Heather Beer

[Arlen]

So where does one find a good heather beer recipe, and what part of the heather do you use?

It's packed away somewhere (like everything else from our move) but I have an 18th century colonial American recipe for spruce ale.

Here's the recipe I used to use from this site.


(To make two pints: Multiply as required)

* 4 ounces Potter's Malt Extract
* 1 ounce honey
* 3/4 pint heather blossoms
* Water to 2 pints
* Allinson's baking yeast.

In this quantity, you can do the first fermentation in a 2 litre plastic bottle. Boil the heather blossoms in some water. Add the malt extract and honey. Add enough water to make up 2 pints. Reboil. Wait for it to cool down to about blood temperature, activate yeast and add it to the wort. Add to 2 litre plastic bottle. Screw on top but not tight: you must allow the CO2 to escape. After about 4-5 days, transfer to bottles, taking care not to transfer the sediment. Cork bottles and store in a cool place until it clears (about 4-5 days). It is then ready for drinking. Pour carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment (it doesn't taste as good as Chimay sediment).


You could also go here.

[BoldHighlander]

Thanks Arlen!

Here's the recipe I used to use from this site.


(To make two pints: Multiply as required)

* 4 ounces Potter's Malt Extract
* 1 ounce honey
* 3/4 pint heather blossoms
* Water to 2 pints
* Allinson's baking yeast.

In this quantity, you can do the first fermentation in a 2 litre plastic bottle. Boil the heather blossoms in some water. Add the malt extract and honey. Add enough water to make up 2 pints. Reboil. Wait for it to cool down to about blood temperature, activate yeast and add it to the wort. Add to 2 litre plastic bottle. Screw on top but not tight: you must allow the CO2 to escape. After about 4-5 days, transfer to bottles, taking care not to transfer the sediment. Cork bottles and store in a cool place until it clears (about 4-5 days). It is then ready for drinking. Pour carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment (it doesn't taste as good as Chimay sediment).


You could also go here.

[Andrew Breecher]

So where does one find a good heather beer recipe, and what part of the heather do you use?

Here's the recipe I used for my last batch of Scottish ale. The next time I brew it will be all-grain instead of extract.

7 lbs. amber liquid malt extract (John Bull brand)
1 lb. 40L crystal malt
.25 lb. biscuit malt
.25 lb. peated malt
2 oz. heather tips
1.5 oz. Willamette hops (boiling)
Scottish ale yeast (Wyeast #1728)

Steep the grains in 2 gallons of water and heat to boiling. Remove the grains and add the LME, heather, and hops. Boil for one hour. Sparge into fermenter, straining the hops and heather, and add water to five gallons. Pitch the yeast when the wort is cool. O.G. 1.042, final ABV 4.1%

I would definitely "dry hop" with the heather tips next time instead of boiling them. I think more flavour would present itself that way.

Heather tips are the flowers - the tiny purple/red tips of the heather plant - which are dried and packaged for brewers. I'm sure you could find them elsewhere for some other purpose, but I can get them at my brew shop.

Andrew.

[BoldHighlander]

Thanks Andrew

Here's the recipe I used for my last batch of Scottish ale. The next time I brew it will be all-grain instead of extract.

[Andrew Breecher]

I brewed my heather ale today. It's a little less alcoholic than my previous batch, and also less bitter.

5 lbs. pale 2-row
0.5 lbs. biscuit
0.5 lbs. roasted barley
0.25 lbs. peated barley
0.5 oz. Willamette (a Fuggles clone) hops (bittering)
2 oz. heather tips (aroma)
Target O.G. 1.035 / actual O.G. 1.030





All photos are clickable.

Andrew.

[northernsky]

In Montreal they still sell Spruce Ale in bottles. It is a soft drink but I like to cut it with a beer (like a shandy). I call them spruceski's (as opposed to brewski's which is what we used to call beers)

[Alan H]

OK, this does it....I'm mailing this thread to the guys from Devils Canyon Brewery!

[Alan H]

Fraoch Eiliean!

Arlen, I htink there's more than one heathery isle in Scotland!

[Arlen]

Fraoch Eiliean!

Arlen, I think there's more than one heathery isle in Scotland!

That's something of an understatement!

[Streetcar]

I had heard an old legend about Heather Ale long ago. The gist of it is posted on the Fraoch website:

"...One legend recorded by Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a Scots king who, after killing all the Picts in battle, wished for the famous heather ale. He found two survivors by a cliff, a Pictish chief and his son, and began to torture them to gain the secret recipe, the Pict agreed to tell if they would kill his son quickly. After the boy's body was thrown from the cliff, the Pictish chief faced the King and said "But now in vain is the torture, fire shall never avail, here dies in my bosom the secret of the heather ale" he then threw himself at the King and they both fell from the cliff."