Foraging

Easily found in the springtime, this bitter flowering herb can contribute a unique depth to your beer—and a taste of ancient history.

Bubbling up through Québécois gastronomy and into the brite tanks of craft brewers, this foraged spice is gaining wider fame and winning fans—and it grows freely across much of Canada and the northern United States.

Scratch in Ava, Illinois, has won a national reputation for its combination of foraging and flavor finesse. Here’s how the brewery’s duo ended up putting 131 different botanical ingredients into one (very tasty) beer.

With local malt and a mixed fermentation culture foraged and harvested from native Australian flowers, Wildflower is focused on producing satisfying table beers with a true sense of place. Cofounder and brewer Topher Boehm explains their approach.

Easy to forage and easy to use, spruce tips can add a range of flavors to your beers and be used in a variety of ways—and the best time to harvest them is just around the corner.

In a former dairy creamery in northern Vermont, Wunderkammer creator (and former Hill Farmstead head brewer) Vasili Gletsos has developed a decidedly manual, hands-on process using locally foraged ingredients, a wood-fired copper kettle, and no glycol.

Pick them in the spring (watch for ticks), steep them to make a big tea, then use that as your mash water... Here, Stuart Keating, cofounder of Earthbound Beer in St. Louis, Missouri, describes a method of brewing with oak leaves.

Join Plan Bee Farm Brewery owners Evan and Emily Watson on their 25-acre farm in Poughkeepsie, NY as they guide you through farm brewing.