This is amazing. I am glad Jeff you did this video. That beer is like a unicorn to all other beers. Thanks again. Great video. I love the history of this beer..
She's such a sweetheart! I am very interested in gruit and read about her before, but it was only a brief mention... I really wanted to learn more about her story, company and technique, so I am pleased to have found your video. Thanks xx
She is such an amazing person and extremely hard working entrepreneur. I’m so glad you enjoyed the video and thanks so much for taking time to comment. I hope my other videos bring just as much value. Cheers, -Jeff
You have a really knowledge imparting channel here that gives amazingly vivid portraits of things that beer lovers would love to know about... great work sir...thumbs up👍
Get yourself over to Finland and research a style of beer called Sahti. It's an older style of beer that uses juniper instead of hops. Dogfish Head and Sam Adams used to make their own spin on it in the past and both were really good. Off-Color Brewing here in Chicago also makes one.
That's a great breakdown of Annick's journey to create this hopless beer. Now I'm very interested to try it! Thanks for creating these great documentaries, Jeff. Plus, there's the added benefit of when you drink too much and become fully saturated you can say "I Am Gruut!"
Etienne Val thanks so much for the comment and really glad you enjoyed it. It makes my day getting comments like this. 🙏 Such an amazing story. Cheers, -Jeff
I live in the USA, and I am allergic to hops. I haven’t ever been able to drink “normal” beer, so I have been researching hopeless beer. I really wish this stuff was sold here!
Yeah it is such a difficult brew to make and I know a few breweries in the states making seasonal Gruut styles. If your ever in Belgium you need to stop by and check this place out. Cheers and thanks for the message, -Jeff
No, Jeff, I have never heard of Gruit beer before. A bit surprising since I am Belgian, I live in Belgium and my family has always lived here (Dang, I am a native :). Thanks so much for the video. A lot of Belgium beers use herbs in the brew ( we don't have to obey the 'Reinheitsgebot' here :) BUT I had no idea that someone had started making a genuine gruit beer. I'll have to get myself over to Ghent and try them out. Cheers!
@@drinkdestinations Not a brewer, just looking to find something free of estrogenic hops. In this day & age… A great beer for today would be low carb, nootropic, anxiolytic & thermogenic. Effects is my priority ~ then taste/offensivelessness. Can’t drink gas station malt liquors etc. Lol.
👍🤗WE LOVE ❤️ ANNICK’s STORY AND THANKFUL SHE DID NOT GIVE UP JEFF 🤗WE ARE ALSO THANKFUL YOU WERE ABLE TO MAKE THIS JOURNEY And we wonder 🤔if someday you will be able to return and give us an update ⬆️ 🤗WE HOPE SO 😍😍😍
Annick story is amazing and while she wouldn’t tell her secret ingredients, she did give me hope that if you work hard and never give up, surround yourself around good team, anything is possible. Cheers -Jeff
Huh ... My buddy while I was in the navy brewed some gruit beer from a combination of recipes he found on forums. It was damn good and very alcoholic. From what I was told, the Catholic church spread the popularity of using hopes because it was a natural sedative. If people drank hope based beer, they weren't as inclined to fight each other... At least less than a gruit beer which depending on what herbs were used could act more as a stimulant.
I live in California and I can’t find anywhere in my state that brews gruit. I can’t even get it online because of my state laws. Any suggestions are much appreciated. 👍🏼
Beer, Wine and Spirits yes, had no idea what I was getting myself into to be honest. I relied heavily on my friends (from Belgium) to take me everywhere. Gent, decided to skip the castle tour and ended up at the brewery and at the university.
Great question. Bittering agents are used as a preservative to some Beer styles because the recipe just doesn't call for that many hops. The styles that come to mind is Scottish/Irish Ales. Think about Belgian Strong Ales, where they are malty and sweet with just the right balance of bitterness. So it comes down to the beer styles and regions where hops weren't able to grow as well their. Again its an ingredient for that brewer to use if needed. Hope this answers your question.
