livinghistory.ie

Hey guys. I'm getting back into brewing now, and assuming my batch of IPA works out, I'm looking to get back into some old-school recipes. Alas, I've little spare time and live in a town, so I don't have much access to wildlife.

I'm looking for heather tips, meadowsweet (the 'aerial' parts, which I assume means small branches/tips), and elderflower. Any idea where I can get this in good quality, and reasonable quantity ? Meadowsweet is usually a gallon of herb to 5 gallons of wort, when fresh.

If you can pick it in season later in the summer, that'd be great too. But it seems any place on line is either expensive, catering to strange herbalists (so I've no idea if it's food-safe) or they just have one of the above. Any recommendations are welcome.

John

you'd gather enough meadowsweet at the side of the road in an hour in high summer.

A speciality of my home region is elderflower syrup. The elderflowers are mixed up with sugar and water, and after a few weeks it's ready. If you need the flowers just for taste, i could send you a bottle or so. If you need the flower's natural yeast to get the fermentation process started, you'll have to collect them in the afternoon of a very sunny day.

Cheers, Stefan

Salvete Omnes!

Lovage is a herb I always find hard to get hold of. Very common in Romano British cooking. Anybody know of an Irish source?

Valete,

Nerva.

Nerva wrote:Lovage is a herb I always find hard to get hold of. Very common in Romano British cooking. Anybody know of an Irish source?

I know Café Paradiso on Lancanster Quay has used lovage in their recipes (it tasted better than anticipated). They try to source everything locally so perhaps it would be worth contacting them?

Hi, I have grown Lovage from seeds in the past, you can get interesting herb seeds in the Suttons catalogue (if they are still going) or you could try asking your local garden centre to order you some. Best of luck...I remember it grew like a weed when it got going ! Cheers

Yep, just spotted Lovage seeds in Woodies DIY, on the Suttons rack. Good luck....if you are trying to grow it in a pot...you'll need a big one, it's a monstrously huge thing!!

I have started an herb garden but none of it is ready for harvesting at the moment. When it is ready you are welcome to anything I have.... Most of it is common herb: lavender, rosemary, fennel, etc. But I am also starting a patch of rarer herbs along with a madder patch and a woad patch. As I said, you are quite welcome to any of it once it gets going.

Now that you mention brew, what happened to the bottle of Balor Brew I was supposed to get? My taste buds got all worked up

I realised that it really doesn't travel well, as it got very fizzy. Oh, and isn't it illegal to ship beer over state lines without a licence, even ... in the post ?

Anyway. There will be a new brew this weekend. Still don't have a source for meadowsweet though.

John

John, you should give Blaand a shot at brewing. That would be fun.

Get me a recipe, and I'll try it. I had a look on the web, and found feck all.

It looks like it's whey, fermented with...sometime. Is it a yeast/lactase blend, or is it bacterial ?

John