The Summer 2014 issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® is all about saison, wit, sour wheat, and other Belgian ales. Belgian brewers—and American brewers of Belgian-style ales—sometimes, though by no means always, include spices to lend additional complexity to their beers.
- Be a detective. Infuse a small amount of spice in hot water and add the mixture to a sample of a beer you already know and love. Conduct a side-by-side tasting of the spiced and non-spiced examples and evaluate how the spices might carry through to the final beer.
- It’s beer with spices, not spices with beer. One of the surest ways to turn great beer into mediocre beer is to treat it like potpourri. Holiday ales, in particular, too often groan under the weight of excess cinnamon and clove. Use spicing for subtle flavor enhancement, not as an opportunity to clear out the spice rack.
- Freshness matters. Don’t settle for a generic packet of orange peel that’s been sitting on the shelf since the last World Cup. Seek out spices that are as fresh as your carefully selected malt, hops, and yeast. When possible, grind your spices right before brewing.
- Respect your yeast. There’s a reason that orange peel and coriander complement wit yeast so well. And it’s not by accident that saison yeast pairs nicely with black pepper and grains of paradise. When you know your yeast, you can select spices that play nicely with it.
- Try some new hops. Many newer hop varieties offer tropical fruit and berry flavors, which might lend themselves well to concurrent dry hopping and “dry spicing.”
You’re only limited by your imagination, but there’s probably a good reason that epazote hasn’t made its way into many beers. Some of the most commonly used brewing spices include the following:
- Anise
- Coriander
- Ginger
- Grains of paradise
- Juniper berries
- Orange peel (sweet and bitter)
- Rose hips
Jars of spices courtesy of Savory Spice Shop, Fort Collins, Colorado.