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In a world where almost everything gets its own “official day,” there’s evolved a sub-genre of special beer days that we occasionally call your attention too depending on their relevance, or whether we just think they’re just stupid fun. We’re kinda on the fence about International Gruit Day which takes place every February 1st….but we’re running with it anyway.
First of all, you should know that unlike much of what we publish here at American Craft Beer International Gruit Day is actually a real thing.
It was established back in 2013 by Beau’s All Natural Brewing up in Ontario, Canada and celebrates an ancient and almost pagan tradition of brewing with botanicals.
So What Is A Gruit Ale Again?
Gruit (or Grut) is basically German for herb, and a Gruit Ale is fundamentally any brew that uses an herbal mixture for flavor or as a bittering agent in place of hops.
Many of the original herbs used in Gruit Ales are less commonly used nowadays. Botanical such as mugwort, yarrow, ground ivy, and horehound, sound like they fit more comfortably in a Harry Potter book rather than in a beer.
The herbal mixtures that made up early Gruit Ales were the original “hops” – at least they were before the popularity exotic botanical style began to dwindle in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Many factors contributed to the Gruit’s disappearance, including the imposition of the Reinheitsgebot, the Bavarian Purity Act of 1516, which mandated that water, barley, and hops should be the only ingredients lawfully used in beer production.
Religious theology also took its toll on the Gruit. Some herbs used in the brewing process were deemed to have dangerous stimulating and even aphrodisiac effects, that ran afoul of prevailing doctrines at the time – while a sedative substance like hops on the other hand, satisfied the puritanical need to keep people from enjoying themselves (sound familiar?).
It wasn’t until the 1990s that some microbreweries in the US and England rediscovered this almost lost style and we have these pioneers to thank for whatever visibility it currently enjoys.
And Do Gruit Ales Really Matter Today?
Well the short answer to that is not much…not really. But at least they’ve got an official international day (which is more than we can say for the session IPA).
We did run into a number of interesting Gruit Ales being brewed by cutting-edge brewers out in Oakland, California, but were not sure if that’s a growing trend or some kind of anomaly that we happened upon. And why we found them interesting to sample, it’s not like we felt that the style was something we’d been missing.
Hops Rule
Just as video was once credited with killing the radio star…Hops derailed Gruit Ales.
Once hops became the primary bittering agent among brewers in the western world (and enshrined into law with the imposition of the Reinheitsgebot) the “die” was pretty much cast.
So celebrate today all you want…but good luck finding a Gruit Ale at your local retailer, because chances are good that you won’t.
Hops are KING in today’s world of craft beer and their unassailable dominance as relegated the Gruit Ale to a brewing curiosity. And no amount International Gruit Day celebrations is gonna change that…just sayin’.
Which brings us back to the Session IPA. When does it get its own day?
For more on the Gruit check out: WHAT THE HELL IS A GRUIT ALE?
And there’s also this: WHAT THE HELL IS A SESSION IPA?
