Hyssop

I have not been able to get hold of bogmyrtle which was used to some degree in the middle ages. Supposedly, hyssop was also used. It was used as a replacement for hops.

For this one, I used:
700Gr Pale malt
150Gr Crystal malt
30Gr Hyssop <- instead of hops

The mashing produced about 15 liter of liquid holding about 1030 in gravity.

Irish moss was added after 45 minutes of boiling and the wort was left to boil for another 15 minutes.

After I stopped the boiling, I immediately started to cool it as quickly as possible by putting the pot in cold water with the tap on to continuously replace the cooling water.

Ale yeast and 2 weeks of fermentation before botteling.

Odd, but interesting taste of the wort.

I usually put 10% of the wort in the fridge to use during the bottling. But this time it had gone totally off and I had to prepare a sugar brew (boil sugar, a tiny amount of citric acid and boil for 15 min to break down the sugar. More about that later.)

End result.
Simply put, discusting. After a couple of weeks in the bottles to ferment/carbonize the beer, it was kind of slimy and revolting. I poured out the lot.

Lesson learned. Hops are your friend. As far as we know, even Vikings may have had hops, the academics still argue if they used it for brewing or not.