Back in the late '90's I made a stout using Labrador Tea:
I live up in Alaska north of 64.5 degrees so assume Rhododendron tomentosum (Northern Labrador tea, previously Ledum palustre)
Beware some possible side effects if using it. On this page: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-539-labrador%20tea.aspx?activeingredientid=539&activeingredientname=labrador%20tea is a funny way you can save money: "In foods, Labrador tea is used as a beverage or to make beer more intoxicating." No idea if true.
Check wikipedia.
Anyway, I'm thinking of trying this again with all-grain and hoping to refine it. What I did before and not really knowing what I was doing was:
.75 lb. Roasted Barley
.33 lb. Crystal Malt 40L (what I had) (used .5 lb in first try and .33 second try as I ran out).
.33 lb. Black Patent
about 8 lbs. British Amber Malt extract
(one recipe I used .33 chocolate malt, .25 Black patent, .5 Crystal malt 40L, and .75 roasted barley with ~ 7.5 British Amber extract).
Hops - what I had in stock:
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops (previously also used Perles) for boil
.5 oz. Tettnangers for aroma
Yeast: tried both Irish Ale Wyeast and dry Whitbread yeast.
2 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 oz. Labrador Tea added last 10 min. or so of boil.
I didn't take good notes. But my O.G. was around 1.060 and F.G was around 1.022. My women friends tended to like it and I thought it was ok. No experienced tasters tried it.
So I suppose I could look up a spruce tip stout and copy that.. but curious what others might do. My experimentation has serious money consequences as I'm paying premium prices in shipping stuff up here - so sort of wanting to get it right or close the first try.
Wonder if anyone else has a fav recipe using Labrador tea.
cheers, JD
I live up in Alaska north of 64.5 degrees so assume Rhododendron tomentosum (Northern Labrador tea, previously Ledum palustre)
Beware some possible side effects if using it. On this page: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-539-labrador%20tea.aspx?activeingredientid=539&activeingredientname=labrador%20tea is a funny way you can save money: "In foods, Labrador tea is used as a beverage or to make beer more intoxicating." No idea if true.
Check wikipedia.
Anyway, I'm thinking of trying this again with all-grain and hoping to refine it. What I did before and not really knowing what I was doing was:
.75 lb. Roasted Barley
.33 lb. Crystal Malt 40L (what I had) (used .5 lb in first try and .33 second try as I ran out).
.33 lb. Black Patent
about 8 lbs. British Amber Malt extract
(one recipe I used .33 chocolate malt, .25 Black patent, .5 Crystal malt 40L, and .75 roasted barley with ~ 7.5 British Amber extract).
Hops - what I had in stock:
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops (previously also used Perles) for boil
.5 oz. Tettnangers for aroma
Yeast: tried both Irish Ale Wyeast and dry Whitbread yeast.
2 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 oz. Labrador Tea added last 10 min. or so of boil.
I didn't take good notes. But my O.G. was around 1.060 and F.G was around 1.022. My women friends tended to like it and I thought it was ok. No experienced tasters tried it.
So I suppose I could look up a spruce tip stout and copy that.. but curious what others might do. My experimentation has serious money consequences as I'm paying premium prices in shipping stuff up here - so sort of wanting to get it right or close the first try.
Wonder if anyone else has a fav recipe using Labrador tea.
cheers, JD
