Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation Kindle Edition

I read a lot of books about herbs, wild edibles, and beer making. Well, this pretty much covers them all. The book loosely covers the subject of "beer", but is more about fermented beverages in general. There are so many things out there that can be fermented, it makes you wonder why breweries stick strictly to hops and malt.This book is truly inspiring to say the least, and it'll surely make you want to try to brew something every time you pick it up. This is hands down the most interesting book I've ever read. It's refreshing to realize how basic fermented beverages can be to produce too!

The intro is so deep. If you are connected to the earth and are interested in learning the lost art of herbal fermentation then I highly recommend this book. It has taken me on an adventure since page one.

Great insight into brewing alternatives. Well written, and great recipes. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to use herbs, spices, roots, etc in their brewing regimen as an alternative to hops. This is, after all, the way beer was brewed before hops elbowed their way into the brewing scene.

First a word on safety. A few of these recipes use toxic ingredients. In general, my studies all suggest however that these ingredients both have long records in brewing and also are reasonably safe in that area. This includes both mandrake and henbane. In fact, henbane was smoked in the Middle Ages, and evidence exists for its use in beer for thousands of years. Mandrake was well known medicinally mixed with wine (Dioscorides mentions it, and mandrake wine seems to have been utilized by Hannibal as a narcotic). However, in all things some caution is required, and there are a few other steps I'd recommend:1) It's probably a good idea to try small doses of such recipes until you know how your body will respond.2) It's probably a good idea to do further research before you make up your mind on these matters.Now for a word on substance. This book is written from a very primitivist perspective. The author is upfront about his views in this area, and tries to share them. I didn't feel like the book was overly proselytizing in this area, though I recognize that some fellow reviewers differ here.Secondly he advocates what one might call "unscientific brewing." I'm a big fan of unscientific brewing. I've brewed in similar ways for nearly two decades. In this way, sense, artistry, and experience are used to produce a beer, mead, etc rather than rigorous measurement and control. For example, I sterilize all my equipment with heat (I don't use chemicals), I don't even own a hydrometer, and and I brew beer using touch and feel rather than time and temperature. In this way, I sacrifice some repeatability for variation and an ability to improvise at each step. Sometimes my recipes flop but since each one is an experiment, I just take note about what failed and go on. I figure this is the way brewing was done for centuries and I don't need to change. My view on this, as a long-time "unscientific brewer" is subtly different than Bruhner's. I think to some extent his writings make light of the careful ways that traditional cultures may have for controlling wort infection and the like, and tends to gloss over the role of deep, long-term experience in what was traditionally an art form much like poetry. These shortcomings may be acceptable given his audience (those just starting out), but it's worth noting up front. All in all, I think this is an important contribution to the area of brewing in this area. I may not agree with him on every point, but more voices help us all move forward.Thirdly he provides a large number of recipes. These include molasses-based drinks, white sugar-based drinks, fermented fruit-based beverages, and the like. In general these track various other attempts at various beverages that I have seen, and many of his recipes are taken from old sources. These do not fit in well with standard contemporary brewing approaches which frown on sucrose sources and favor fructose instead, but when one is experienced (see paragraph above), one can still take them as inspiration and adapt them to whatever one wants to make (substituting honey for white sugar, for example). At the same time, I have had commercially produced molasses "beers" (i.e. brewed with molasses instead of malted grain) and they are quite pleasant. Consequently I have to assume that most of the recipes would be just fine how they are. I would however note that it is likely that "sugar" in many of the old recipes was the sort of dried cane syrup one can find at Mexican grocers than the white sugar we use today. This area could be fertile ground for future research.However, whatever faults this book has, it's still a fascinating journey into another world in terms of brewing. I enjoyed it and I see why it was highly recommended to me. It is a solid contribution to this field and I'd highly recommend it to others.

Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers:The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Stephen Harrod Buhner is a book I picked up because it was cited in  Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods . Usually I review such things within a couple weeks of getting them, I just realized I hadn't told anyone what I thought of this yet.It's 450 pages of editorializing, basic instructions for primitive brewing, and information about the religious and healing use of the herbs and plants used in brewing the meads, ales and beers in the book. Some of the herbs used in some of the recipes can be dangerous, but hopefully anyone messing around herbs knows to check a couple sources for possible side effects. I have a couple herbals I use a lot for just that. The author does have a lot of respect for non-Western cultures and belief systems.I don't recommend this book for anyone who needs step by step instructions to feel confident about making home brews or anyone who thinks that home brews need expensive equipment. The brews are basic and easy with simple fermentation processes. But for people who want that and history of beer-like drinks used in sacred practices around the world, it's fantastic.Since I'm a lot more interested in simple beers and wines, it's a book I like a lot. Plus knowing the basic processes of fermentation can help you come up with your own recipes for wines and meads. I think I want to try an Alaskan honey mead using flowers native to Alaska, local honey, and local berries next summer and the recipes in this book are easy enough to adapt I feel fairly confident I can.

I thoroughly enjoyed this comprehensive walk through the world and culture of fermented beverage. It had important beer history of Scotland that the most popular Scotland guide totally missed!

What a beautiful book. Its so elegant and eloquent. Full of recipes and the histories of each plant and beer. It really is going to be a life long companion for me. Its exactly what I needed. I grow various herbs and now I can make my own sacred brews. Thrilled to bits. It's so well put together, simplistic but comprehensive.

This book is a real winner. I love brewing country wines and beers and this book is packed full of recipes for indigenous trees and plants. I've started some birch sap sparkling wine and a sycamore sap sparkling wine (adapted from the Maple recipe) and plan a few others.Being long haired, beardy and with a healthy habit of sitting out by open fires in the woods, it's easy to be empathetic with the author and his connection to nature based beliefs. He immerses into the lives and brewing techniques of indigenous people all over the World, past and present, which adds yet another dimension to the interest value of this book. This is a man who works with respect and with immense researching skills.It's not worth knocking off a star for this tiny point, but I would have been happier with metric measurements in the recipes. Saying that - The conversions are fairly easy.Happy brewing and foraging.

This book is fantastic! It came beautifully wrapped and a message by the seller. yes I will look after this for ever, making some borrage beer very soon! Thank you 🥰

really interesting, loads of recipes and loads of information.

Bought this book on a whim and really didn't expect it to be of such quality. The term "beer" is used loosely as a general term for what seem to be any alcoholic beverage below wine strength as a general rule. Contains folklore, histories, and information on each of the herbs and brews in the book, and well referenced too! Absolutely fantastic. It doesn't have a place on my shelf simply because it's always in use. Well worth it!