Heather Ale

According to the Williams Brothers Brewing Company, Heather Ale has been "Brewed in Scotland since 2000 B.C." and is "probably the oldest style of ale still produced in the world". They produce a very nice beer called "Fraoch, Heather Ale", if you haven't tried a bottle then you definitely should! Fraoch uses heather and sweet gale to produce it's distinctive flavour. Whatever the claims to the history of this beer, heather has been used in brewing for a very long time and the recipe given here is to make a batch of home brewed ale.

Obviously you're going to need some heather blossoms to make this ale and heather blooms in the late summer, around the end of August. In the UK, the Hills of Scotland, the Lake District, Lancashire, and Yorkshire gain a purple haze due to this plant. Try to find somewhere that is very abundant and pick responsibly, just picking the blossoms. The picture here shows more than you need and is to help you identify the plant. You just want the blossoms as shown in the next picture but if you get a few leafs in there too, don't worry too much about them. The following recipe is to make 25 litres, I divided everything by 5 and just made a 5 litre (1 gallon) demijohn full. I made this as an extract brew rather than all grain but it came out very well.



Ingredients

25 litres water
300g Heather blossoms
1.8kg Malt Extract
450g (1 jar) Honey
Dried or liquid yeast (English Ale Yeast)


Equipment

25 litre (5 Gallon) fermentation vessel
Large saucepan
Long plastic spoon
Sterilising powder


Method

1. Sterilise all of your equipment and anything that will come into contact with the brew, (tin openers, spoons, saucepans, etc).
2. Add the heather blossoms to a pan and add enough water to cover.
3. Bring this to the boil. You can do this in stages if you don't have a large enough pan.
4. Boil the heather for 5-10 mins and then leave it to steep for a hour or two.
5. Strain the heather and pour the liquid into a 25 litre fermenting vessel.
6. If you're working in batches just topping up the fermenter with each batch.
4. Add the honey and stir.
5. Add the malt extract, another kettle full of boiling water, and stir.
6. Top up the fermentation vessel to 25 litres with cold water.
7. You will need this to be about 18-25 C so wait for it to cool.
8. Add the yeast then give it a gentle stir.
9. Leave the mix to ferment for about 6-7 days.
10. Syphon into bottles or a keg making sure you don't disturb the sediment and leaving the heather in the fermentation vessel.
11. You can add a little priming sugar or some more honey at this point if you wish. You shouldn't add more than 27g to a keg though.
12. Store in a cool place to allow it to clear and condition (14-21 days).