Herbal beers - Protestant Reformation profoundly affects the beer we enjoy today

The green around you may end up in your beer.  Herbs and flowers have
been used as medicinal ingredients in beer for centuries.  Photos by
Charlie Papazian

Throughout beer history, hops were one uncommon ingredient among many used in formulating beer.  In fact hops were a very controversial ingredient that involved religion, politics, power and taxes.

Only in the last one to two hundred years did beer emerge as a refreshment beverage.  For centuries beer was a vehicle for herbal medicine.  Beer was healing.  It was as mainstream in olden times as it is today, but it was controlled by another set of corporations. 

The Catholic Church controlled the herbs most commonly used in “gruit.”  Gruit was the formulation of herbal mixtures responsible for flavor and actually controlling the degree of intoxicating effects which beer had.  By intoxication I mean to imply that alcohol was not the only thing that would make one howl at the moon or slumber into stress free mindscapes.

Scurvy grass and spruce tips were added to beer to help prevent scurvy. Did you need to liven up your libido?  The combination of herbs such as yarrow , sweet gale  and marsh rosemary in beer are highly inebriating and “stimulating.”

For male sexual dysfunction, ginger would be prescribed in beer gruits. Licorice was used to help reduce stress and was quite a popular additive, still used today, but without medicinal pretext.

St. John’s wort (an actual name of an herbal plant) is very well known for its antidepressant effects.  Its name has roots in beer making. 

PHoto left: varieties of yarrow can be used in beer

Yarrow, bog myrtle, rosemary, licorice, elderberry, nettle, and coriander ales were among hundreds of ingredients herbs commonly used in brewing. The right herbal beer provided not only a setting for socializing, but it also supplemented nutritional needs and dispositions.   

Where did the city of Pilsen and it’s Pilsner beer get its name?  Pilsen refers to the psychoactive herb henbane, which was commonly used before the Reinheitsgebot (1514 German Purity Law) as an intoxicating ingredient used in beer.  I didn’t dig up this and other herbal facts; Stephen Buhner did in his 500 page book, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers (Brewers Publication, 1998).  Stephen reveals the pre-hop traditions used by brewers throughout the brewing world.  His insight makes you seriously think about the changing world of beer.

The history of herbs and beer can get really fascinating.  Consider the significance of the year 1516 - the year of the German Reinheitsgebot.  You could say that the Reinheitsgebot was the equivalent of America’s politically charged “just say no to drugs” campaign.  .“No” to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, fat, sugar, etc., etc. today may be the political equivalent of the 16 century “just say no to herbs” in beer.

Photo right: Elderberries are a strong antioxidant and help build the immune system, a remedy and preventative still popular in Europe today.

Hops became a hot religious and political ingredient especially during the time of the Protestant Reformation.  The German Reinheitsgebot purity law of 1516 was in enacted in favor of the more soporific and less licentious use of hops.  The law many of us regard as a “purity” code was in essence a political and Protestant installation to oppose the Catholic Church’s pleasurable and healing substance control.

Today, sacred and herbal beers are not necessarily going to sweep the beer world, but the spirit of creative thinking and examining beer’s origins are certainly healing and rejuvenating.

Watch for my next story: A recipe for yarrow ale