A History of Gruit excerpts from Richard W. Unger's work

A History of Brewing in Holland offers an educating view on gruit: "Without doubt there in that period the most popular additive, by far and away, was someting called gruit".

A Short Treatise on Homebrewing &
The True Meaning of Gruit by Dave Bonta

But what's wrong with hops? Nothing, if you need help to sleep, going to the bathroom or going through menopause.

The Fall of Gruit & the Rise of Brewer's Droop
by Stephen Harrod Buhner

It would have been inconceivable to our ancestors that gruit could ever be forgotten (...) but for most of European history gruit (or sometimes grut) was what beer was.

Gruit: Past and present
by Alexandre Bessette

Gruit can be understood in a historically precise sense, but also in a larger view: when Hops are optional, call it Gruit Ale.

GRUIT ALE'PLORATIONS : What should gruit taste like? How different is it from a hopped beer? As the tradition of gruit had all but died out, brewers have few refrences to predict what to expect from their gruit. The gruit ale'plorations project are my effort to supply some hands on information about brewing and tasting gruit ale.

This first gruit ale'ploration involves brewing an unhopped 50L (13G) Dubbel style ale. No Hops nor any other herbs are added to the brewing. But in order to have more flexibility on tasting and sampling, I've prepared brewing tinctures in high proof alcohol to be added before -or even after, bottleling. Liftoff!

The Gruit Ale'plorations project (part I)
Preparing brewing tinctures

Herbal tinctures are potent, spirit based, liquid extracts. The basic idea is to isolate, liquefy and sterilize the principal character of spices and herbs through alcohol.

The Gruit Ale'plorations project (part II)
Brewing a 50L mash

A step-by-step brewing of an unhopped "dubbel" beer, hefty and malty enough to support and balance the blending of strong herbal tinctures.

In a nutshell: How beer is brewed
By Martyn Cornell

Here is, in a nutshell, what brewing is all about. The following is Appendix II from Martyn Cornell's excellent book Beer: the Story of the Pint.

The Kirin gruit
Kirin Brewing Co.

In 2004, Kirin reproduced gruit ale as the second stage of its ‘Five Thousand Years of Beer’ research project, to "explore the roots of the modern hopped beer".

Hops Substitutes & Alternatives
by Alexandre Bessette

A small list of plants known to have been used in beer.

The botanicals in Gruit Ale
by Alexandre Bessette

I n essence, standart Gruit Ale is primarily a combination of three mild to moderatly narcotic herbs...

Points to remember in composing a Good Gruit
by Dave Bonta

From my own, fairly limited experience, here are some points to remember in composing a good gruit: