Gruit

The Gruit Ale is an Ancient Herb Ale that are brewed with botanicals rather than hops, sometimes making it very perfume-like. The traditional gruit employed three herbs to aromatize the Cervoise (the beer's ancestor): Myrica gale (also known as bog myrtle), yarrow and wild rosemary. The brewer often included other herbs to their liking such as black henbane, ginger, caraway seed, anise, nutmeg and cinnamon. In Gruit ales, herbs, spices and other botanicals replace a dominant hop character, throwing open the door to experimentation with a finished producted having a wide array of possible color depending of the base ingredients used.