A week ago I brewed a extract Belgian Dubbel and tried my hand at adding herbs. A friend recommended to try .5 oz. each of coriander, rose hips, and lavender. I weighed them out and added them to the last 5 minutes of the boil. Lo and behold a week later now, I took a gravity reading and tasted the “beer”.
I have enjoyed licking bars of soap more than I did drinking this stuff. Way overwhelming with the lavender. My question is, is it worth aging the beer at this point to see if the lavender mellows out significantly or should I just jump ship and dump it?
Also, just as an aside, it took nearly 50 minutes to chill this batch in an ice bath (my wort chiller broke). Would the extended contact time make the herbs that much more potent? Thanks for any advice!
Lavender is a very strong herb. Add to that there are different varieties and only some are really appropriate for eating. Nothing dangerous, just taste/smell more soapy than flowery/yummy.
I would probably have started in the <5 GRAMS range rather than the .5 ounce range. or even made a tea and dosed at packaging.
anyway, the lavender will fade in a bit over the next couple years and it might end up quite nice, so if you have the space I would bottle it up and stick it in a corner.
I would take some and mix it in another beer and see how dilute it needs to be before you find it palatable. If 10:1 dilution is still too much, I would dump it or try to find someone who likes it.
Sounds good, thanks for the advice. I have just one more completely noob question, in the name of science. I’ve been very curious about the variety of effects achieved by adding Brett to a batch. If I’m going to be packaging and cellaring this not so fruitful experiment for quite a while, would it be worth adding some Brett to see if that might clean up the lavender or perhaps mask it with typical acidic flavors that it produces? Or Lacto or Pedio?
Totally a shot in the dark, but any advice is much appreciated!
I have no idea if the brett would interact with the compounds that give lavender flavor and aroma, but it seems unlikely to have much impact. That said, there’s a surefire way to find out . . .
If you are going to add brett, be sure to do it in something where pressure can still vent or in very think bottles.
You may have used the wrong the type of lavendar. As Mort mentions, the variety is very important. Make sure you used culinary lavendar, and not the type for soap.
I make a lavendar beer every year for a lavendar festival weekend in my town. I use 2 ounces in a 10 galloon batch, and it’s very subtle.
I would brew the beer, keg it, and dose a glass, growler or bomber first (the larger the sample, the more accurate the scale-up).
Never used lavender - but I’ll bet its more forgiving to make a vodka tincture than to add the flowers whole. This goes for any potentially overpowering herb/spice (vanilla, rosemary, etc.).