Pre-Reinheitsgebot Beer Recipes with Possible Pagan Origin

Before the Reinheitsgebot: Rediscovering Europe’s Forgotten Herbal Beers

In 1516, Bavaria’s Reinheitsgebot—the so-called German Beer Purity Law—banned the use of nearly every ingredient except barley, hops, and water. But before this decree, brewers across Europe crafted their ales with an astonishing variety of herbs, roots, and flowers drawn from the wild: mugwort, yarrow, juniper, heather, and even the infamous henbane. Many of these brews were not merely drinks, they were remnants of older pagan traditions, tied to healing, ritual, and the rhythm of the seasons. In this article, I’ll be exploring these ancient and regional brewing practices that survived quietly in rural corners of Europe long after the purity laws took hold.

As I continue uncovering and testing more of these old recipes myself, I’ll be updating this post with each new discovery along with honest notes about their taste, history, and, when applicable, their curious effects.

Before the 1516 Reinheitsgebot brewers across Europe used a wide variety of herbs, spices, and other botanicals in their beers. These ingredients, often local and sometimes medicinal or even psychoactive, flavored and preserved the brews in the eras when hops were not yet dominant. Many of these traditional recipes, sometimes called gruit ales when unhopped, reflect regional plants and much older brewing practices. Below are five notable examples of old European beer recipes or styles that include herbs beyond the Reinheitsgebot-approved ingredients, along with references to sources or modern recreations of those recipes:

1. Medieval Gruit Ales (Western Europe) – Gruit was the common term for the herb mixture used to bitter and flavor ale before hops. Medieval gruit beers often featured a blend of bitter-aromatic herbs such as bog myrtle (sweet gale), wild rosemary (marsh rosemary), and yarrow, sometimes alongside spices like juniper berries, caraway, or ginger. medievalmeadandbeer.wordpress.commedievalmeadandbeer.wordpress.com.  For example, a reconstructed pre-14th-century Belgian gruit ale recipe used bog myrtle, yarrow, wild rosemary, and juniper for flavoring instead of hops. medievalmeadandbeer.wordpress.com. These herbal beers were regionally distinctive; historical records from Cologne (1393) even list additives like caraway, anise, and juniper, plus mentions of sought-after ingredients like laserwort resin for preservation. (See Medieval Gruit Ale references and recipes in Harrison’s Old British Beers and Bessette’s Gruit Ale research. 

2. Scottish Heather Ale (Fraoch) – In the British Isles, one famed ancient brew is heather ale, which uses heather flowers in place of hops. Scottish legends claim the Picts brewed a secret heather beer, and modern analyses of Neolithic residues in Scotland have found traces of heather, meadowsweet, and sweet gale used in brewing. A modern recreation based on this tradition (Discovery World’s “5,000-year-old” ale project) included “a generous amount of barley malt… and, in lieu of hops, heather tips, meadowsweet flowers and sweet gale infused during the boil.” The result is a floral, aromatic ale with hints of peat and honey. The heather beer tradition has been revived by breweries like Williams Bros. in Scotland – their Fraoch Leann (Heather Ale) is brewed with wild heather flowers (and sometimes a touch of bog myrtle), yielding a light amber, spicy herbal beer. (Source: Discovery World’s Neolithic Heather Ale brew and Williams Bros. Fraoch)  distantmirror.wordpress.comdistantmirror.wordpress.com.

3. Finnish Sahti – Sahti is a traditional farmhouse ale from Finland that predates the use of hops and instead relies on juniper branches and berries for flavor and preservation. Brewed since at least medieval times (and likely of Viking Age origin), sahti typically uses a mix of malted grains (barley, plus rye or oats) and is filtered through or boiled with fresh juniper boughs. The juniper imparts a piney, forest-like aroma and a smooth bitterness in the absence of hops. Traditional sahti also ferments with baker’s yeast or heritage yeast (often yielding banana-like and clove flavors) and is served unfiltered. For example, a typical sahti recipe might mash barley and rye, use juniper twigs as a filter bed in a hollow log tun, and add no hops – “the style predates the use of hops in beer, but juniper serves a similar role” in providing bitterness and microbial stability. Sahti remains a living tradition in Finland (now a protected designation), and you can find recipes through brewing resources. (source: byo.com.

4. English Wormwood Ale (Purl) – In early modern England, wormwood ale – known as purl – was a popular herbal beer especially in the 17th–18th centuries. Originally, purl was made by infusing ale with the tops of wormwood plants (Artemisia species) to impart a strong bitter flavor. Sometimes other bitter herbs like orange peel or senna were added as well for their tonic and purgative properties. This concoction was often enjoyed hot in the mornings by laborers and was even considered a remedy against ailments (hence its early association with plague cures). Samuel Pepys in 1660 mentions stopping for “a draft of purle” (wormwood ale) in his diary, and Shakespeare and Dickens made literary references to purl as a “strong and heady” mixed drink. By the 19th century the recipe evolved – wormwood was sometimes omitted in favor of ale mulled with gin, sugar, and spices – but historic recipes for original wormwood purl survive. (Source: Wikipedia and historical drink archives) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purl.

5. Henbane Beer (Bilsenkräut-Bier) – One of the more notorious ancient brews involved henbane (Hyoscyamus niger, a toxic nightshade) as a psychoactive additive. Prior to 1516, German and central European beers sometimes included henbane to increase intoxication and induce a mild hallucinogenic effect. In fact, “bilsenkräut” (German for henbane) was so commonly used in some regions that it lent its name to places – for example, it’s speculated that the Czech town Pilsen (Plzeň) and the original pilsner beers once derived bitterness from henbane before hops. vinepair.com Archaeological evidence backs up henbane’s role: a 2,550-year-old Celtic beer recipe found in Germany called for henbane as an ingredient vinepair.com, and residues at the Neolithic site of Skara Brae in Scotland show beer made with hemlock, nightshade, meadowsweet, and henbane – a truly mind-bending brew. Henbane beers (sometimes called “witches’ brews”) were believed to have aphrodisiac and mind-altering properties beverage-world.com, but they also carried risks of poisoning. These hallucinogenic ales were outlawed in Bavaria by the Reinheitsgebot of 1516, yet similar herbal beers survived elsewhere for some time. Modern experimental brewers have recreated henbane beer recipes (strictly for research, given henbane’s dangers) – for instance, a “Magical Brew” recipe includes barley malt, honey, and a dose of henbane herb added at the end of the boil. Find one of those recipes here for educational purposes. crescentcitybrewtalk.comcrescentcitybrewtalk.com. (Sources: VinePair article on henbane beer history, Crescent City Brew Talk recipe)

Each of these examples illustrates the fascinating diversity of historic European brewing. Long before hops became universal, brewers used whatever local plants were available – from heather flowers on Scottish moors to juniper in Nordic forests – to craft beers with unique flavors and effects. Many modern brewers and beer historians are reviving these herbal beer recipes, so you can explore the links above for detailed recipes and references to brew your own ancient ale or simply to learn more about these traditions