These additives varied widely with local preferences and traditions and the availability of raw materials.
Gruit must have been a combination of dried herbs, including wild rosemary, with the most prominent ingredient being bog myrtle.
It was a particular feature of beer brewed during the Medieval period in the Low Countries Scandinavia, northern France and the lower Rhine valley.
The ingredients could be added to flavor drink, for medicinal value as a preservative or to cover the bad flavor of a spoiled brew.
Gruit also a beer a specific an unique taste, specific smell, and some resistance to spoilage.
Most brewers used the herb Glechoma hederacea and is also known by the names alehoof and creeping jenny.
In the Holy Roman Empire, gruits became the means by which beer was taxed. During that time, the Holy Roman Empire awarded local monopoly privileges in the production and sale of gruit to dioceses though out the empire.
Grout of beer
