Heather Brew?

[gcsowden]

Gettin' married at the end of June to a wonderful women named Heather. I am brewing a beer for the Grooms dinner the night before and I wanted to something using the Heather flower. Apparently it was used as a bittering flower before the use of Hops, (along time ago)

I was wondering if anyone has ever done this or knows anything about it so I can figure out how to structure the recipe - otherwise I'll just wing it.


-side note, maybe I'll post a new thread for this, I'm also bottling this into growlers as well as kegging it as gifts for my groomsmen, anyone know a good website to get labels for English style growlers?


Thanks!

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

I have a heather ale that never recieves bad reviews....
this is for 11.5 gallons post boil, and is all grain

20 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)
1 lbs 8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1.0 pkg Nottingham Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP039) make a starter.
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 14.5 IBUs
3.00 oz Scottish Heather (Boil 5.0 mins)

mash at 150f for 60 minutes 1.5qt of water per pound of grain
sparge at 168f using 8.75 gallons of water

target an OG of 1.050 to 1.055 and an FG of 1.010 to 1.014

I keg but feel free to bottle prime using whatever method you like

ferment at 66f for 3 weeks, no secondary,

 

[MedicMang]

How did this turn out? I'm going to brew a heather ale today. Just a simple blonde ale with heather at the end. I was going to use some hops to bitter it. Any suggestions? And how much heather should I use? Should I space them out or just toss them all in at 5 min?

 

[gcsowden]

It was great! I made a bigger amber ale and put 4 oz in at 5 min. Very subtle floral aroma, but it was there

 

[MedicMang]

Awesome. Thanks. Can't wait to see how it turns out.