Heather Ale

Heather ale was originally brewed by the Picts, a pre-Celtic Scottish tribe. Legend has it that the last member of the Pictish tribe chose jumping off a cliff to his death rather than revealing the recipe for heather ale to the Scottish king. Heather ale has made a revival among craft brewers and is even brewed today commercially.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound toasted malt

• 1/3 pound biscuit malt

• 1/2 pound crystal malt

• 1/4 pound special B malt

• 6 pounds light dry malt extract

• 12 cups dried heather blossoms

• 1 sprig dried heather

• Scottish ale yeast

• 2/3 cup corn sugar

Instructions:

1. Steep the crushed specialty grains in 1-1/2 gallons of 160ºF water for 30 minutes.

2. Sparge the grains with 1/2 gallon of 160ºF water.

3. Add the extract and 10 cups of the dried heather blossoms, then boil the wort for 60 minutes.

4. Place the remaining 2 cups of dried heather blossoms in a strainer.

5. Pour the wort through the strainer into a fermenter, bring the total volume of water to 5 gallons and pitch the yeast when the wort has cooled to 70ºF.

6. Ferment for 1 week, then rack to a secondary for additional fermentation.

7. Prime, bottle and condition before drinking.