Will the world be ready for foraged beer in ’17?

People want beer that is imaginative, created locally, and high- quality — or so the huge rise in microbreweries across the globe suggests. And if 2016 was the year of craft beer, 2017 might just be the time for foraged beers to take centre stage in the world of artisan brewing.

In the past five years, the number of microbreweries has spiked by 73% across Europe to 5,665. The UK specifically has seen an 8 % rise in the last year to around 1,700, while the US witnessed a 15% climb in 2015 to 4,296. This thriving portion of the beer industry stands in competition with huge multinational beer makers who have dominated the scene for decades.

Foraged drinks hark back to a time before industrialised beer making, when brewers used sustainable, local — and therefore sometimes unusual — ingredients from nettles to honey, fruits, spices and herbs.

Leading the charge in foraged beer is the Scratch Brewing Company which has been running for four years in rural Ava, Illinois. In late 2016, the firm released its The Homebrewer’s Almanac: A seasonal guide to brewing with 36 different plants.

“We didn’t ‘ come across’ foraged beer and decide to do that,” stresses Markia Josephson, who co-founded the company. “Rather we decid- ed that we wanted to make a beer that was reflective of the place in the world where we were located and that happened to involve harvesting wild ingredients that grew in our backyard.”

The friends were experimenting with wild ingredients in home- brewed beer for three years before launching their business. Now, the rotating selection of beers are made using produce including nettle, elderberry, ginger, dandelion, maple sap, hickory, lavender, juniper, and chanterelle mushrooms.

Aaron Kleidon, Josephson’s business partner grew up in Ava and has spent a “lifetime” learning about the plans in the region and their historical uses, she says. He forages, while Josephson, and fellow owners Kris Pirmann and ADriane Koontz brew.

“Our brewery is surrounded by the woods and many people in our area have a special connection to the plants and animals that live in these woods. We wanted to make beer that authentically captured the smell and feel of this place.”

What makes foraged beer special, says Josephson is the quality of native ingredients that grow in a specific part of the world, rather than those which are shipped for hundreds or even thousands of miles.

“Beer made with ingredients other than hops, malt, water, and yeast will have peculiar and interesting flavours that are different from those that most people are familiar with in traditional styles of beer. They can be slightly more herbal, less bitter, more tannic, more earthy, more floral, any one of a number of things. I think what ties them all together is that they taste more intensely of the earth.”

“German hops are different from English hops which are different from hops from the American Pacific Northwest or Australia. Growing conditions affect those flavours and allow brewers in those areas to create beers unique to their parts of the world.” THE INDEPENDENT