How to brew with Ground Ivy

[floyd336]

The ground ivy is beginning to grow like crazy here in Pennsylvania. I tried making a ground ivy ale last year and something went seriously wrong. It tasted awful. Very sour. I gathered the ground ivy and dried it. Then I brewed a 1 gallon batch of basic beer using DME golden light and added the ground ivy - a handful. I don't have exact notes, but I think I boiled it all together for about an hour.

Prior to this exercise, I had made some decent ground ivy tea, just brewing it in a coffee maker.

One problem is that I haven't found much of a recipe anywhere. Does anyone have actual experience with this herb and know what to do with it? Is it better to use fresh or dry? Should it be boiled? Do you just boil it like hops - longer for bitterness, shorter for aroma? I have the book "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers", which is very interesting, but I'd like hear from someone that has actual experiences to share.

 

[Oldsock]

Haven't used it, but I've had the best luck using herbs/spices by adding a tea at bottling to taste. That way you can control the amount to your tastes. Just make the tea like you usually would (although you might want to make it a more concentrated so you dilute the beer less).

Without the preservative power of hops it is much easier for Lactobacillus to work in a beer. You might want to add 10 IBUs of hops at the start of the boil just to keep it from souring. Dry ale yeast tends to be a bit more dangerous in low-hopped beer because it is less pure than liquid cultures.

Hope that helps a bit, good luck.

 

[floyd336]

I made about 5 cups of tea with a collander full of fresh ground ivy - probably about 1/2 gallon and added it to the wort to make a 2-gallon batch. The beer is kind of thin. The OG was only 1.040, but it did ferment down to 1.006. I overdid the hops, adding a full oz for bittering. I thought I'd get more ground ivy flavor, but it seems that it ended up addding even more bittterness, plus some of that sour flavor again. So this is a beer that kinda makes you pucker. I think I will alter the recipe, give it a bit more sugar and add the hops later in the boil.

 

[floyd336]

After refrigerating some, I like this Ground Ivy Ale better. It's not bad for summer.

 

[floyd336]

Here's my new Ground Ivy Ale recipe:

Gather a collander of Ground Ivy, about 4 oz fresh.
Boil 1 gallon water
Add 3.3 # light LME + 1 # corn sugar
Boil, add 1 oz 5.0 AA cascades
Boil 15 minutes, then remove the hops to control bitterness.
While waiting for the boil, process the ground ivy, cut out the bad parts, like bug nests and such.
Make tea with the Ground Ivy. A green worm fell out of a sprig while I was doing this...cute little guy...but I set him free. Try to make the tea strong.
OG: 1.064

 

[floyd336]

This version came out pretty good. It is rich tasting. The GI is less prominent though - a sourness that seems to complement the fruitiness of the cascade hops I used. The sour bitterness is also somewhat overtaken by the sweetness. I think a little less sugar might be my next adjustment.

 

[Oldsock]

Completely forgot about this thread. Brewed sort-of-a-gose on Saturday with 2 quarts of ground ivy at 60 minute along with an ounce of fresh yarrow leaves. At flame-out I added the flowers from the yarrow in the whirlpool. Smells green and floral. Excited to taste the results.

 

[Alan Leger]

Completely forgot about this thread. Brewed sort-of-a-gose on Saturday with 2 quarts of ground ivy at 60 minute along with an ounce of fresh yarrow leaves. At flame-out I added the flowers from the yarrow in the whirlpool. Smells green and floral. Excited to taste the results.

How were the results of this brew?

 

[Sammy86]

How were the results of this brew?

Necro thread alert! Doubt you’re going to get a response brewer was last seen in 2020!