"Twigged and Berried" indeed!

 Cigar City releasing Humidor-Series Gruit

Once again, the team at Cigar City Brewing is doing something new and different. I got a glimpse of this new beer at the Cask Ale Tasting on March 27th and got to talk to head brewer Wayne Wambles and owner Joey Redner about it. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself.

“Gruit” is an old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops. It is an all-encompassing term, not referring to any specific herbs or spices. These additives varied widely with local preferences and traditions, and the availability of raw materials. In Britain, hopped beer was first imported from Holland around 1400, but hops were initially condemned in 1519 as a “wicked and pernicious weed” (another great band name, I might add). In 1471, Norwich, England actually banned the plant from the use in the brewing of beer, and it wasn’t until 1524 that hops were first grown in southeast England. It was another century before hop cultivation began in the present-day United States in 1629. The alternative was gruit.

Cigar City’s Gruit beer is brewed as part of their Humidor Series, using Spanish cedar and juniper berries in place of hops. The base beer is a pale ale and is “light of body, medium sweet with cereal grain notes and lightly spicy due to the Spanish cedar.” They are calling it a “session-gruit”, hinting at its 5.5% ABV.

Starting April 7, Gruit will be available in the Tasting Room for pints and growler fills, and then in select establishments in the surrounding area. Bottles (750 ml) should be available in very limited amounts in about two weeks. At the CCB Tasting Room, Gruit will run $7 a quart and $20 a gallon for growler fills. Bottle prices are not available yet.