John Walker fun fact: she worked for Brooklyn Brewery for years and didn’t tell them the recipe. I tried to get the ingredients , but she wouldn’t budge. Thought about water boarding, but remembered I’m not in the military anymore😂😂😂. -Jeff
It’s too bad that a secret is being hidden. This kind of knowledge would be most beneficial for brewers the world over. I bet there are even health benefits with the right herbal recipes.
@@drinkdestinations Excerpt from "The Natural Testosterone Plan" by Buhner “Hops is best know for its use in beer. The majority of physicians and men overlook its potent chemicals and do not realize that beer itself can significantly alter male androgen levels (testosterone). German beer makers noticed long ago that young women who picked hops in the fields commonly experienced menstrual problems. Eventually, researchers discovered the reason - hops is perhaps one of the most powerfully estrogenic plants on Earth. Just 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) contains anywhere from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand IUs of estrogens, depending on the type of hops. … [The endocrine disruptors in hops] has been found to directly interfere with the ability of the testes Leydig cells to produce testosterone. The presence of this highly estrogenic substance in beer is not an accident. Prior to the German Purity Act of 1516, beer almost never contained hops. In fact, more than one hundred different plants were used in the brewing of beer for at least ten thousand years prior to the introduction of hops in the middle ages. For the last thousand years of that period, the most dominant form of “beer” was called gruit, which contained a mixture of yarrow, bog myrtle, and marsh rosemary. These herbs, especially in beer are sexually and mentally stimulating. (It is rare to become sleepy when drinking unhopped beers.) The Catholic Church had a monopoly on the production of gruit, but competing merchants and the Protestants worked together to break that monopoly and for the removal of all sexually stimulating herbs from beer. They replaced then with an herb that puts the drinker to sleep and dulls sexual drive in the male. The legislative arguments of the day all hinged on the issue of the stimulating effects of other herbs that were used in beer. A pilsner, for example, was originally a henbane beer (pilsen means “henbane”), which is an incredibly strong, psychoactive beer, used earlier in history by German berserkers before battle. The German Beer Purity Act was, in effect, the first drug control law ever enacted. Beer, so highly touted as sexy in television commercials, in actuality can powerfully inhibit sexual strength in men. There is a well-known condition in England - Brewer’s Droop - that occurs from middle-aged brewers’ extensive handing of hops plants. The plant chemistries readily transmit through the men’s skin just as they did in the young women in the fields. Very few physicians have looked at any correlation between beer drinking and androgen (testosterone) levels or erectile dysfunction problems in their patients. (How many men on Viagra are heavy beer drinkers?) However, the physician Eugene Shippen in The Testosterone Syndrome comments that one of his patients, undergoing pharmaceutical testosterone replacement therapy, showed no response to the testosterone until he reduced his beer intake to one or two beers a night from six or seven. [1] Hops is extremely potent and its consumption should be limited if not completely excluded during all androgen replacement therapy. These effects can be exacerbated if the beers you buy also contain licorice (see Licorice section at the beginning of chapter), a fact that will not be noted on the beer label. It is possible to buy beer that does not interfere with androgen levels, although it can be somewhat hard to find. Some microbreweries and brew pubs are not making traditional gruits. Check the brew pubs in your town. However, the best source is Bruce Williams, a Scottish brewer who is bringing the traditional ales of Europe and especially Scotland (i.e. pre-hopped European beers). He has five in production, and they can often be found in larger American cities at any store that carries a wide selection of unusual beers. The heather ale is an excellent but perhaps more useful would be the traditional pine ale made from the Scotch pine, Pinus Sylvestris, whose pollen contains testosterone.”[2]
@@drinkdestinations Wormwood's a bittering herb that's been used in brewing since prehistory (check out the traditional English drink "purl")...it also has preservative properties like hops...it's commonly available across all of Europe. It's a guess, but I think it stands to reason.
Hahahahaha unfortunately she couldn’t tell us. Think of some ingredient that is similar like a hop. Look up gruut recipes online and you can will get some ideas.
