Hops weren’t always the balancing/bittering agent of choice. At various times and places, brewers used other plants to balance the malt.
Artemsia
What has science done?
Brown ale brewed with two-row barley and molasses, and flavored with mugwort (the "dream herb," related to sagebrush and a cousin of wormwood), sweet orange peel and chamomile. As with wormwood, mugwort is regarded as useful in repelling moths.
Jenever
The horse of the hanged
No hops are used in Jenever, recalling the days before the magic cone came to be accepted as the chosen bittering agent in beer. Instead, crushed juniper berries balance the malt, and a touch of rye completes a tasty, bucolic scene.
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