Foraged beer: a new trend for 2017?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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In the past five years, the number of microbreweries has spiked by 73 per cent across Europe. The UK specifically has seen an 8 per cent rise in the last year to around 1,700, while the US witnessed a 15 per cent climb in 2015 to 4,296. Leading the charge in foraged beer is the Scratch Brewing Company which has been running for four years in rural Ava, Illinois. In late 2016, the firm released its The Homebrewer's Almanac: A seasonal guide to brewing with 36 different plants

People want beer that is imaginative, created locally, and high-quality – or so the huge rise in microbreweries across the globe suggests. And if 2016 was the year of craft beer, 2017 might just be the time for foraged beers to take centre stage in the world of artisan brewing. But hey, is it really new? Perhaps mushroom beer is (well, I haven't come across it yet)?

Source: The Independent. Read more here
 
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Nothing new about it - people have been making beer from whatever was available for centuries [and maybe millennia]. There is a theory that farming began not so that people could make boring old bread :headshake:but so that there was always a good supply of the most reliable a simple to use ingredients for beer :woot: after all you need a heck of a lot of mushrooms to make a decent pint.
 
The main reason for old-fashioned Scottish beers being decidedly sweet is the simple reason that hops do not grow here. Thus, malt prevailed and beers were naturally sweeter. Personally, I prefer my beer to be bitter, but it would be dull if we all wanted the same thing. Hops are imported from all over the world these days, but there are still a few brewers that use older methods: Williams Brothers, notably, brew a heather ale called Fraoch, a seaweed beer (Kelpie), a strong ale called Alba which uses sprigs of spruce and pine, along with beers using gooseberries and elderberries. The Isle of Skye brewery makes Skye Gold (formerly known as Hebridean Gold), made with porridge oats.
 
Duck59 said:
The main reason for old-fashioned Scottish beers being decidedly sweet is the simple reason that hops do not grow here. Thus, malt prevailed and beers were naturally sweeter. Personally, I prefer my beer to be bitter, but it would be dull if we all wanted the same thing. Hops are imported from all over the world these days, but there are still a few brewers that use older methods: Williams Brothers, notably, brew a heather ale called Fraoch, a seaweed beer (Kelpie), a strong ale called Alba which uses sprigs of spruce and pine, along with beers using gooseberries and elderberries. The Isle of Skye brewery makes Skye Gold (formerly known as Hebridean Gold), made with porridge oats.
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Bitter is better I think. Thats what I prefer. My friend likes sweeter beer. I don't understand it really. he like Belgian beers which have all sorts of fruit added. But i like the sound of spruce and pine in beer. that wouldn't be sweet.
 
alexander said:
Bitter is better I think. Thats what I prefer. My friend likes sweeter beer. I don't understand it really. he like Belgian beers which have all sorts of fruit added. But i like the sound of spruce and pine in beer. that wouldn't be sweet.
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I had a night of drinking Belgian beers. I don't want to do that again!
 
Duck59 said:
Williams Brothers, notably, brew a heather ale called Fraoch, a seaweed beer (Kelpie), a strong ale called Alba which uses sprigs of spruce and pine, along with beers using gooseberries and elderberries. The Isle of Skye brewery makes Skye Gold (formerly known as Hebridean Gold), made with porridge oats.
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Fraoch, Alba and Hebridean gold (wondered what had happened to it) are all form favourites of mine.

Australia is useless at beer...
 
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