Candy Cap Mushroom Beer: Brewing Wild Beers
Yes, you read that right…mushroom beer! This recipe is perfect for beginners who want to try making their own wild, homemade brews.
The following is an excerpt from The New Wildcrafted Cuisine by Pascal Baudar. It has been adapted for the web.
Making Wild Beers
There is something primal and almost magical about making beers using locally foraged ingredients.
In some strange ways, it makes me feel connected to long-lost times when things were done more simply and people had a deeper connection with nature and understood how to work with it.
The magical aspect is being able to take a walk in the local forest or mountain and pick up ingredients as you go along.
As you learn more about wild plants you are able to create more intricate and complex brews.
RECIPE: Candy Cap Mushroom Beer
This is a strong-tasting brew suited for drinking in small amounts or creating cocktails.
You can cut the amount of candy cap mushrooms to 1⁄2 ounce (21 g) or even less in order to make a more mild-tasting beer.
Ingredients
- 1 gallon (3.75 l) springwater or distilled water
- 1 ounce (42 g) candy cap mushrooms
- 1⁄4 cup (55 g) dried elderberries
- 0.3 ounce (around 8 g) dried mugwort leaves
- 3⁄4 pound (340 g) dark brown sugar
- 4 ounces (120 ml) molasses
- 4 ounces (120 ml) maple syrup
- 2 sweet lemons
- Yeast (beer yeast or wild yeast)
Procedure
- Mix the water, mushrooms, elderberries, mugwort, brown sugar, molasses, and maple syrup in a large pot. Cut and squeeze the lemons into the solution. Bring the solution to a boil; let it boil for 30 minutes.
- Place the pot into a pan of cold water; cool to 70°F (21°C), then add the yeast. One bag of commercial yeast is usually enough for 5 gal- lons, so you don’t need to use the entire contents of the bag. Just use around one-fifth of the bag.
- Strain the brew into the fermenter. Position the airlock or cover your fermenter with a paper towel or cheesecloth. Let the brew ferment for 12 days.
- Siphon into beer bottles and prime the bottles with 1⁄2 teaspoon (2g) brown sugar for carbonation. Close the bottles and store somewhere not too hot. The beer will be ready to drink in 3 to 4 weeks. I usually wait at least 7 or 8 weeks, however, for better taste and carbonation.
Recommended Reads
Read The Book
The New Wildcrafted Cuisine
Exploring the Exotic Gastronomy of Local Terroir
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