Fraoch brewday

[Cwrw666]

This morning helped my daughter bottle her first ever solo brew - a Woodfords Admirals Reserve, which was very nice indeed even at this stage. (She's signed up for this forum by the way - CwrwPreseli - and previously all she's done is help me with an AG dry Irish stout).
This afternoon I've put on my first attempt at Fraoch - a Scottish heather beer. Never tasted it before so this should be interesting. I'm using the recipe from Greg Hughes book:

Pale malt - 4.34 kg
Caramalt - 500g
Crystal wheat malt - 200g

Start of boil - 41g goldings hops & 75g fresh heather tips
Turn-off - 20g goldings & 75g heather tips

Slight modification in that I haven't got any crystal wheat malt, so I'm using 200g of ordinary crystal malt & 140g of wheat malt. Also East Kent Goldings instead of normal goldings.

At the moment the liquor is up to mash temperature and I'm going to chuck in all the grains then head up the mountain to pick some heather.

 

[clibit]

I've had the commercial Fraoch and enjoyed it. What yeast you going to use?

 

[Cwrw666]

I've got a couple of packets of US-05 but of course I have also the trub from the Woodfords Admirals Reserve which I would guess is Muntons of some sort, though obviously not a silly little packet.:lol:
Just got back from picking the heather - bit of a chore as all the heather growing nearby is poking up through gorse rather than easy to pick bushes.

 

[clibit]

In sure it'll be worth it.

 

[Cwrw666]

So now I've switched off the boiler and added the last hop & heather additions. I'll let it rest for 20 minutes and then drain it into the FV to cool naturally overnight.
It turns out when I was picking the heather and thinking there were several species, that one of them wasn't heather at all but cross leaved heath. So I used all the actual heather I picked plus a bit of that stuff as well. There was a third kind as well but I've no idea what that was - it all looked like heather to me when I was picking it. Can't find anything on google to suggest it's (the c-l heath) harmful.

Picture - first hop and heather addition.

 

[ManseMasher]

Have you got any bog myrtle? The recipes that I have seen for Fraoch have it in? I wouldn't have a clue when or how much to add though....

 

[Cwrw666]

I'd have to look it up. Funny looking wort - kind of yellowish with a green tinge to it.

 

[Cwrw666]

I've just tried the first bottle (probably a little too soon but I've run out of beer!) and it's absolutely gorgeous. I thought while it was in the FV that it was smelling beautiful though at bottling it was a bit tasteless. But now, fresh from the bottle it's retained the wonderful aroma and has a really pleasant, though impossible to describe, taste. I think next time I make it, it could do with a bit more hops as it's not very bitter.
The recipe of course just says heather tips - so depending on what time of year you make it the result could be quite different. This brew has heather just coming into flower.

 

[rodabod]

There's another Williams Brothers beer called Alba. Made with pine needles. Very nice.

Once thing which I'd consider trying when making Scottish ales is an extended boil, but this applies more to the "scotch"/wee-heavy style which is quite caramelised.