Heather Ale

[Ross]

For you Brisbanites, our cask conditioned Heather Ale is currently on hand pump at the Scratch Bar & if i say so myself, tasting sublime

Cheers Ross

Edit: Will also be on tap at the Spotted Cow Beer Festival in Toowoomba next weekend.

 

[brettprevans]

For you Brisbanites, our cask conditioned Heather Ale is currently on hand pump at the Scratch Bar & if i say so myself, tasting sublime

Cheers Ross

Edit: Will also be on tap at the Spotted Cow Beer Festival in Toowoomba next weekend.

You're welcome to send us a sample Ross.
Any comments on the recipe?

 

[Ross]

Basic Irish Red recipe (4.8%) bittered to 24IBU's with 4gms/L of organic heather added with 30 mins to go.

cheers Ross

 

[Ross]

You're welcome to send us a sample Ross.
Any comments on the recipe?

I would if i had some, but unfortunately all kegged. Will draw you some off next time.

cheers Ross

 

[Ross]

All our heather ales have far exceeded their expected attenuation, dropping approx an extra 3 to 5 points. I'd be interested in other peoples experience.

Cheers Ross

 

[brettprevans]

......edit: haha go vita healthfood store at eastland ringwood stock it. will pickup some tonight .....

$8 for 50g. will make a medowsweet tea tonight to assess flavour

I would if i had some, but unfortunately all kegged. Will draw you some off next time.

cheers Ross

nice spin. a nice malty irish red would hold nicely against heather Id expect. cheers Ross

Basic Irish Red recipe (4.8%) bittered to 24IBU's with 4gms/L of organic heather added with 30 mins to go.

cheers Ross

going on that ill up my additions to 4gL, which is about 80g. might split and go 40g @ 30min and 40g @ 0.

 

[white.grant]

Tasted yours recently Grantw?

Yes and it's going fairly well, very subtle heather flavour and aroma that is soft and flowery but it is fading as it ages. I think it could stand a slightly heavier hand with the heather, so I think there's some middle ground between us that is the sweet spot. My next batch might be more like 100gms.

 

[Logman]

Yes and it's going fairly well, very subtle heather flavour and aroma that is soft and flowery but it is fading as it ages. I think it could stand a slightly heavier hand with the heather, so I think there's some middle ground between us that is the sweet spot. My next batch might be more like 100gms.

As it turns out it seems my feedback was skewed all along by what was really a bad batch. Not the end of the world as it's the first batch I've lost for some time - plus it's really cool trying these different ingredients.

I wonder if it's not wise to 'dry heather' with this, any thoughts that this could introduce a problem without boiling?

 

[brettprevans]

As it turns out it seems my feedback was skewed all along by what was really a bad batch. Not the end of the world as it's the first batch I've lost for some time - plus it's really cool trying these different ingredients.

I wonder if it's not wise to 'dry heather' with this, any thoughts that this could introduce a problem without boiling?

depends on what the heather has been near. if there is funky **** on it then 'dry hopping' wouldnt be recommneded. some people have never had an issues with dry hopping, others have. me personally ive had both success and disaster from dry hopping. so .....

flameout should be enough or making a heather tea if no-chill. actually, talking about tea, maybe i should combine the heather and medowsweet in a tea tonight....

 

[bum]

Yes and it's going fairly well, very subtle heather flavour and aroma that is soft and flowery but it is fading as it ages. I think it could stand a slightly heavier hand with the heather, so I think there's some middle ground between us that is the sweet spot. My next batch might be more like 100gms.

Hmmm...was planing on leaving my scottish ale a few months for the peaty yeast thing to come out. Maybe I'll go back to my original thinking of 100gms. Dunno.

 

[white.grant]

I think the heather tea route for "dry heathering" would be best too. You'd likely neutralise anything too nasty before it can do damage. But as CM2 says, plenty else can go wrong when you're cracking open a sealed vessel.

Just enjoying a heather ale now, after a long day. Still find it difficult to describe the aroma, I get a slight earthiness, and subtle flowery notes - it is delicate, there's a remote tannin like flavour, puts me in mind of smells I get when light pruning shrubs in the garden. It compliments the malt very nicely. The base beer has a good malty backbone and the usual kind of yeast flavours you get from the scottish ale yeast. Very likeable.

 

[bum]

Cheers, Grant. Very helpful.

Looking forward to knocking to this one out.

 

[brettprevans]

Made a meadowsweet tea...nothing like eucalyptus. More like a light mild green tea. I get the 'fresh mown grass' aroma. Lots more aroma than taste. Should be a good addition.

 

[brettprevans]

recipe up here

pics. 160g of heather is huge.



and yes its hydrophobic. bit of a dunk in the hopbag takes care of that.
you can really smell the heather. very hard to describe the smell. but its pleasent. so's the medowsweet

 

[Yob]

after a year and a half (Since the OP) of wanting to do one of these brews I finally got one in Yesterday.. as I hadnt printed off the recipe and couldnt access the site I just threw something together.. Brewday was interrupted toward the end by the smoke alarm going off next door... they had gone out leaving a pressure cooker going which subsequently caught fire... Good on the Fireies getting here so quick (4 minutes from the phone call)... They areant allowed to accept beer these days either <_< stoopid times we live in...

I did 2 x 50g additions, one at 40 mins with some fuggles and 50g at 20 mins with some goldings.. even with a knife in the stocking 'hop sock' they didnt really want to sink..

Cant wait till I get a spare FV to get this one going.

:icon_cheers: to CityM for sourcing the 'erbs

Yob

 

[white.grant]

Be interesting to see what you get out of the 40 minute addition.

In tangentially related news, you may remember that I accidentally pitched my Scottish ale yeast cake on a dunkelweizen owing to a cube labeling mishap. Put the macdunkelweizen on tap last night and it's kinda interesting, wheat tang and scottish ale fermentation characteristics with a caraaromaish hint.

 

[Yob]

macdunkelweizen on tap last night and it's kinda interesting, wheat tang and scottish ale fermentation characteristics with a caraaromaish hint.

:lol: interested if you would deliberately repeat this 'mistake' ?

 

[white.grant]

:lol: interested if you would deliberately repeat this 'mistake' ?

I admit i wasn't looking forward to tasting it, but now that I have, I think I would do it again.

 

[bum]

Finally got a heathered brew down today. 80/- with 80g heather @10min.

Looking promising. I didn't quite get the curry aroma in the boil that others have mentioned - more like masala tea but without the cardamom for mine.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone.

 

[Yob]

How about a mini Heather ale swap?

I put a 1728 (my liquid cherry) onto mine tonight so looking forward to seeing how it does..

it's only taken me a year and a half to do it

Yob