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Author Topic: need recipe for my garden basil  (Read 4206 times)

Offline WingTsunDummy

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need recipe for my garden basil
« on: August 29, 2012, 06:37:02 am »
HI all
I was hoping for some advice on how to incorporate my garden grown sweet basil into a beer.

Anyone have a good recipe that uses basil?
Perhaps a basil wheat beer? honey basil wheat? lemon basil wheat? something else?

I have never brewed with herbs or spices, so when do I add it? dried or fresh?  how much (I want the basil to be pronounced flavor)

How hoppy should it be?  I always though fruited beers were low in hops, would this also apply to herb beers?

Any help, thoughts, guidance, etc would be helpful.  I brew with DME and steeping grains.

thanks in advance





Offline morticaixavier

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Re: need recipe for my garden basil
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2012, 08:39:43 am »
Honey basil ale is the classic example. Bison brewing in California makes a good one.

go subtle, I did a brew with lots of basil and it smelled and tasted alot like tomato sauce. I wouldn't boil it and use fresh, maybe 'dry' basil in the primary after most of the fermentation is complete. a couple oz fresh weight would likely be plenty.

Add honey part way through primary fermentation as well to try and preserve some aroma, maybe some honey malt, although I have not used it so I can't really speak to that.
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Offline hoser

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Re: need recipe for my garden basil
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2012, 09:02:50 am »
Trade Winds Tripel from the Bruery is another example.  However, they use Thai Basil.

I have used Thai basil a couple of times.  Similar, yet different from sweet basil.  But, they can be used the same.

The way the Bruery does it, and I do the same, is to use about 2/3 to 3/4 of the flowers with the remaining 1/3 to 1/4 of your total weight being the basil leaves.  Roughly about 1/4 or about 7-8grams total for 5 gallons.  Throw them in at flame out and steep for 10 minutes.  I think using a couple ounces would be a lot!  I get plenty of flavor and aroma with 8g/5gallons.

I wouldn't use over 1/4 oz hops as a late addition, probably something with some citrus notes.  Mainly just a bittering charge for most of your IBUs in the 20-30 range.

So for a DME recipe to make a Belgian golden-style ale would be roughtly 80-85% Pilsner DME/LME and 15-20% sugar.

Lemon, wheat, and honey could be used as well.  You are only limited by your imagination ;D  I made a Thai-spice fusion saison AKA Thaison with Thai basil, kaffir lime leaves, corriander, lemongrass, and ginger.  It tastes fantastic!

Offline erockrph

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Re: need recipe for my garden basil
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2012, 07:12:09 am »
If you use a light hand, basil might be a nice highlight to a beer with a lot of nutty malt character. I'm thinking something like a Nut Brown Ale or Brown Porter maybe. Something where the main malt character is coming from Brown Malt, Victory, Biscuit, etc. You could probably pull off an English Pale Ale as well.

If I were trying it for the first time, I would steep the basil after primary fermentation is finished. Put them in a hop bag and taste frequently. I think basil could probably get overpowering pretty easily.

Here's a WAG at what I'd do with it:

Basil Pale Ale
85% Marris Otter
10% Victory
5% Crystal-60
Shoot for 1.060ish
30 IBU Magnum at 60 min
10 IBU EKG at 10 min
1 oz EKG @ flameout
English-style ale yeast of choice
Add a small amount of basil in a hop bag after ~10 days in primary and taste daily. Pull basil when it gets the right balance.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer