The first brewers only used one kettle to brew beer. The same kettle was used to blend the ingredients, to boil the liquid and was set to ferment. Such an old brew kettle can still be seen at the Gruuthuse Museum in Bruges - Flanders. About 1000 years ago we see brewers use more than one kettle. At the same time the use of Hops in beer started in the abbeys of Flanders. But it took at least another 400 years before the use of Hops was common, and had replaced the use of "Gruut".
Gruut was a blend of all kinds of dried spices and plants. The purpose was to give specific tastes to the beer, and have some clearing and conserving effects. The gruut was different from area to area, and depended from the type of plants growing in the area, and the accessibility of imported spices and plants. Gruut was a very important commodity, offering a lot of profit for the Lords controlling the making and the trade of gruut. These local noblemen, controlling the trade, were the men who resisted and forbade the use of hops in the local breweries. Eventually they had to give in, by incorporating the hops-trade in their business. For example, in Bruges, Jan van Brugghe, lord of Gruuthuse, had 15 employees controlling his monopoly on the making of gruut.Since the Abbeys were not obliged to buy gruut, they were the first to use hops into their beer. In a lot of the Belgian Ales, we see that the brewer still uses some spices and dry plants in the brew kettle to give a certain flavor and aroma to his beers. It is obvious that this practice is a reminiscence of the use of gruut hundreds of years ago. Today, in such beers, we also always have hops as an important ingredient. Our HOUTEN KOP, spiced ale, is a typical example.
Newsletter October, 1997
