Yarrow
Yarrow is a feathery-leaved, white- to pink-flowered perennial herb with a bitter, astringent, pungent character. It has long been used in herbal infusions, and historically as a bittering and flavoring herb for unhopped ales. Today it appears in herbal teas, bitters, liqueurs, and revived gruit-style beers.
How yarrow is prepared
Leaves and flowers are steeped as a herbal tea. Historically the herb was added to or infused in beer, and it is often cited as a component of medieval gruit. It is still used in some bitters and herbal liqueurs, and modern craft brewers add it to hop-free or low-hop gruit-style ales and other botanical brews.
Other preparations
The ingredient list says verbena; the product introduction names lemon verbena. The extract is added before the bottle fermentation.[4][5]
In depth
Ancient roots: a healing herb taken as a drink
Yarrow's bond with people is very old. The plant has been found in association with Neanderthal burials, and classical tradition links it to Achilles, who was said to have used it on the battlefield at Troy. Its main reputation in antiquity was as a wound herb. Romans knew it as herba militaris, and later English names such as bloodwort and staunchweed echo that role. Alongside these external uses, the leaves and flowers were steeped in water, making yarrow one of the many bitter herbs that entered drinking culture first as medicine. The herb's astringency and pungent, peppery aroma shaped these early infusions, and they would later shape its role in brewing.[1]
Medieval Europe: yarrow and the gruit question
Before hops became the standard bittering agent, brewers in the Low Countries and northwestern Germany flavored ale with gruit, a herbal mixture. Gruit was often sold under local monopoly licenses that effectively taxed beer. Yarrow is frequently listed among gruit herbs, together with bog myrtle, mugwort, ground ivy, horehound, and heather. Historians urge caution, however. The core historical gruit ingredients appear to have been bog myrtle or marsh rosemary, laurel berries, and laserwort, and surviving Dutch and German city accounts from the gruit region do not record yarrow. Yarrow's place in medieval brewing is plausible and widely repeated, but it is better documented in later and more northerly traditions. Hops gradually displaced herbal flavorings across Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, largely because they were cheaper and kept beer stable for longer.[2]
Scandinavia: the 'field hop' of Swedish brewing
The firmest historical evidence for yarrow in beer comes from Sweden. The naturalist Linnaeus recorded that people in Dalarna (the Dalecarlians) infused the herb in their beer. Its Swedish brewing use is also preserved in the English folk name 'field hop.' In this role yarrow did the job hops would otherwise do: it contributed bitterness, aroma, and a sense of sharpness to rustic household ales. These Swedish customs belong to a wider Nordic world of farmhouse brewing that used local botanicals. Neighboring examples include Finnish sahti and Gotland's dricka, both flavored mainly with juniper rather than yarrow.[1]
North America: Indigenous infusions and decoctions
Native North American varieties of yarrow were an important medicine for many Indigenous nations, and much of that use took the form of liquids. The Navajo, who regarded it as a 'life medicine,' prepared infusions for earaches. Chumash people boiled the plant and held the liquid in the mouth to ease toothache. Plains peoples used yarrow preparations against pain and fever and to aid sleep, and the Miwok of California used it for head colds. These were remedies rather than everyday beverages. Still, they show a long tradition of extracting yarrow in water, and later settlers adopted and extended that tradition in their own folk teas.[1]
Folk tisanes and modern herbal tea
In European and North American household practice, yarrow became a common herbal tea, or tisane. The leaves and flowers, fresh or dried, are steeped in hot water. The resulting drink is bitter and astringent, with a grassy, faintly aniseed-like aroma. Many drinkers soften it with honey or blend it with gentler herbs such as mint, chamomile, or elderflower. Yarrow still appears among the standard non-caffeinated herbal infusions. As with many medicinal herbs, it is usually recommended in modest amounts. It contains small quantities of thujone and can trigger allergic reactions in people sensitive to plants of the daisy family.[3]
Bitters and herbal liqueurs
After it left mainstream brewing, yarrow found a lasting place in the European tradition of bitter herbal drinks. Its flowers and leaves are still used in some liqueurs and bitters. In these drinks its sharp, peppery bitterness works alongside other aromatic botanicals in the digestive-style preparations that grew out of monastic and apothecary practice. In this context yarrow is rarely the headline flavor. It is typically one component of a complex blend, valued for adding a dry, resinous edge.[1]
The craft revival: gruit ales and botanical brews
Beginning with the microbrewery movement of the 1990s, brewers in North America and Europe grew interested in unhopped and lightly hopped herbal beers. Yarrow became one of the signature herbs of the modern gruit revival. Contemporary gruit-style ales often pair it with sweet gale, mugwort, heather, or Labrador tea. Some experimental brewers have also fermented yarrow flowers with grape must. Since 2013, brewers interested in the style have marked 1 February as International Gruit Day. The same approach carries over into the low- and no-alcohol field, where yarrow appears in herbal sodas, botanical infusions, and home-fermented drinks that aim for the bitter, aromatic complexity once supplied by hop-free ales.[2]
References
- [1]EncyclopediaAchillea millefolium — Wikipedia↑§1↑§3↑§4↑§6
- [2]EncyclopediaGruit — Wikipedia↑§2↑§7
- [3]EncyclopediaHerbal tea — Wikipedia↑§5
- [4]Product informationN°5 Pét-nat Rosé↑prepared
- [5]Product informationN°5 Pét-nat Rosé 750ml↑prepared