@@drinkdestinations thanks bro for the prompt response. MBA graduate with 10 yrs experienced looking forward to start up a beer manufacturing unit in tamil nadu india pin code 64114 . suggest an extraordinary beer to implement ....Whatsapp 8072103879 munimaya1986@gmail.com
It’s a great topic and debate! Is good bad for you based off a person who eats bad and is sits around behind a computer list of the day. How many beers is to much for men before the bad effects on hops really start taking effect. Good conversation around this topic for sure
Tenzin doma trust me I was also bummed out that she didn’t tell me, but I also respect that. She did the hard work to create a very unique recipe. I was honored to share her story and I’m glad she didn’t say anything. She deserves that. I can understand it’s a waste of time, but more importantly I hope you got to hear a pretty cool story. Sorry that it didn’t end up the way you intended and thanks for the comment. -Jeff
💯💯💯💯💯 brother. I wanted to know also and was hoping she would tell me the ingredients but then I thought she spent so much time developing it. I am glad she has kept it a secret. Her beers are amazing. Thanks so much for commenting bro👊🏻👊🏻-Jeff
This is the true meaning of craft, creation.
💯💯💯💯 brotha
Finally The Best Explanation of Gruut Beers Is Here!
*NOE I CAN REST IN PEACE.*
Saarthak my man👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
One of the best brewing channels around today
I've been to this brewery a few times some of the greatest beers in the world in my opinion .
This is amazing. I am glad Jeff you did this video. That beer is like a unicorn to all other beers. Thanks again. Great video. I love the history of this beer..
joe Joe yeah it one of a kind and Annick makes some amazing beers. The brewery is small and has great atmosphere as it’s near the city center of Gent.
The starting song is so soothing tbh
She's such a sweetheart! I am very interested in gruit and read about her before, but it was only a brief mention... I really wanted to learn more about her story, company and technique, so I am pleased to have found your video. Thanks xx
She is such an amazing person and extremely hard working entrepreneur. I’m so glad you enjoyed the video and thanks so much for taking time to comment. I hope my other videos bring just as much value. Cheers, -Jeff
@@drinkdestinations Yes, you did a good job. (I know it takes a lot of work.) Appreciated :D xx
Tatyana Valda Belinda Hill 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
This channel is going to hit more than a million very soon ....waiting for more videos on beer :)
🤞🏻🤞🏻 🤞🏻 🤞🏻
super interesting my friend, I would love to visit that place. Cheers!
Thanks so much buddy. Means a lot coming from another guy passionate about beer, wine, and spirits. Cheers 🍻-Jeff
You have a really knowledge imparting channel here that gives amazingly vivid portraits of things that beer lovers would love to know about... great work sir...thumbs up👍
Yesssssssssssssssss, so Awesome to get a comment like this. Thanks for taking the time to comment and let us know. Cheers, -Jeff
Mugwart , the secret ingredient
Get yourself over to Finland and research a style of beer called Sahti. It's an older style of beer that uses juniper instead of hops. Dogfish Head and Sam Adams used to make their own spin on it in the past and both were really good. Off-Color Brewing here in Chicago also makes one.
F Con awesome, thanks so much I will be heading over to Estonia in the summer and this would be a great story and stop! Appreciate it! -Jeff
I have tried that style of beer, in Bariloche, Argentina. The Gaucho Brewing Co. brew it.
Interesting style
That's a great breakdown of Annick's journey to create this hopless beer. Now I'm very interested to try it! Thanks for creating these great documentaries, Jeff. Plus, there's the added benefit of when you drink too much and become fully saturated you can say "I Am Gruut!"
Hahahahahahaha I will have to ask Annick how many times this happened at her brewery. 😂😂😂thanks for the comment brotha, -Jeff
there is a Dutch saying goeie grutten but grutten in that context is the devil, while Grute Pier was a Frisian warlord/Patriot
Really enjoyable video, thanks for making and posting it
Etienne Val thanks so much for the comment and really glad you enjoyed it. It makes my day getting comments like this. 🙏 Such an amazing story. Cheers, -Jeff
Fascinating!
