Gruit 2

I've got five pounds of red wheat in the oven right now, toasting into something brown. 350 degrees, for about an hour, and I'm really not going to stir it very much. I want a lot of variety from burnt to brown to barely. It's dry, too. Completely dry.

I've got this yard full of herbs and vegetables and fruit treas. I'm thinking it's time to try my hand at another gruit. A whole heap of mugwort seeds came up in the shadows of my hedge. I hope they propagate themselves there, and push out the useless weeds that were otherwise all over the place. I've also got a pretty good-looking Sweet Annie herb under my kitchen window. Sweet Annie is an Artemisia, but instead of being bitter, it has a haunting, near-sweetness that lends its name. I could even harvest off a powis castle Artemisia hybrid, if I want extra bitterness, but I think I'd rather move that plant from where it is, and let it grow larger, before I do anything with it.

After the toasting of my malts, I'm going to need to let them chill a while, and release their off-flavors. Next week, I expect to be cranking some 100% wheat, 100% artemisia gruit ale.

Just a small batch, mind you. No need to make five gallons for an experiment! I'm aiming for 2.5 gallons to ferment, for 2 gallons total in the end. Enough to share and see what people think, but not so much I'll be looking for cooking recipes and stuff.

anyway... Exciting!

I'm sipping a homebrew, at the moment, that came out much fruitier than expected, with Smaragd hops late in the boil and an amount of Special B that I thought was low enough. It's mellowing. Every day it tastes a little closer to balance. I've set six aside for July 4th, and we'll see.