[Brew day] Heather Ale - Leann Fraoch

[Parky]

One of my brewing goals this year was to make a 'Viking ale' - a traditional heather ale, 'Leann Fraoch', brewed using old-skool methods and ingredients. However, my research into the area revealed little by way of tried and trusted recipes, and many of the recipes available online didn't seem to hit the mark when brewed in practice.

The following is a modern interpretation of heather ale, a mix of old and new, both in terms of technique, and ingredients, and taking into account all that I was able to gain from those who had learned how to brew heather ale the hard way.

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Recipe Specs
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Batch Size (L):           10.0
Total Grain (kg):         2.180
Total Hops (g):           20.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.052 
Final Gravity (FG):       1.013 
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.76 %
Colour (SRM):             12.7   (EBC): 25.0
Bitterness (IBU):         18.1   (Rager)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes):      30

Grain Bill
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1.5 kg Maris Otter Malt (68.81%)
0.250 kg Light DME (11.47%)
0.110 kg Caramunich II (5.05%)
0.110 kg Carared (5.05%)
0.080 kg Caraaroma (3.67%)
0.080 kg Carapils (Dextrine) (3.67%)
0.050 kg Honey (2.29%)

Hop Bill
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20.0 g Fuggles Pellet (5.1% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (2 g/L)

Misc Bill
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0.1 g Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.1 g Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
65g Heather flowers @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
25g Heather branches @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Yeast
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5.5g Safbrew US-05 yeast

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Pre-prep



1.   Collect yourself a big bag of heather



2.   Separate out heather flowers and heather branches. Here I got 135g of heather flowers, but it didn't seem like a lot for all the heather I'd collected.
3.   Before brew day I made tea with various parts of the heather to determine what the flavour contribution would be from the flowers, greenery, and branches.

Notes: The heather flowers didn't have the floral aromas I'd read about, more a peaty taste and smell. The greenery tasted grassy and a little bitter, so on the basis of the first taste test I decided not to include them in the brew. The branches were a surprise, giving a delicious and sweet tannin from the bark – think rooibos tea for flavour.


Walkthrough

1. Placed roughly half the total water (5L) in brew kettle and brought up to a temperature of 68oC (155oF).



2. While the water was heating I measured out the steeping grains and placed in muslin bags.



3. When the water in the brew kettle reached the required temperature I took the pot off the heat and placed both bags of steeping grains in the water.

4. The grains steeped for a total time of 30 minutes, and I stirred the bags occasionally during that time to ensure all the grains had good contact with the water.

5. You will notice that the water will quickly take on colour from the grains, and your kitchen will begin to smell like a brewery!



6. While the grains steeped I heated 3L of sparge water in another pot, and brought to a temperature of 68oC (155oF).



7. When the steeping grains had spent 30 minutes in the brew kettle I removed the bags and placed on a colander to drain.

8. I turned up the heat on the brew kettle at this point to begin the boil, and poured the pre-heated sparge water slowly over the grain bags to extract the last of the flavour and colour.



9. As the wort from the steeping grains was coming to a boil I measured out the hop addition, and a portion of the malt extract (in this case 250g of light DME).

10. As the wort began to heat I mixed in the 250g of DME, to increase the gravity of the wort and improve the isomerisation of the hops.

11. When the wort came to a rolling boil I added the 30 minute hop additon, to give a potential bitterness of 18-19 IBUs

12. I boiled the wort for 15 minutes before adding a quarter whirlfloc tablet and the yeast nutrient addition.



13. While the wort was boiling I soaked the tin of malt extract (Maris Otter) in boiling water to soften.

14. With 10 minutes left on the boil I took the boil kettle off the heat and added the malt extract, stirring constantly to prevent any scorching in the bottom of the brew kettle. I added some boilng water to the tin of extract to ensure all the extract was dissolved and poured this wort into the kettle.



15. Returned the kettle to the heat and immersed a mesh bag to sanitise in the hot wort for the remainder of the boil. (This mesh bag will make it easier to remove the later addition of heather flowers from the wort).

16. Measued out the remaining additions – heather flowers, heather branches, and honey.

17. At flameout removed brew kettle from heat and immersed in cold water.



18. Drew off 400 ml of wort and added to heather branches in French press. Similarly, drew off 200 ml of wort and added to honey in Pyrex jug. (I soaked these additions separately in order to assess the flavour of each before adding to main wort. Both French press and Jug had been sanitized beforehand).

