Floral to the extreme: Beau’s new Four Flower Gruit

More than 80 kilos of four different flowers go into each batch of this innovative new gruit ale from Beau’s Brewing

Beau’s Brewing Co. is releasing a brand-new, innovative gruit ale in Ontario and Quebec on Sept. 6, called Four Flower Gruit. The recipe for the beer, as the name suggests, includes organic petals from four different flowers: borage, red clover, elderflower, and honeysuckle. The result is a bouquet of aromatics and flavour that takes floral to the extreme, evoking a trip to the flower shop, or a romp in a field of wildflowers.

Borage, also known as star flower, has a pedigree as a beer and mead ingredient that goes back to medieval times. Beau’s Brewmaster Matthew O’Hara anchored the gruit recipe around its use, and then experimented with a range of other flowers before settling on the combination used in the beer. “We wanted to do something that was linking a family of ingredients together, and have some harmonious interaction take place from that. The borage is fragrantly floral which I liked, and it does have a bit of tannin to contribute. It’s an interesting ingredient in that it grows in a lot of different areas around the world and has a lot of uses in different cultures.”

Four Flower gruit pours light orange with a white foam and slight haze. The aroma is both floral and fruity, with citrus notes. The flavour imparts malt sweetness and stone fruit notes. The finish is clean and crisp. More than 80 kilograms of organic flowers were used to create each batch of Four Flower. The Gruit Series takes inspiration from centuries-old brewing tradition. In gruit ales, herbs, spices and other botanicals replace a dominant hops character, throwing the door open to experimentation and innovation.

Beau’s Four Flower gruit will be sold this fall in 600 ml bottles in Ontario and Quebec, at craft-friendly retailers throughout those provinces. Media samples are available upon request.