Ginger Tumeric Ale using Dandelion for the bitter
I have been experimenting with using dandelion as opposed to using hops for that bitter tinge. The hops tend to be a sedative and kind of a depressant. Dandelion has such great properties to counter the ill effects of alcohol. Ginger and tumeric are pretty damned good for you too!
So here is my recipe : 1/2 cup chopped dandelion root.
2" chunk shredded ginger root
2" chunk of shredded Tumeric root
3 lbs pure cane sugar
Juice from 2 lemons and 1 orange
Added a little Lemmon zest
1 campden tablet
1/2 pack of ale yeast.
1/2 t spoon of yeast nutrient
Put entire ingredients accept yeast, campden, and nutrient, into your container . You Must use glass or plastic. I use a redwing 2 gallon crock .
Bring about a gallon of water to a boil . Dump over the ingredients. Crush the campden tablet and dump it in. This will kill any rogue yeast. Let sit covered for 24 hrs. You can get the yeast going in a little sugar waterOr if your water temp is around 70 you can just stir it in.and add the nutrient.
Once yeast is added you you lightly cover and let it sit at around 75 degrees for about a week. Then rack to an airlocked container and let it sit for another week.
After a week to week and a half you can bottle. This time I added about a 1/2 tsp ion of sugar to each bottle . Next time I think I will add to the entire mix and let it sit an hr before bottling . 
I let the bottles set 2 weeks at room temp. They actually could sit one more week to build up a little fiz.
You do want to be careful too much fizz will start blowing bottles. Been there done that .
This batch has a real deep bitter taste. Exactly what I was going for. I think the dandelion bitter is superior to the hop .
There ya have it 12 pack of superior ale made right here at home.
That's awesome... Although I have much love for hops, I've often wondered why they are so overused in brewing (probably for that bright, citric note they add.) I think much of it boils down to the inertia of tradition and (dare I say it) laziness.
Dandelion bitter is a great idea. There are so many bitter yet wonderfully medicinal herbs that could probably be substituted for hops...
Never homebrewed myself, but hope to someday.
Cheers and thanks for sharing :)
Thanks I have maid wine for years. Made kamboocha for awhile too. Just started with the ale.
Interesting, I would like to try that. Upvoted, followed and resteemed. Tag me whenever you have a foraging or homesteading post.
What a great idea! I brew kombuccha, and I'm always looking for new ideas (for example, I use my elderberry syrup on the second processing). I'm very interested in brewing other things, so thanks for the info!
I played with kamboocha a little too. Haven't done that for a while though. I wonder how that dandelion root would work in kamboocha ?
I've been wanting to ferment some mango wine, Then maybe still it down to Brandy. Everywere you look here, Are Mango's rotting on the ground for about 2-3 months. Soo many trees and not enough people to eat them all.
I'm a loyal follower now for this post, Keep them coming and some day I'll have the time and money to get started. ( Incentive really ) as Rum is $18 a gallon and beer less than 50 cents.
Cheers
I like to put the bitter in with the sweet. I could see mango and dandelion root working . All the natural sugars in the mango would really add to the flavor. Love to here about it if you try.
You can bet I'll blog about it, and the stories the wine/brandy creates as well.
The President of Panama Owns a distillery and I hear they sell the fermenting/aging barrels every 12 years, looking into buying some of those.
Failing in that probably a 1200 Liter water reserve tank will be used :-)
Go big or stay at home hehe.
Cheers
Nice sounds like a party!
That's really nice @andre-ager! I'm always happy to see dandelions getting used one way or another. You have me interested in trying out dandelion roots for brewing! You make it seem easy -- especially compared to dealing with grains in brewing beer. Happy foraging and enjoy your liquid dandelions! :D
Yes dandelion is my favorite " weed" lol thanks for the upvoted and re steem
Nice post! Thanks for showing the whole process and giving us a taste review of the completed product, too. Brewing can be a creative process -- with so many different wild plants. @ocrdu had a nice post showing some wild plants in a bog that were used before the time of hops, too. I hope you can experiment with a lot of wild brewing! :D