So glad you enjoyed it and I was really excited to tel this story. It was fun to learn all about this style of beer. Cheers, -Jeff
I live in the USA, and I am allergic to hops. I haven’t ever been able to drink “normal” beer, so I have been researching hopeless beer. I really wish this stuff was sold here!
I know what you mean. Hops trigger my gout.... A pint or two of IPA and or English Bitter and I can't walk day after.
I feel like going over there and try all the beers..awsome brewry and Belgium always looks awsome. Loving the old buildings and churches..
joe Joe yeah Gent is an amazing city and a must see if you travel to Belgium. -Jeff
beer without hops at last
💯💯💯💯💯💯it’s such an amazing beer
@@drinkdestinations ❤😃❤😀❤😀❤😀❤😀❤😀❤😁
What incridents used?
🙋♂️WATCHING AGAIN,👀🤗JEFF 👍💚💚💚
🙏🙏🙏
I met a brewer from Madison, Wi. Who was brewing with herbs. Sounds interesting.
Yeah it is such a difficult brew to make and I know a few breweries in the states making seasonal Gruut styles. If your ever in Belgium you need to stop by and check this place out. Cheers and thanks for the message, -Jeff
No, Jeff, I have never heard of Gruit beer before. A bit surprising since I am Belgian, I live in Belgium and my family has always lived here (Dang, I am a native :). Thanks so much for the video. A lot of Belgium beers use herbs in the brew ( we don't have to obey the 'Reinheitsgebot' here :) BUT I had no idea that someone had started making a genuine gruit beer. I'll have to get myself over to Ghent and try them out. Cheers!
Ken je Brugge Tripel niet dan? ik ben een beginnend zytholoog maar Brugge Tripel is gemaakt met gruit is wel aan te bevelen grote 75 cl fles.
‘secret common herb’ is either marsh/wild rosemary or yarrow.
Thanks for sharing, have you made Gruut?
@@drinkdestinations
Not a brewer, just looking to find something free of estrogenic hops. In this day & age…
A great beer for today would be low carb, nootropic, anxiolytic & thermogenic. Effects is my priority ~ then taste/offensivelessness. Can’t drink gas station malt liquors etc. Lol.
She's so sweet.
Did she give you the recipe ? Hahaha
👍🤗WE LOVE ❤️ ANNICK’s STORY AND THANKFUL SHE DID NOT GIVE UP
JEFF 🤗WE ARE ALSO THANKFUL YOU WERE ABLE TO MAKE THIS JOURNEY
And we wonder 🤔if someday you will be able to return and give us an update ⬆️ 🤗WE HOPE SO 😍😍😍
Annick story is amazing and while she wouldn’t tell her secret ingredients, she did give me hope that if you work hard and never give up, surround yourself around good team, anything is possible. Cheers -Jeff
Oh wow! Very interesting on how she got to gruut beer. Hopefully will get to visit ome day.
It was such a cool story. I tried to get her to tell me the recipe, but she wouldn’t do it. Hahahaha cheers, -Jeff
Thanks 🙏 bro - you’re best - i love you bro ❣️this channel sooon 1 millions sub 🚀🚀🚀
Right back at you brother 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻I’m excited for what the future holds. Thanks for the amazing support. Couldn’t do this without you man-Jeff
Huh ... My buddy while I was in the navy brewed some gruit beer from a combination of recipes he found on forums. It was damn good and very alcoholic.
From what I was told, the Catholic church spread the popularity of using hopes because it was a natural sedative. If people drank hope based beer, they weren't as inclined to fight each other... At least less than a gruit beer which depending on what herbs were used could act more as a stimulant.
Ex have a hops allergy. Its very bad for me... I get sleepy and have diarhea. Does some hops free beer exists? or at least one with low hops?
So I want to make beer but I can't get hops in this lockdown could suggest me spices which I can use for beer
Burdock and dandelion as an example was used in the old days before hops became standard
I live in California and I can’t find anywhere in my state that brews gruit. I can’t even get it online because of my state laws. Any suggestions are much appreciated. 👍🏼
there should be a buckwheat gruit beer that would be spicy
In real Gruut/gruit there would have been Bog Myrtle.
