Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers

REVIEW:  Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation

In October of 2000 I was fortunate to meet Stephen Harrod Buhner at a Sacred Plant Medicine Workshop he was teaching at Rosemary Gladstar’s Sage Mountain in Vermont. I received an autographed copy of his book “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers”.

The author has a magical way of drawing the reader into his book through interesting facts woven with quotes, stories, and folklore. This book is rich in the history of beer and mead making, healing properties of 200 medicinal plants and trees, and 120 recipes for ancient and indigenous beers and meads from 31 countries.

The chapter with the actual details of brewing, The Ancient Magic of Making Beer starts with this opening paragraph:

“Making a fermented beverage, a beer, is fairly straightforward. Many of the newer texts of the homebrewing movement, however, make it seem more complicated and intimidating that it really is.”

And his Rule Number One of Four Heretical Rules of Brewing:

“Don’t get tense, worried, or think you don’t know enough. Remember that although you are learning an ancient human art and expression of plant medicine, it is important to have fun.”

Chapters

• The Well of Remembrance
• The Mead of Inspiration: Mead, Honey, and Heather
• Yeast: A Magical and Medicinal Plant
• Sacred Indigenous Beers
• Alcohol: Aqua Vitae, the Water of Life
• The Fermentation and Sacredness of Grains
• Psychotropic and Highly Inebriating Beers
• Beers and Ales from Sacred and Medicinal Trees
• Beers and Ales from Sacred and Medicinal Plants
• The Ancient Magic of Making Beer
• Some Meads of the Middle Ages
• Herbs Used in Meads of the Middle Ages: A Brief Compendium
• Sources of Supply and Useful Books

Stephen Buhner is the author of over a dozen books covering plant spirituality, herbalism, natural health and his newest book Ensouling Language: On the Art of Nonfiction and the Writers Life.