My first attempt at a Scottish Heather Ale, based on the recipe found in Jereme Zimmerman’s Brew Beer Like a Yeti.
Originally Posted: Aug. 5, 2020
Table of Contents
Heather Ale Quick Specs
- Est. OG = 1.047
- OG = 1.048
- Est. FG = 1.011
- FG = 1.012
- ABV: 4.7%
- Taste Profile: Rich and malty
- Time: 66 days (I bet I can speed that up now that I have more experience with kveik)
- Yield: 1 Corny keg
Intro
After a long hiatus from brewing beer, I began to read more books on the subject. One of the first ones that I read during this period was Brew Beer Like a Yeti by Jereme Zimmerman. His first book, Make Mead Like a Viking had started me down the path of meadmaking several years before.
However, I decided I needed to take a break from making more mead. I had ended up with more than 200 bottles of various kinds, stored on four stackable wine racks. Mead can be a little heavy in a lot of respects, and a mead hangover can be horrific. It dawned on me that those 200+ bottles were going to take a long time to go through, even if I had help or kept bringing it to parties.
I decided I needed to start brewing more low-ABV brews if I was going to get friends and family to enjoy them faster. The recipe that stuck out most to me in Brew Beer Like a Yeti was the Scottish Heather Ale. I’d heard good things about it, so I decided to give it a shot.
Brief History of Heather Ale
Before hops came to dominate brewing, beers were flavored with a variety of herbs, spices, and fruits to add complexity, balance out malt sweetness, and act as preservatives. In modern times these pre-hop beers are often called gruit beers, though there is some historical uncertainty over the original use of the term. It has been used variously to refer to such beers, to the herbal blend used as flavoring, or even as a unit of tax placed on beer.
One ingredient that was added to such pre-hopped beers was heather (Calluna vulgaris), a common plant in Europe. In some regions—such as the British Isles—heather ales took on a somewhat legendary reputation as being the best of the best. There are stories of brewers taking the secret of heather ale to their deaths rather than give up their knowledge to a triumphant enemy.
Heather ale was still being brewed in Scotland—called fraoch in Scots Gaelic—as late as the late 18th or early 19th century, but by the end of the 19th century hops had taken over. It didn’t experience a revival again until the late 20th century, but today Scottish Heather Ale is once again making a name for itself in the worlds of craft beer and homebrew.
Ingredients
Malt
- 8 lbs. Pale malt (I used Maris Otter)
- ¾ lb. Briess CaraPils
- ¾ lb. Caramel malt (Zimmerman didn’t specify °L, and unfortunately it seems I didn’t write it down in my notes. I’m going to try 80°L next time I brew this)
- Rice hulls for lautering
Hops/Other Additions
- ¼ lb. (4oz) of dried Heather Tips @ 55 min (this is twice the amount I’ve seen in other recipes)
- 1 oz Saaz hops @ 30 min (not strictly necessary for a gruit beer, but I wanted to add these mild hops mostly for their preservative properties. I keep some around specifically for situations like this. Zimmerman himself suggested low alpha Fuggles)
- Yeast nutrient and Whirlfloc @ 15 min
- 1 lb. of wildflower honey on secondary
Yeast
- Zimmerman suggest using a British ale yeast
- I chose to use White Labs WLP518 kveik yeast
Equipment
- Sanitizer
- Fermenter
- Airlock and stopper
- Brewing system of your choice (I use the Grainfather 30L)
- Hop spider (optional, but suggested)
Instructions
Zimmerman’s Instructions (only the all-grain version)
- Mash the grains for 1 hour at 145 to 155°F (63 – 68°C). Mash out, vorlauf, sparge, and gather 6 to 6 ½ gallons (24 – 26 L) of wort.
- Boil the wort for 60 minutes, add ingredients according to the schedule, cool, add the yeast, ferment, prime, and bottle.
What I Did
I followed Zimmerman’s recipe more-or-less exactly except for a few ingredient substitutions, and the fact that I kegged this beer instead of bottling. I chose the higher end of the mashing temp. (155°F) because Scottish beers, to me, always seem very full-bodied. I also subbed out his suggested Fuggles for Saaz hops (it’s what I had on hand), and I chose to experiment with a kveik yeast instead of British ale yeast.
My reasoning for using kveik is that ancient brewers wouldn’t have had much control over exactly which strain of yeast they could use; they could only pitch the dregs of a previous batch to get consistent results, or re-use stirring sticks colonized by friendly yeast between batches. Kveik is especially well-suited to being handled this way; traditionally it was dried on logs for storage between brewing days. I also chose kveik because it’s a Norwegian yeast, and there’s an association between heather ale and Vikings, as well as historical connections between Scotland and the Norse.
I pumped the beer into one of my stainless-steel fermenters, pitched the kveik, set up my simple temperature control system, and set the controller to 95°F (35°C) (I’ve written an article about fermenters that goes more into detail about this set-up). The beer finished most of primary fermentation within a few days, but seemed to stall, so I added some champagne yeast and some glucoamylase; the beer dried out to my liking within a few more days.
Variations
I think that the next time I make this beer, I’ll hop it more heavily, or even add heather to an IPA recipe. This is more a matter of personal taste (my preference has evolved from maltier beers to hoppier beers over time). Alternatively, heather might be an interesting addition to other beer styles such as porter/stout.
Tips & Tricks
A hop spider is extremely useful for a recipe like this with a lot of plant matter. Without one, you’ll end up with a lot of trub at the bottom of your kettle.
You could also do half the amount of heather and see if you still get the full flavor. Most of the recipes I’ve seen call for one 2 oz packet, but Zimmerman specifically calls for 4 oz.
