Lawnmower pale ale

[_CJ]

Trying to get my recipe together for a brew.

I plan to do my pale ale again, but I'm thinking about throwing some fresh cut grass clippings into the brew for a unique flavor and/or aroma.

Anyone ever tried this or heard of anyone doing this? Anyone care to speculate on the results or maybe the best technique?

[Snotty]

Uhhhh... Sure, but I would think you need to be very careful when and where you get your clippings from. Any fert's may have a very negative impact on your beer and belly...

[_CJ]

Uhhhh... Sure, but I would think you need to be very careful when and where you get your clippings from. Any fert's may have a very negative impact on your beer and belly...

Yup, thought of that. That's why it pretty much has to be a spring brew, so I can take the clippings from the first cutting of my lawn before I put any fertilizer down. Also from the front yard so I don't have any dog crap mixed in.

Hmmm, maybe I should just use some wheat grass or something from whole foods?

[Snotty]

Or hit a pet store that sells those grass things for your pets to eat?

[Jeepindog]

Just dryhop it with some Cascade for about a month. You'll get plenty of grassy flavor. (There's a lot of wild yeast and tons of bacillus species bacteria all over grass. I'd boil it if I were you.)

[xjmatt]

Just dryhop it with some Cascade for about a month. You'll get plenty of grassy flavor. (There's a lot of wild yeast and tons of bacillus species bacteria all over grass. I'd boil it if I were you.)

x10!!!

In my opinion it would be impossible to sanitize grass clippings enough to put them into a brew without the threat of massive contamination. Boiling them would work sure but after a 20 minute boil you'll have lost most of the character I presume you are going for. Not to mention who knows what the alcohol would leech out of the lawn clippings.

The 3 C hops are your friend though if this is what you're going for. Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook. I second a long dryhop with Cascade. I like to throw a bit of Centennial in too for some balance and complexity in the hop flavor.

[_CJ]

Just dryhop it with some Cascade for about a month. You'll get plenty of grassy flavor. (There's a lot of wild yeast and tons of bacillus species bacteria all over grass. I'd boil it if I were you.)

The recipe is already dryhopped with Cascade, and I use Simcoe in the boil. Defintely planned to boil whatever I use....probably for the last few minutes of the boil.

I did a google search and found that lemon grass was used as a spice in Thai beer years ago, so maybe I'll give that a shot....but how much should I throw in the boil?

[Jeepindog]

Have you ever had Tommyknocker's Jack Whacker Wheat? It is flavored with lemon grass, and has absolutely *NO* grassy flavor. Lemon grass will not give you a fresh mowed lawn flavor, though. Dry hop it for an extended period to get that grassiness. You will very likely regret adding actual grass clippings to your brew.

[_CJ]

Wheat grass it is. I went to the local hippy store to see what they had, and had no luck finding lemon grass or barley grass, but they did have fresh organic wheat grass. I bought some, brought it home, tasted it, and made some tea with it. It's got about the right flavor.

For the brew I'm thinking I'll cut it up, make some tea out of it to kill any bugs or yeasts, then throw the tea with all the cut up grass in the secondary. I doubt it'll actually be strong enough to detect over the 45 IBU of the brew, but it'll be fun to try and I can tell people it's got hollistic benefits...:rolleyes:

For what it's worth, I remembered having a sweet grass IPA from Jackson Hole brewing. I don't really know how they made it, but you could detect a subtle vanilla and grassyness to it.

:beer: :beer: :beer:

[ColoradoXJ13]

If you want a lemony flavor, you can always try kaffir lime leaves. I just added some into the secondary of my Saison, I chopped up a bunch of leaves, steeped them for about 10 min, had a nice lime/lemony aroma...and I have been cooking with them since too, add a few leaves when you make rice...yum.

[_CJ]

The results are in.

One week in primary, one week in secondary, and one week in the bottles. Carb'd up nicely, and tastes pretty good. Not as grassy as I would have liked, but everyone that has tried it has said they really like it. It's very similar to Jackson Brewing's Sweetgrass IPA. Smooth, slighly sweet, moderately hopped, very drinkable. It even has a slightly greenish tinge to the color.

I had a little difficulty getting the hop and grass bags in the carboy after boiling. I think next time I'll try steaming them.

[Mr Zed]

Trying to get my recipe together for a brew.

I plan to do my pale ale again, but I'm thinking about throwing some fresh cut grass clippings into the brew for a unique flavor and/or aroma.

Anyone ever tried this or heard of anyone doing this? Anyone care to speculate on the results or maybe the best technique?

You're putting entirely too much thought into it...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid68/pffb3154dd2be58439cc25c9c3134f1e3/fbbdc891.jpg