Heather Ale

[white.grant]

Sounds like a good idea. I brewed a second batch today with 90g of heather at 3 minutes. Will make sure I bottle some.

 

[brettprevans]

I majorly fkd up without. I accidentally noticed moved fermentors around and added .5kg and 0.2kg golden syrup to mine instead of the ginger beer. So will be making some heather tea to add to it to try and

 

[brettprevans]

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

Mate everythings eventual. My special golden strong took 2Yeats playing with recipe went before it's ready to be brewed and ready. It's a cracker. So tone can be worth b the investment.

 

[bum]

SWMBO says she smells something "sour" in mine. I don't get it myself but she tends to be fairly on the money usually. However, I'm using WY1728 for the first time and it certain doesn't really smell like anything I've brewed before so I'm hoping she's on a wrong'un here. It has gone a point or two lower than BrewMate suggests which is a concern.

 

[Mutton Chops]

The Heather Ale I made last night is interesting... I drank 2 cups of the unfermented wort and had strange dreams all night...

The one where I ate my own face off a plate with a knife and fork whilst the girlfriend looked on in a red wedding dress with a foxes head cheering me on was particularly odd...

Apparently Heather can host an ergot like fungus... Hmm... But I suspect it's not that and the roast duck I had for dinner instead...

Funny you should mention that (great thread by the way all), I watched a program a few months back mentioning an hallucinogenic heather growing in Scotland, did a quick google and found this:
Heather topic
Irrespective of where you sourced your heather it sounds like you might have had an 'experience' evildrakey :drinks:

 

[brettprevans]

Funny you should mention that (great thread by the way all), I watched a program a few months back mentioning an hallucinogenic heather growing in Scotland, did a quick google and found this:
Heather topic
Irrespective of where you sourced your heather it sounds like you might have had an 'experience' evildrakey :drinks:

Alas our heather was grown in Poland from memory. Stupid that we can get it easier from Poland than the UK. they used to put other herbs in heather ale that you wouldn't use now because of hallucinogenic or unhealthy properties.

 

[Logman]

Doing a triple batch of Scottish Ale today, think I might separate one batch toward the end and add 50g of Heather for ten minutes and go from there.

 

[Yob]

Well mine has bottomed out at 1014 but will leave it another week just to be nice to it,

Im thinking that in a week I might add a 50g Heather Tea with bit of medowsweet and then Crash it for a week.

I think I overdid it a bit with the choc malt so am trying the Tea addition to see if I cant get something else going on in there...

Its been an interesting experiment.. he.. he.. and enough Heather and grains to do several more h34r:

:icon_drunk:

 

[brettprevans]

I tasted mine in the weekend. Not enough heather for my liking. So a 10min heather tea with 60g of heather went in. then I ran about 10L of beer through the heather 'tea leaves' to make sure I got all the flavour out. Smelt great.

Now if I can only remember what yeast I used so I can label the slurry....

 

[Yob]

I chickened out on adding the medowsweet and the 'tea' to the above batch... I rekon as I overdid it with the choc malt (Darkest brew Ive ever done) that it will be hard to bring it back to get any sort of 'subtle' heather taste...

Am hoping to give it another shot in a week or two when I have some empty bottles...

Im running pretty much at capacity ATM so unless I get a new load of bottles I can only brew when Ive got enough empties... or I buy another cube.. or invite some people round to help me with getting said empties

20 crates and 4 cubes is a hell of a stockpile :super:

Summer is looking sweeeet h34r:

 

[bum]

Having the first taste of mine right now and am finding myself somewhere in between confused and underwhelmed. I have no idea what I should be looking for but nothing is screaming "heather". There is an aroma and flavour with which I am unfamiliar but I used a UK strain I've never used before and fermented slightly warm so I don't know if I'm getting heather or esters. Still, it is a nice enough beer so I guess I can call that a win. I'm undecided as to whether I didn't go hard enough or if less is more and I got the balance okay.

 

[Helles]

Alas our heather was grown in Poland from memory. Stupid that we can get it easier from Poland than the UK. they used to put other herbs in heather ale that you wouldn't use now because of hallucinogenic or unhealthy properties.

Last time i brewed with hallucinogenics the Dwarfs moved in on me too

 

[brettprevans]

2 pints in and yeast is lessening in pour. tastes like it heather flowers smell. Only way I can describe it. Kind of some wheat type tomas and taste but still largely unidentifiable as to what heather tastes like.

Very pleasant imo. Very differant. Very interesting flavour.

 

[brettprevans]

another pint...

yup same opinion as above. hard to describe. kind of savoury but with wheat swetness/flavours even though there isnt wheat.

will have to bring some to melbourne brewers for peoples opinions. and do a swap with Yob.

 

[Yob]

Happy to do so mate, might bring a couple of bottles upstairs, it must be said though I'm not expecting mine to even be noticed with the cok up wih the choc malt on my behalf, happy to swap one or two though,
Plans underway for the re-brew in a couple of weeks, if I manage to get it done in time will bring one of each to the next meet.

 

[Logman]

Struck back with a decent batch after my first disaster - just as well as it's a triple batch h34r: . I used 150g (60 litres) at 20 mins. Only went in the keg a week ago so it's not ready but had to try a couple of glasses. Really nice, I like the Heather but it's pretty raw atm, needs a month at least. Certainly adds to the flavor of this type of brew and it works nice with the Candi Sugar. This one was done with Notto but the one in the fermenter and the last will be done with Wyeast Scottish Ale.

Anyone else tried any that's had a decent amount of conditioning - if so, did it change much?

:icon_cheers:

 

[white.grant]

I found that the heather flavour dropped off towards the end of the keg.

reminds me that I need to smack the yeast and get the second batch in the fermenter.

 

[Yob]

I popped the top off a Grolsch of my HA last night and surprisingly it's actually quite a nice drop, not overdone at all.

As with others, there is a little something there but hard to put the finger on in a "Yep thats heather" sort of way.

All in all Im quite pleased with it.

@CM2 I will be out and about on Wednesday night if you are going to be home will swing past with a bottle.

Yob

 

[Logman]

Pretty stoked with mine after all that - the flavor settled in nicely. Might add some more crystal next time to compliment the Heather and maybe a touch more Fuggles.

:icon_cheers:

 

[brettprevans]

I recon there is something great about heather. Mysterious, pleasant etc. great interesting flavour for cooler months. More experimentation needed