Featured Homebrewer:Fischer Jex & Ancient Brewing Techniques

April 14, 2008

Fischer C. Jex is one home-brewer who is not concerned about hop shortages. He’s keeping alive ancient brewing traditions while incorporating alternative ingredients taken from the natural world around him. He is willing to share his love and knowledge of ancient brewing techniques and will be holding a demonstration on May 17th at Circle Pines Center. The Center is known for the event that they used to host called “BrewSki.” An event combining brewing, cross-country skiing and a dinner which incorporates beer into all of the courses.

Name: Fischer C. Jex

Location: Middle of Everywhere - Barry Co. (near Hastings) Michigan

How long have you been brewing: Going on 7yrs

What got you interested in ancient brewing techniques: I’ve always wondered how folks did things before industrial civilization. My parents say one of the most common questions from me was “did the Indians have this?” and “how did the Indians do this?” That curiosity, coupled with my love of all things Wild (paired with being dirt poor) got me hooked on DIY/Outdoors everything. I dream of a day when I’m completely self-sufficient. I started brewing with ‘weeds and sticks’ - according to hop-snobs. To me they were healthy, delicious, free, wild and wonderful herbs. I never understood why anyone still is proud of strict ‘Purity Law’ beers. Imagine making soup with only water, onions, potatoes and carrots. Sure, you could have many different soup recipes and there are lots of varieties and sources for all those ingredients - and they’d all be good - but why limit yourself unless you were forced to? The Reinheitsgebot is no longer enforced, but few seem to be really stepping away from it completely or questioning what that enforcement was really about.

I was also inspired while researching my own ancestry. While reading a book on Ancient Ireland I found this: “the newcomers to 16th century Ireland brought with them not only their farming methods and their money, but also their tastes… They were appalled by the Native population’s willingness to devour animal entrails and eat carrion, and by their unhopped ales…” So what were these Unhopped Ales? I had to find it out. And hey, maybe even drink them while eating entrails and carrion…

Style of brewing: All grain, even thought I’ve done ‘ales’ with no grain and no hops. My favorite of these was a traditional fermented herb beverage of the Northern Tribes of N. America and its known that they used these beers to cure Whitey of scurvy from their long journey overseas. I harvested all the herbs on the US -Canada Border in the wilderness, used maple syrup I made as the sugar source. Turned out fantastic.

First beer ever brewed: Spruce Ale. I used White Spruce, a tree that was too resinous. Black Spruce is the favored brewing spruce in northern tradition, but I only know of one tree in a 100 mile radius of where I live and I don’t want to over-harvest. I do make sure I stock up when I go up north though. Henry David Thoreau wrote of Spruce Ales in Maine Woods: “…a lumberman’s drink… it would acclimate a man at once, and if he drank much of it, he would see green, and if he slept, would hear the wind sigh among the pines…” I did not see green. But the wind does sigh every time I sip it.

Favorite batch:Flavor-wise, an Ebulon I recently bottled. Ebulonis a traditional ale from the British Isles brewed with Elderberries. I hate berry beers, but Elder is different. Dark and not really sweet. The Williams Bros. Brewing co (www.Fraoch.com) do an excellent commercial version they call Ebulum. I did a stout-like beer with about 1 lb berries per 5 gal. Bitteringherbs were Black Spruce and a pinch of lavender. The berries give it a smooth wine-like finish. Recently someone told me “it tastes like Christmas!” I hope that was a good thing. Rural Norwegians used to judge a beer on whether or not it gave you ‘Christmas Head,’ (a good thing). But what that means, I may never know.
On principle, though, my favorite is my ‘Savagery Ale’ I mentioned in the question before last, cuz I remember every plant we harvested in such a beautiful place.

Method of serving: Bottles. I love to collect different bottles, although its kind of tedious capping 10 different sizes. I prefer swing-tops anyway.

Lesson learned while brewing: I think all that poisonous cleaning agents they’ll try and sell you is crap, at least on a home brewing scale. I sterilize everything with boiling tea made w/ antiseptic, antibacterial herbs (sage, lavender, or rosemary usually). It comes out great, the house smells and feels good and natural, as opposed to Janitorial bleach killing your nasal receptors. I first heard of this strict emphasis on chemical cleaners only after I’d started brewing. The first thing I ever brewed was a dandelion wine, half out of curiosity, half because I wasn’t of legal age to buy. I found the recipe in an old country living book that was falling apart. So I picked a bunch of flower heads and poured sugar-waterover them in a crock and put a garbage bag over it. Stirred it every day with my bare unwashed hands. Strained it through an old t-shirt and put it in milk jugswithballoons on top. Still the best wine I’ve ever had. How’s that for sterility? I don’t do that kind of crap any more, but its still fun to reminisce on the crazy stuff you happen to get away with.

Advice for those thinking of brewing Traditional Ales: There’s a condition we’re all familiar with, some more than others. It’s known in England as ‘Brewers Droop’. It comes from too much contact with hops. Lets just say women can’t get it, and guys cant get it up.
Get a good medicinal plant guide for your bioregion and learn the local flora. Its way easy and been in our lineage for thousands of generations, its only natural that we begin to awake to new (olde) ways of connecting to the world around us. I have never paid for any brewing herb, but I think I’m gonna try an ale w/ Caraway since that was a major Scandinavian brewing ingredient, and I don’t grow it. When I do use hops in with other herbs, I use the cascade my mom grows and I know a few wild sources around here.

The satisfaction of drinking a frothy ale with bittering health-stimulating plants you know and harvested can’t be described. And there’s no book like Buhner’sSacred and Herbal Healing Beers. Tons of crazy recipes, mythology and folklore surrounding beer, and lots more. With common medicinal plants you can actually brew beers - once very popular - that tone and strengthen your liver, believe it or not. To try some ancient styles of beer, come to our workshop at Circle Pines Center in mid-May!

For a copy of the flier for the May 17 “Homebrewing Arvel” click here to download or e-mail Fischer at subvertise@hotmail.com.

Posted in Beer History, Featured Homebrewer