Earlier this year I made my first two mushroom beers based on Randy Mosher’s Nirvana Chanterelle Ale from Radical Brewing (predictable Amazon affiliate link)
I kept the same grain bill and used the same yeast varying only the hops and the procedure for getting raw mushroom flavour in to the beer for both batches.
Image Credit: Colris
Warning Before Brewing with Mushrooms
All raw mushrooms are poisonous to some extent. You can eat some raw mushrooms without any noticeable effect, while others will kill you. Get a good book about mushrooms and check if there is a real danger before brewing a mushroom beer. You have been warned.
Bottom Line: I polished off plenty of mushroom beer without any ill effect and I’ll polish off plenty more.
Getting the Mushroom into the Beer
For the first batch, I soaked 0.9kg (2lbs) of winter chanterelles in vodka for 3 weeks, per Mosher, before adding the chanterelle-flavoured vodka to the secondary. When I bottled the beer, you could taste the vodka quite clearly. But after 3 weeks in the bottle, the vodka flavour completely disappeared.
For the second batch, I added 2.0 kg (4.5lbs) of winter chanterelles directly to the secondary and let the mushrooms sit in the beer for three weeks before bottling.
I was worried that the second batch would get contaminated, wild mushrooms aren’t exactly the cleanest thing you can put in your mouth. I figured the extended time with vodka would be enough to keep undesirables from the beer.
As it turned out, both beers were fine, but I’d worry about using raw wild mushrooms in a weaker beer.
The Base Beer
I used the same decoction mash for both beers, or at least tried. They were among my first decoction mashes and were a little messy, but I hit rests of 45, 62, and 68 before mashing out.
- 4.3 kgs (9.5 lbs) 2-Row
- 0.9 kgs (2lbs) ESB Malt
- 0.7 kgs (1.5lbs) Munich
- 0.7 kgs (1.5lbs) Wheat Malt
- 0.2 kgs (0.5 lbs) Biscuit Malt
- 28 g (1oz) Hallertau (boil)
- Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abby
For the first beer, I adjusted Mosher’s recipe for low alpha-acid pellet hops.
| 35 g | (1.25 oz) | Saaz Pellets | for 90 mins |
| 57 g | (2 oz) | Saaz Pellets | for 30 mins |
| 57 g | (2 oz) | Saaz Pellets | for 10 mins |
| 21 g | (0.75 oz) | Cascade Pellets | finishing hops |
For the second beer, I switched up the hops so I could use whole hops instead of the pellets.
| 21 g | (0.75 oz) | Northern Brewer | for 90 mins |
| 21 g | (0.75 oz) | Cascade/Northern Brewer | for 15 mins |
| 21 g | (0.75 oz) | Cascade/Northern Brewer | finishing hops |
OG = 1.070
FG = 1.016
Tasting Notes
The first beer was exquisite. Mostly the mushrooms added a cousin-of-yeast flavour that stood up very well to the full-bodied beer. It didn’t taste like mushrooms, but every now and again the full aroma of winter chanterelles would really hit you. I’ve never tasted anything like it, sometimes you could drink a whole glass without the blast of chanterelle, but suddenly it would come out only to disappear again in an instant.
I actually won an award for this beer at CAMRA BC’s home brewing competition. Before you shower me with accolades, I was the only one entered in my category. But I got some great feedback on the beer.
Both judges had a difficulty detecting mushroom flavours. I can’t say I’m surprised given the ephemeral aroma and the very yeast-like flavours. I get a lot of wild mushrooms, so I’m probably a little more sensitive to their flavour. I think the beer’s mushroom flavours really complemented the yeast flavours, but it wasn’t easy to tell them apart.
The second beer was good, but not great. I used more than double the mushrooms and their flavour was very evident. I’m sure the CAMRA judges would have agreed that the first beer surpassed the second even though the mushrooms weren’t obvious.
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I’m about to embark on a similar journey. I’ve been dreaming of a mushroom beer for a while now. Have you considered black chanterelle? There have a much bigger flavor/aroma. That is what I plan to use though I only have enough for a small batch.
If I could get Black Chanterelles here, I would try.
The variety of Chanterelles across North America is amazing. I found some red-salmon coloured ones in Georgia.
I’m thinking about using a porter base for my chanterelle beer. I can find plenty of chanterelles in my area, so that’s not a problem. What we’re still playing with is when to add the shrooms. The vodka way would be easy, and I tried a martini that way last year and it was very interesting. I’d rather cook them or just add them raw. I will be entering my beer into a chanterelle cook-off held at the end of February. Any input would be appreciated.
It’s come to my attention that all raw mushrooms are to some extent poisonous, so maybe cooking would be better. I’ve used raw and enjoyed the results, but if you eat or drink raw mushrooms regularly you are going to have problems.
I haven’t tried them cooked yet, maybe in the next few months with Winter Chanterelles. But I think it would definitely be worth trying. For a porter, dried chanterelles seem to be the most intriguing to me, but I have really no idea how it would turn out.
I think it’s probably best to avoid darker, heavier beers like porters to begin with. Something a little lighter will probably show the mushrooms a lot better and then you can move on to mixing the mushrooms with darker beers.