19. Added heather flowers to wort and covered with pot lid to stand for 15 minutes at 80-90oC.



20. After 15 minutes removed heather flowers and added wort that had been soaking the heather branches, and the wort with the honey in it.

21. Cooled wort down to a pitching temperature of 18oC.



22. Prepared yeast by rehydrating in 200ml of pre-boiled and cooled water at 25oC for 15 minutes.

23. Aerated wort in fermentation vessel and added yeast.

24. Topped up wort in FV to 10L with bottled water.

24. Placed lid on fermentation vessel and moved to area that had an ambient temp of 20oC.


Additional Notes:

1. Gravity sample before pitching the yeast came out at 1.051, so pretty close to the calculated OG.

2. I was surprised at the blandness of the heather flowers, having read so many articles saying they were 'floral and spicy'. On this occasion they seemed a little earthy, smelling and tasting like turf.

3. The other surprise was the lovely flavour of the heather branches. They really tasted delicious as a tea, and I would be tempted to make a beer using just the branches if I was to brew this again.

4. Pleased with first tasting of wort, a total malt bomb, with plenty of caramel. Will see how that sweetness dries out post fermentation.

5. The next step in this recipe will be a 'dry hop' of 65g heather flowers after 5 days in the FV (will update when the time comes).

[Parky]

UPDATE: 5 days after pitching yeast

This step follows the Williams Bros. process for brewing heather ale, and involves steeping a further addition of heather flowers in the fermented beer a few days after pitching the yeast. The idea here is to increase the aroma and flavour contribution of the heather flowers – very similar to dry hopping.

For me this step carries with it a fairly high risk of spoiling a good beer, either from oxidising the fermenting wort, or by introducing wild yeasties and nasties from the heather itself. However, I decided to give it a go, as the aroma/flavour from the heather flowers still wasn't coming through in the fermenting wort.

1. Wait for 5 days after pitching the yeast, or until the SG of the wort has dropped to 1.015.
2. Draw off a sample of fermenting wort from the FV (in this case 500ml), and place in a sanitised pot.



3. Measure out the addition of heather flowers and place in mesh bag.



4. Bring the wort in the pot up to a temperature of 70oC and remove from the heat before adding the heather flowers.
5. Soak the heather for 15 mins before removing.



6. Cool the wort in ice water and add to secondary FV when cooled to room temperature.
7. Add the remainder of the fermenting wort from the primary FV to the secondary and store in a warm place at 18oC to continue fermenting and conditioning.

[Dr Horrible]

Following this with interest - great posts.  Do you think that the heather flowers would have more aroma if picked at a different time of year?  A few of the receipes I've seen using various natural flowers/herbs, etc are fairly specific about the time of year that they're harvested.  Not sure if this is true for heather, but might be worth keeping in mind. 

[Parky]

Following this with interest - great posts.

Cheers, glad you're enjoying! I figured that with the sparse info on heather ale out there that a more detailed brew-along would help others who were curious about the style.

Do you think that the heather flowers would have more aroma if picked at a different time of year?  A few of the recipes I've seen using various natural flowers/herbs, etc are fairly specific about the time of year that they're harvested.  Not sure if this is true for heather, but might be worth keeping in mind.

You're absolutely right - brewing legend has it that the best time for harvesting heather is July/August, so I was cutting it fine collecting the heather at the end of August. We'd had a week of wet weather before I went out foraging in any case, so maybe that was a factor also.

It could just be my expectations too of course - maybe heather flowers do smell like peat 

One thing I did notice was that the fragrance from the 5 day addition of heather flowers was stronger than the fresh flowers. You can see from the pic in the post on Sept 20th that the 65 grams of flowers I had set aside had dried down to 21 grams! These had a more pronounced aroma, so maybe the dry flowers are the way to go for a more pronounced aroma.

[Beermonger]

Fascinating post and great presentation! Hope it comes out well. If so, I might make a similar beer next year.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

This is great stuff altogether. I'm definitely going to have to give this a bash next year. Great topic and I hope it works out well in the end for ya.

[Parky]

UPDATE: 18 days after pitching yeast

Took a gravity reading and a wee sample, and was relieved to see that the batch looked nice and clean, with no visible signs of infection. My concern with this brew was that the heather would carry all manner of wild yeasts and infect the beer, but a good sanitation regime seems to have won the day on this occasion.