Thanks so much for sharing. It is found all over northern and Western Europe.
Gruit is not brewed more often because hops have a amazing and complex aroma which is hard to beat
Great point and not to mention the Acids in them inhibit bacterial growth and are a natural preservative. Cheers and thanks for the comment.
Pretty sure I visited that brewery and enjoyed their beer.
Then you visited the amazing city of Gent, Belgium. It’s such a cool city and having a brewery like this makes it even cooler. Cheers, -Jeff
Beer, Wine and Spirits yes, had no idea what I was getting myself into to be honest. I relied heavily on my friends (from Belgium) to take me everywhere. Gent, decided to skip the castle tour and ended up at the brewery and at the university.
Mugwort? The herb that gives it the bitterness...
No doubt why gruuts are so rare
Gruits are pretty nice :-)
I thought it was such a cool story. You don’t see many breweries making it. Cheers and thanks for commenting. -Jeff
I gotta ask, why do beers need bittering agents at all? Is it still a beer if it's a little sweet?
Great question. Bittering agents are used as a preservative to some Beer styles because the recipe just doesn't call for that many hops. The styles that come to mind is Scottish/Irish Ales. Think about Belgian Strong Ales, where they are malty and sweet with just the right balance of bitterness. So it comes down to the beer styles and regions where hops weren't able to grow as well their. Again its an ingredient for that brewer to use if needed. Hope this answers your question.
@@drinkdestinations It does. Thank you.
Tell me all ingredients names
I respect the fact that she didn’t tell her recipe. It’s her life’s work. There are Gruut recipes you can find online.
porse, i am pretty sure it is porse
Government funding to figure it out and she won’t tell us the herb nice
John Walker fun fact: she worked for Brooklyn Brewery for years and didn’t tell them the recipe. I tried to get the ingredients , but she wouldn’t budge. Thought about water boarding, but remembered I’m not in the military anymore😂😂😂. -Jeff
It’s too bad that a secret is being hidden. This kind of knowledge would be most beneficial for brewers the world over. I bet there are even health benefits with the right herbal recipes.
There’s estrogen in hops
Yes phytoestrogen, but it’s really low levels to do anything. Thoughts? -Jeff
@@drinkdestinations Excerpt from "The Natural Testosterone Plan" by Buhner
“Hops is best know for its use in beer. The majority of physicians and men overlook its potent chemicals and do not realize that beer itself can significantly alter male androgen levels (testosterone). German beer makers noticed long ago that young women who picked hops in the fields commonly experienced menstrual problems. Eventually, researchers discovered the reason - hops is perhaps one of the most powerfully estrogenic plants on Earth. Just 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) contains anywhere from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand IUs of estrogens, depending on the type of hops. … [The endocrine disruptors in hops] has been found to directly interfere with the ability of the testes Leydig cells to produce testosterone. The presence of this highly estrogenic substance in beer is not an accident.
Prior to the German Purity Act of 1516, beer almost never contained hops. In fact, more than one hundred different plants were used in the brewing of beer for at least ten thousand years prior to the introduction of hops in the middle ages. For the last thousand years of that period, the most dominant form of “beer” was called gruit, which contained a mixture of yarrow, bog myrtle, and marsh rosemary. These herbs, especially in beer are sexually and mentally stimulating. (It is rare to become sleepy when drinking unhopped beers.) The Catholic Church had a monopoly on the production of gruit, but competing merchants and the Protestants worked together to break that monopoly and for the removal of all sexually stimulating herbs from beer. They replaced then with an herb that puts the drinker to sleep and dulls sexual drive in the male. The legislative arguments of the day all hinged on the issue of the stimulating effects of other herbs that were used in beer. A pilsner, for example, was originally a henbane beer (pilsen means “henbane”), which is an incredibly strong, psychoactive beer, used earlier in history by German berserkers before battle. The German Beer Purity Act was, in effect, the first drug control law ever enacted.
