So, I have this book, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications by Christian Rätsch, and it mentions that before the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 (aka the Reinheitsgebot) which mandated that beer use hops as a bittering agent, people would just use any old plant they wanted to infuse… including henbane.
Henbane is a member of the family Solanaceae (meaning, related to peppers and tomatoes and potatoes), which contains tropane alkaloids and was historically used in magical concoctions for the psychoactive effects it creates, often including mild hallucinations and the sensation of flight.
Critically, and unfortunately for the world, the book contains a recipe.
This technically creates a braggot, based on the amount of honey (although, without a citation for the recipe, it’s possible(?) that the original meant pine resin rather than honey, which was a common ingredient in some older recipes.
I’ve modified the recipe to create a 5 gal all-grain version, with some tweaks based on other braggot recipes, and will be brewing this as soon as my henbane seeds germinate.
Henbane Braggot
Ingredients
- 33 g dried, chopped henbane herbage (hyoscyamus niger)
- 5 g bayberry or another Myrica species (this aromatic ingredient is optional)
- 3.51 kg (7.7 lb.) Pilsner malt
- 3.6 lb. (1.64 kg) raw rye
- 1.62 kg (3.6 lb.) flaked oats
- 0.75 kg pine resin
- 1 kg honey
- approx. 5 g dried top-fermenting yeast like kveik
- brown sugar for priming
Recipe
Mash grains at 66°C (151°F) for 60 minutes. Lauter, sparge, collect wort, and boil 60 minutes. Add the henbane, bayberry, and resin an hour before knockout. Cool wort to 180°F (82.2°C), add the honey, and whirlpool 10 minutes. After whirlpool, cool wort to 65°F (18.3°C). Pitch the yeast.
In order for the top-fermenting yeast to be effective, the wort should be allowed to stand in a warm location (20˚ to 25˚C.). Fermentation will begin slowly because the tropane alkaloids will initially inhibit the yeast. The main fermentation will be over in four to five days, and the after-fermentation will then begin. The yeast will slowly settle and form a layer at the bottom of the bucket.
The beer can now be poured into bottles. A heaping teaspoon of brown sugar can be added to each (0.7 liter) bottle to promote an additional after-fermentation. Henbane beer tastes best when stored before use in a cool place for two to three months.