Subbing dandelions for bittering hops

I've seen a couple recipes that advocate this as a historic style, and it makes sense: dandilions are bitter, and you'd be boiling off the taste and aroma just as with Hops. IM probably going to try it regardless, but has anyone else done such a thing? Might be able to save some money on hops and weed the garden at the same time.

What style should I try this with? Informed opinions are just as welcome as experience.

EDIT: who am I kidding, this is HBT, uninformed opinion is often the most fun. Bring it on.

No experience with dandelions, but my grandfather used to make dandelion wine on the farm... it was moderately bitter if I recall (been more than 15 years since I tasted it). I think it would work just fine... I would be wary though if you have fertilized or chemically treated your lawn recently, and maybe steer clear of flowers near the road. Style wise I'm not sure, maybe shoot for an IPA and if it turns out low it would fall more inline of a pale ale. Shooting completely from the hip, I would shoot for 300-400g of freshly picked dandelion heads for a 5 gallon batch.

Good luck!

One of the guys in my club has done a few of these, and I think he prefers to use the cleaned roots over the heads, IIRC.

I found this too.

Looks like your guess of 400 to 500 grams seems about right. I'm thinking a lighter, session style cream ale might be good for an experiment.

If it works, though, I might do an IIPA... That would cut my hops bill by at least a third!!!!

like anything, Yes and No.
beer can be bittered without hops, but you cant just sub them in by wieght or volume.
unlike hops with there awesome "throwinability" a lot of herbs have to be separately processed to get a clean bitterness.

http://shebrewsgoodale.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/brewing-with-dandelions/
http://www.gaianstudies.org/articles6.htm
http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm

Magic Hat makes beer with Dandelions called Pistil. Not sure if they use them in place of hops or just add them for flavor. It has very little bitterness.

amandabab said:

like anything, Yes and No.
beer can be bittered without hops, but you cant just sub them in by wieght or volume.
unlike hops with there awesome "throwinability" a lot of herbs have to be separately processed to get a clean bitterness.

http://shebrewsgoodale.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/brewing-with-dandelions/
http://www.gaianstudies.org/articles6.htm
http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm

Click to expand...

There's some interesting info here. Thanks for the links. I won't be adding mugwort to my beer, though.

I might try boiling some in just water to test for bitterness.

Fantome makes a dandelion beer called Pissenlit, which also means pee the bed in French.



I tried it and determined dandelion beers aren't for me.

Randy_Bugger said:

Fantome makes a dandelion beer called Pissenlit, which also means pee the bed in French.

I tried it and determined dandelion beers aren't for me.

Click to expand...

I figure any beer that makes you pee the bed must be good. Haha.

Care to describe the taste? Like flowers?

Grassy and earthy with a strange and not so pleasant bitterness. It was a little bit floral, but not really a pleasant floral. I think hops provide a more enjoyable floral character than the dandelions.

A lot of people like the beer and give it a great rating, so you might like a dandelion beer. However, Fantome could probably drop a deuce in a beer and people would still rate it a 5.

I think you should make a tea like you mentioned earlier to see if that is something you want to put in your beer. Maybe mix the tea with a light beer.

I bought that Magic Hat dandelion stuff and found it really bad. Like, kind of disgusting. Maybe it was the sequence I had it in (had just sampled one of my own homebrewed double IPAs--delicious!), but it literally tasted like vomit. That is my only experience with dandelion alcoholic beverages, and it's put me off for a little while!

I'm trying the Magic Hat Pistil dandelion beer right now. It's ok. Light, easy to drink on our first warm night of the spring. Aroma is lemony, yeasty, cut grass, and a little sour. But I think I can detect the bitterness from the dandelion, and I don't think it's very pleasant. It's sort of an acrid bitterness that lingers too long on the back of my tongue. It's not horrible, but this doesn't make me interested in trying dandelion to bitter my homebrew...

Thanks to all for the tasting notes!

I think I know from eating dandilions greens the sort of bitterness you're talking about... Grassy is a good descriptor. Perhaps a sharper more sulky version of arugula.

I kind of like that taste, so I think I'll give this a go when dandilions are blooming a bit more emphatically.

But first I'm going to get ahold of this magic hat beer... I haven't seen their stuff around so it might take a bit.

I know it's an old thread, but found this interesting: http://redrockbrewery.com/how-a-hop-shortage-became-the-mother-of-invention/

Hmm Arugula beer... it has a nutty bitterness...