Beer, so highly touted as sexy in television commercials, in actuality can powerfully inhibit sexual strength in men. There is a well-known condition in England - Brewer’s Droop - that occurs from middle-aged brewers’ extensive handing of hops plants. The plant chemistries readily transmit through the men’s skin just as they did in the young women in the fields. Very few physicians have looked at any correlation between beer drinking and androgen (testosterone) levels or erectile dysfunction problems in their patients. (How many men on Viagra are heavy beer drinkers?) However, the physician Eugene Shippen in The Testosterone Syndrome comments that one of his patients, undergoing pharmaceutical testosterone replacement therapy, showed no response to the testosterone until he reduced his beer intake to one or two beers a night from six or seven. [1] Hops is extremely potent and its consumption should be limited if not completely excluded during all androgen replacement therapy. These effects can be exacerbated if the beers you buy also contain licorice (see Licorice section at the beginning of chapter), a fact that will not be noted on the beer label.
It is possible to buy beer that does not interfere with androgen levels, although it can be somewhat hard to find. Some microbreweries and brew pubs are not making traditional gruits. Check the brew pubs in your town. However, the best source is Bruce Williams, a Scottish brewer who is bringing the traditional ales of Europe and especially Scotland (i.e. pre-hopped European beers). He has five in production, and they can often be found in larger American cities at any store that carries a wide selection of unusual beers. The heather ale is an excellent but perhaps more useful would be the traditional pine ale made from the Scotch pine, Pinus Sylvestris, whose pollen contains testosterone.”[2]
I bet the secret herb is wormwood...
Why do you think it’s worm wood?
@@drinkdestinations Wormwood's a bittering herb that's been used in brewing since prehistory (check out the traditional English drink "purl")...it also has preservative properties like hops...it's commonly available across all of Europe.
It's a guess, but I think it stands to reason.
@@bettyswunghole3310 awesome And thanks for sharing! We have some great insight into herbs etc. in the comments for Gruit beer. I appreciate it!
What is the secret ingredient she hidden
Hahahahaha unfortunately she couldn’t tell us. Think of some ingredient that is similar like a hop. Look up gruut recipes online and you can will get some ideas.
@@drinkdestinations thanks bro for the prompt response. MBA graduate with 10 yrs experienced looking forward to start up a beer manufacturing unit in tamil nadu india pin code 64114 .
suggest an extraordinary beer to implement ....Whatsapp 8072103879 munimaya1986@gmail.com
@@munimaya bro...intha video la hops Ku pathila ena use panranganu solunga bro.pls
Bro She couldn't tell the name ...of The alternate ....ava sonnathu herbs mooligai ஏலக்காய் லவங்கம் கிராம்பு.
@@munimaya Thanks bro.....
If men only knew how bad hops are for you
It’s a great topic and debate! Is good bad for you based off a person who eats bad and is sits around behind a computer list of the day. How many beers is to much for men before the bad effects on hops really start taking effect. Good conversation around this topic for sure
🍻👍
Gabreal Bet-David 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
#notificationsquad!!
why i am watching , if she is not going to tell, waste of time
Tenzin doma trust me I was also bummed out that she didn’t tell me, but I also respect that. She did the hard work to create a very unique recipe. I was honored to share her story and I’m glad she didn’t say anything. She deserves that. I can understand it’s a waste of time, but more importantly I hope you got to hear a pretty cool story. Sorry that it didn’t end up the way you intended and thanks for the comment. -Jeff
@@drinkdestinations yeah u are absolutely ryt, her efforts count , not only discovering hopless beer , but how she rolled up and succeed
💯💯💯💯💯 brother. I wanted to know also and was hoping she would tell me the ingredients but then I thought she spent so much time developing it. I am glad she has kept it a secret. Her beers are amazing. Thanks so much for commenting bro👊🏻👊🏻-Jeff
@@drinkdestinations , i am a girl -jeff
Tenzin doma I’m so sorry. I same bro and dude a lot!! I gotta stop doing that. Really sorry!