Gravity came out at 1.014, and is pretty close to the target FG of 1.013, but will leave for another few days to condition before bottling.

The sample came out nice and clear with a rich copper brown colour. Some spicy floral aroma initially, but faded quickly as the caramel malt came through to dominate. Early days of course, but first tasting was of a clean malt profile, with plenty of caramel sweetness and a slightly tart finish of treacle and liquorice. Although present in a relatively small amount the honey was in evidence, giving a very smooth drinkability.

Next step of course is priming and bottling, stay tuned ... 

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Side note on aromatics:

The lack of a 'spicy floral' aroma left me with some questions about heather flowers, and Dr Horrible raised a good point about the timing of harvesting the heather. A bit of reading around came up with this from a heather honey makers site -

The tribes of pre-Roman times cleared the land through burning to make way for raising sheep and other livestock. This practice continues today and is beneficial to honey production. Young heather makes more nectar and therefore the honey bee colonies can make more honey. Heather only blooms for a short period in the late summer and the nectar flow can be as short as four days. Some years the conditions are unfavorable and the nectar is non-existent.

So, looks like I may have missed the boat this time out  C'est la vie! At least it gives me a better understanding of why this brew lacked a strong floral aroma.

[Parky]

UPDATE: 23 days after pitching yeast


Batch primed the beer to give carbonation level of 2 vols and bottled the lot tonight, giving 9.5L, with a little left over for tasting. This low level of carbonation should allow the malt profile to come through nicely, as the malt should be dominant in this style, with little if any hop flavour or aroma in evidence.


FG was still measured at 1.014, so happy enough with that. As far as taste goes, still no floral flavour or aroma - I guess I was just that bit too late in the season collecting the heather flowers, but lesson learned    Dominant flavour is from the caramel malts, a lot of sweetness there, so would definitely trim back on the caras if brewing the recipe again. Nice treacle flavour on the finish though, gives a slight tartness which lightens the brew.


Next step is bottle conditioning for a month or so, and then a first taste comparison with commercial examples of this style. My impression is that this will come out well with a good long conditioning, so could be a nice one for the end of the year.

[Parky]

UPDATE: 7 weeks after bottling

Finally a long anticipated tasting! The beer was conditioned 'warm' for 3 weeks (approx 20-21^_oC), and then conditioned 'cold' (approx 16^oC) for a further four weeks. Conditioning has improved this beer tremendously and I can see this one only getting better with time. the flavours have rounded out nicely and this has turned out to be a surprisingly drinkable beer indeed.

Some tasting notes:

Appearance - Cloudy amber colour with a hint of ruby red. Small head present throughout and slight lacing on the glass.

Smell - Light malty aroma, with hint of woody spice at the end.

Taste - Light malt flavour with good balance between slightly sweet caramel and deeper malt flavours. Woody flavour of heather branches comes through at the end to compliment the sweetness of the malt and the slightly dry finish.

Mouthfeel - Light carbonation brings out the best in the malt, and is present throughout. Finish is light and slightly dry, cutting through the sweetness of the malt and giving a lovely refreshing bite at the end.

Overall impression - Surprised at how well this beer turned out, with balanced malt forward flavours and a dry finish reminiscent of a Scottish ale. The flavour from the heather branches certainly comes through as a sweet woody character and sits well with the large amount of caramel malts. A small hint of heather flowers in there, but certainly not a huge floral flavour - the malt is definitely the star of this show.

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Would I brew it again?

For this one I'd have to say both 'yes' and 'no'. Yes, because this is a very drinkable ale, with wonderful flavours, one I would be happy to drink all night. And yet no, because I went to a lot of effort to try to capture the flavour of the heather flower in this beer, and yet it wasn't very evident in the final result. To my mind a heather ale should have an abundance of heather flavour.

Maybe the flowers I chose were not the pick of the crop, or maybe my taste buds aren't picking up the subtlety of the flowers, either way it just didn't happen on this occasion. The heather branches however were a lovely compliment to the flavour and I would certainly brew a beer with them as an ingredient again. But could an ale brewed with only heather branches be classed as a heather ale? I suppose technically yes.

I didn't get a chance to carry out a direct taste comparison with commercial examples, but have to wonder how they can achieve a floral aroma on a commercial scale all year around, as it seems to be a challenge on even a small scale.