Brewing with botanicals is the future. According to global market research and insight provider Mintel the future is plant-powered, with healthier lifestyles motivating consumers to prioritise fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and botanicals.
Brew with botanicals
Not only are recipes and spirits using botanicals, a trend that’s gaining traction as part of a broader movement for high quality natural ingredients, it’s also nothing new in brewing. Long before hops were used to bitter beer, botanicals were cast in starring roles – namely as a herb mixture called gruyt, which made the most of local ingredients from rosemary to juniper berries.
That’s why at Lowlander we are brewing with botanicals as a nod to this ancient practice, and to lead to some more interesting beers for people to enjoy. We draw on the journeys of the Lowlanders to far away lands and the abundance of exotic herbs and spices discovered there as the start point for all our beers. Then, we begin the process of brewing each beer around these herbs, spices, fruits and lesser-known ingredients: coriander, liquorice root, blood orange and sumac to name a few. By doing this we’re combining the botanicals with the beer in a way that is more complex and better balanced, in order to make something that has a unique taste all of its own.
Botanically brewed beers
Frederik Kampman, Chief Botanical Officer of Lowlander says: “There are endless possible botanical ingredients and there is also an increased preference for plant ingredients. We’re really proud to embrace botanicals to brew beers with unique flavour and character, including our most recent American Pale Ale brewed with blood orange, grapefruit and sumac. It will give people more options for great tasting beer, as well as expanding the horizons of the beer category.”
Our current range of botanically brewed beers includes:
- Lowlander White Ale – 5% ABV: Inspired by the witbier style of beer so popular in the Lowlands but with a bit of a twist. Our While Ale is spiked with Curaçao orange peel, elderflower and chamomile. Refreshing and crisp with a fruity, flowery finish.
- Lowlander Pale Ale – 4.5% ABV: Inspired by the early Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam now known as New York. Our Pale Ale is brewed with blood orange, grapefruit and sumac (our favourite lemony spice, native to New Amsterdam), to create a zesty, citrus, and highly sessionable beer with a slight bitterness & malty finish.
- Lowlander IPA – 6% ABV: Inspired by Dutch expeditions to the Far East. Indonesian as opposed to Indian, our IPA uses coriander and white tea to give it that true IPA hoppy-bitterness, but with a unique citrusy freshness and spicy aromatic note.
- Lowlander Poorter – 6% ABV: Inspired by the ‘poorter’s’ that would haul exotic botanicals from the dockside into Amsterdam warehouses. Brewed with aromatic liquorice root (a favourite of the Lowlanders) and vanilla to deliver a robust Poorter with sweetness and depth.
The use of non-traditional ingredients means that there are no boundaries for our creative process. We love to hear feedback from you, our fellow beer-enthusiasts, so if you’re itching to see your favourite botanical make an appearance in a Lowlander Beer please get in touch. If you just want to follow our journey and see where it takes us follow us on Facebook and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss a drop of our discoveries.
