The practice of chucking random herbs into beer is as old as brewing itself. Despite learning five or six centuries ago that hops are just better—and that we really don’t need to throw any other botanicals into the kettle or fermentor—we’ve never really kicked the habit.
For much more perspective on that, ponder Randy Mosher’s column on the botanical playground—not to mention our Ask the Pros piece featuring the team at Scratch. They put 131 different botanical bits and bobs into a saison and yet, because they are magicians, still made a delicious beer.
Many of those botanicals might be esoteric, hard to find, or just plain rare, so we thought it might be nice for a change to spotlight an herb that might well be growing in leafy abundance in your garden, backyard, or on your windowsill—or, if not, you can certainly find a bunch at the supermarket.
I’m talking about basil—or, as my kids call it, “pizza leaves.”
Basil needs no introduction, so let’s skip to the fun facts:
- Its name comes from the Greek or Latin for king or kingly—it’s the “royal plant,” and historians speculate that the name may come from its past use in royal perfumes.
- There are many types of Ocimum basilicum, but the most common in North America and Europe is sweet basil—that’s the garden-variety stuff that adds color and aroma to a margherita pizza or bowl of pasta.
- Other types include lemon basil—which is lemony, go figure—and Thai basil, with its somewhat spicier, licorice-like flavor. (They do not include the “holy basil” that’s important to many Thai dishes—it’s technically in the mint-sage family and not basil at all.)
Basil is native to the tropics and thrives there, but people grow it successfully in warmer months around the world—so it’s found its way into a wide range of cuisines and dishes. There are not so many, however, who chuck it into beer.
Brewing with Basil
As with many herbs, basil’s sweet, spicy character is hops-adjacent—as long as it’s balanced with the base beer. Otherwise, you risk evoking pasta sauce—which may be your goal, as with beers such as WeldWerks Spaghetti Gose or the Mamma Mia Pizza Beer (also mentioned here in the Spring 2025 issue, in “Special Ingredient: Garlic”).
One of the best-known basil beers is Belgian—Lindemans SpontanBasil. A blend of traditional lambics steeped with fresh basil, the gimmicky collab with Danish brand Mikkeller became a regular fixture after appearing in 2015. The bright, grapefruity acidity and the freshly piquant herb make for an unexpected combo that works well with pesto or similar dishes.
Not surprisingly, the aforementioned Scratch also brews with foraged or homegrown basil. The herb’s affinity with fruit means it also appears in beers such as the Strawberry Basil Hefeweizen from Forbidden Root in Chicago.
Another Chicago beer that makes more prominent use of the herb is Burning Bush St. Basil, an amber ale that’s “dry-herbed” with fresh basil to the tune of about nine ounces per barrel (or 2.2 grams per liter). It was originally one of founder Brent Raska’s homebrew recipes.
“I had been growing my own basil in my garden, and the thought of adding a fresh ingredient that was homegrown was also intriguing,” Raska says. “The first batch, we used just sweet basil, and it was a big hit among my friends. And as we tried more batches, we decided to add Thai basil as well. The Thai basil added a touch of spice and complexity to the beer that matched perfectly with the other flavors.”
He describes the aroma as “herbaceous,” providing some hop-like flavor that is still identifiably basil. It also plays well with the amber ale’s caramel malt, he says.
Burning Bush mostly uses fresh or frozen basil leaves, homegrown. “We have a need for large quantities of basil, so we need to harvest throughout the summer, vacuum seal, and freeze most of the basil we use,” Raska says. “We have tried adding basil in the boil and during fermentation, but we like the flavor best as a secondary addition. We basically treat adding the basil like a dry-hop addition in the fermentor.”
One tip from the experienced basil brewer: Use just the leaves, not the stems, which “tend to add more bitterness and less flavor.” Burning Bush also has experimented with adding basil extract, “but as with most extracts, it can give a little hint of what we call a ‘diet’ or fake flavor. The extract is also typically very powerful, so a little goes a long way.”
The best way to source basil, Raska says, is fresh and local. Burning Bush currently has 16 pots of sweet basil and four more of Thai basil growing on its patio, right next to the Chicago River. “Prior to growing it at the brewery, I would grow all of that basil at my house, which was a ton of work,” he says. “We would grow and harvest the basil all summer so that we could make one batch of St. Basil at the end of July, to be released in August.”
One batch is seven barrels, so it takes four to five pounds of leaves—a typical addition might be four pounds of sweet basil and a half-pound of Thai basil. “We have found that a little Thai basil can go a long way and add a more complex, slightly spicy flavor to the beer,” Raska says. With the sweet basil, on the other hand, he suggests using “more than you think you need” the first time.
The Burning Bush team also tastes the herbed beer in the days after adding it, so they can simply remove the basil once the aroma is where they like it. “We put it in a large mesh bag so that we can remove it from the fermentor after about four or five days,” Raska says.
They also add the basil to Eden, their strawberry-basil blonde ale.
“I find that in most cases, if it works in baking, it works in brewing,” Raska says. “The strawberry-basil idea was one that had been lingering in my head from a baked good. Then, as our sensory team was tasting and experimenting with different purees, I ran out onto the patio and grabbed a couple leaves of sweet basil and threw one in each taster’s glass for them to try. The whole team was shocked at how much the basil brought to an already tasty beer.
“Honestly, I think basil could make a great addition to a lot of different styles. One that I may try in the future would be an IPA.”
