --Will Meyers, brewmaster, Cambridge Brewing Company "If you're trying to wrap your head around the rapidlyexpanding world of botanical beers, there's no better place to start than the extensive experiments in Against All Hops. It's not a rejection of hops, but a warm embrace of just about everything else."--Randy Mosher, author of RadicalBrewing, Tasting Beer, Mastering Homebrew and Beer for All Seasons "Butch throws all convention out the window on brewing beer with hops and embellishes the use of herbs and spices . . . Nothing is off limits for the gruit. Against All Hops is a fun must-read for all practitioners of brewing anything other than hop based brews, be they witches or just interested brewers."--Tod Mott, co-founder, Tributary Brewing Company "These beautiful ideas begin to uncover the whole world of beers which we have tragically lost from our human consciousness. The stagnant, monopolistic and excessive use of hops substituting for creativity in beer is hereby threatened! Long live the revolution!"--Brian Hunt, founder, Moonlight Brewing Company "A fascinating and mouthwatering look at the multiple alternatives to hops in beer that our ancestors knew all about and we havealmost forgotten. You'll put this book down not just wanting to drink the beers described inside, but brew them yourself."--Martyn Cornell, beer historian, author and blogger at Zythophile.co.uk