Westley's Bog Bounty Heather Ale


I went hiking in Wicklow recently with Dave and a friend of ours Katie. The dog came too, he was delighted with how dirty he was at the end of the walk. The heather has started flowering coating the whole place in a purple carpet. We collected some heather flower tips, 95g in all. I decided to make my own version of Fraoch. I know Fraoch has bog myrtle in it as well, I really like the taste bog myrtle gives to a beer. We didn't get any other herbs that day so it's just heather flavouring in there.
I used some low AA hops to bitter at the start. The heather was added at the end for aroma. The base malt should make it nicely sweet like the Scottish ales.

Grain:
3.5kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
345g Amber Malt
500g Wheat Malt
230g Crystal Malt



Hops and Heather:
60 minutes: 55g Hallertau 2.1%AA
15 minutes: 1 tsp Irish Moss and a small handful of heather flowers
At end of boil: Rest of heather flowers added to the boil.
95g of heather in total

Mash:
Infusion mash at 66-67 deg C. Batch sparged.
Yeast: Safale S04

Volume: About 22-23 Litres

OG: 1.049

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Brewing usually takes up most of a day so while I brew I usually cook something nice. This time I went for something completely new involving yeast, homemade pizza. I'd never made pizza from my own dough before. It turned out really well. I'll definitely be making it again.

2 Responses to "Westley's Bog Bounty Heather Ale" (Leave A Comment)

Reuben Gray - TaleOfAle says
September 9, 2009 at 12:53 PM

I hope to try this some time at one of the meetings. Sounds great!

Rob Sterowski says
September 13, 2009 at 12:04 PM

Did you use left-over skimmed brewing yeast for the pizza dough? I find that rises much more vigorously than dough made with dried yeast.

Do let us know how the heather ale turns out. Is it heather time now? I might try and find some myself if Williams Bros haven't already stripped all the hills of Scotland bare.