Talking Head: Just gruit!
Prior to the extensive use of hops, European brewers typically used a mixture of plants and herbs called gruit, or grut. Here are a few contemporary interpretations that will challenge your notions of what beer should taste like.
With the high cost and limited availability of hops over the past year, brewers have shown an increased interest in returning to early beer recipes for an alternative source to bitter and spice their beers. Prior to the extensive use of hops, European brewers typically used a mixture of plants and herbs called gruit, or grut. The core ingredients in gruit were sweet gale, yarrow and marsh rosemary, each of which contributed desirable characteristics, such as flavoring, bittering and preservatives. Brewers added other herbs, spices and plants, including juniper berries, caraway seeds, anise, ginger and nutmeg to create individual flavor profiles.
The primary herbs used in gruit also had another characteristic: They were noted intoxicants, inducing euphoria and stimulating the libido. Hops, on the other hand, were known to be more soporific than stimulating, decreasing sexual desire and leading to sleep.