Intro To Herbs And Spices
Flavoring delicious beer didn’t begin with hops, it began with herbs and spices. While beer has been brewed for many thousands of years, hops have only been a major ingredient for the last 500. Herbs and spices have long been a dominant beer flavoring, and that tradition still carries through today with flavors like coriander and juniper being indispensable additions to some of the oldest beers in the world. While these ingredients are still commonly found in many breweries, we push the envelope by offering a wider range of ingredients to choose from, along with unparalleled freshness.
Seasonal Spices
One way many craft breweries showcase their creative prowess is through the release of seasonal beers. These unique brews are a way to bring fun new ideas to market and capture the essence of each season, spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Spring and summer beers usher in the warmer weather with fruitier herbal styles with crisp mouthfeels and less malt. These styles include weiss beers, IPAs, lagers, and more. For these seasonal styles, brewers should be exploring fragrant herbs like spearmint, lemongrass, rosemary, cilantro, chives, and dill. These refreshing herbal notes in combination with a bright hop selection will help your beers pair well with anything that comes off the grill during the hot summer months.
In the fall and winter, heavily spiced beers are king. With the colder weather comes the desire for a stronger drink with higher alcohol content, and stronger flavors that almost stick to your ribs. Brown ales, stouts, dark ales, pumpkin beers, and the famous Oktoberfests reign supreme. Popular winter spices for craft brewing include juniper, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and more. Take a look at our “Off the Beaten Path” section for some ideas on how you can get creative with your flavor profiles towards the middle and end of the year!
Gruit
Hops are the most prominent herb in beer today, but beer is an ancient beverage and in the beginning, there was Gruit. Instead of hops, the original craft brewers experimented with a wide variety of herbs and spices to add delicious flavor to their beer. These included but were not limited to aromatic ingredients like elderflower, mugwort, heather, fennel, sage, and a wide variety of teas. Today this style of brewing lives on as gruit, the German word for herb.
Gruits have been quietly gaining in popularity on today’s craft brewing scene due to the overwhelming demand for new experiences amongst beer drinkers. This is in spite of the fact that gruit can be hard to find, with under 300 gruits being produced in volume today. Help modern beer drinkers discover this age-old beverage by brewing some of your own!

Off the beaten path
Fortune favors the bold, and tomorrow’s most successful craft brewers will be the ones who are innovating today. Creative flavor profiles require high-quality creative ingredients, and at Burma Spice, you’ll find some of the most exotic gourmet spices on earth. Blaze your own trail with a select group of ingredients that will distinguish your creations from the competition and take your brewery “Off the Beaten Path”.
Our Programs For Craft Brewers
At Burma Spice, we are sourcing new herbs and spices all the time. Do you need help finding the perfect ingredients for your next big brew? We can help. Contact us to learn more about custom ingredient sourcing and how we can make sure you get the best.
Do you have a specific recipe or flavor blend that you’d like us to put together? We can create custom flavor blend formulations that will help to streamline your brewing process and keep the integrity of your recipes intact. Whether you’re looking for large or small quantities of your custom flavor blend, just let us know and we will make it happen.
Spices Questionnaire Survey
We want to hear from our brewers and learn more about how we can serve you best! If you are a brewer or a decision-maker at your brewery, please take 10-15 minutes to complete our “Brewer’s Survey”. To show our appreciation, we’ll send you a free sample from our collection of brewing herbs and spices to help you create your next pilot brew and to prove to you that Fresh Spices Taste Better.