This collaborative brew between Sam and Tod Mott of Portsmouth Breweryin Portsmouth, NH happened in July, 2011.
What, you say, is a gruit?Before hops began their millennium of trendiness in the 11thcentury, many different types of herbs and spices were used to balance beers sweetness. This class of medieval beers is known as gruit.
Necessity being the mother of invention, indigenous herbs were used in gruit production, so the list of traditional gruit ingredients is both long and open to interpretation. For this collaboration beer, Tod and Sam decided it was best to use some old ingredients and some new ingredients that would uniquely reflect the terroir of both New England and Delaware. The base beer for their 'Fru-it Gru-it' is an amber porter. During the boil, 30# of Delaware peaches from Fifer Farms near Dover were introduced to the brew kettle. In addition to the stone fruit, an assortment of lavender, stinging nettles, yarrow and bog myrtle. The nettles came from Tod's backyard in Maine while the rest of the herbs were sourced from either New Hampshire or Vermont. A further 30# of peaches were added to the fermenter before the wort was mixed with brewers yeast
Beer Deets: Malt: North American 2-Row, European Pils, C-60, C-120, Carafa II DH, Chocolate Malt, Black Malt, Roasted Barley, Aromatic, Flaked Barley
Mojo: Fifer Farms Delaware Peaches, Stinging Nettles, Yarrow, Lavender, and Bog Myrtle
Yeast: American Ale
This beer ended up being about 5.5% a.b.v. with an amber color and a touch of roasted malt character.
'Fru-it Gru-it' was served at Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and at their booth at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival.
