Bog style beer?

[HomeBrewWest]

A guy recently asked in the shop about clear bottles for his beer . . . I overheard this and immediately jumped in feet first . . . no, no, no . . . sunlight etc will make your beer rancid . . .

"No it won't."

A challenge, aha. But I know more . . . I own a HBS . . . . surely I must know more? The hop oils are affected by UV light and your beer will spoil; the only exception is Corona from . . . .

"No it won't. My beer doesn't have any hops. "

Feck. Its seems he is using "bog myrtle"? Its seems its been around for a lot longer than hops in Ireland. I asked him to drop in a couple of bottles. Could this be the session craft ale I've been seeking for so long?

I can't wait to try it out.

Does anyone know anything about this? Sounds really interesting. This guy certainly seemed to know his stuff, and I got the impression that he would never consider using "hops". Pah, no way! Are we missing something?

[LordEoin]

bog myrtle's traditionally used for bittering. hops came along a lot more recently. before them a lot of herbs would also have been used like rosemary, lavender, yarrow, etc.
a history of regulation (eg the reinheitsgebot) moved things almost exclusively towards hops.

Have a read off this: http://www.gruitale.com/intro_en.htm

[HomeBrewWest]

Confirmation that you can spend years learning about brewing, and still miss so much!

[LordEoin]

You've only got about 5 thousand years to catch up on. Stop slacking!!   

[Will_D]

I remember tasting some at one of the first TOG brew Sundays

Was it Shinny, Padraic or Rossa?

[Tom]

One of the best beers (no, wait, THE best beer) I ever tried was from the Bronze Age Brewers (Galway based, I think). All sorts of things that weren't hops. A lot of them remained suspended in the beer...

[LordEoin]

i have a nettle ale brewed recently. Quite nice.
Wanted to bitter it with bog myrtle but couldn't find the plant, so it's bittered with challenger instead

[Tom]

I think you can bitter it with older nettles. Fresh tips for flavour, old stuff for bitter. Not sure how pleasant that is though; could be quite astringent.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I would still be careful of light strike even with unhopped beers.

[Damien M]

One of the best beers (no, wait, THE best beer) I ever tried was from the Bronze Age Brewers (Galway based, I think). All sorts of things that weren't hops. A lot of them remained suspended in the beer...

Which? The Brewers?