Doin' Brewin'- Fraoch (Heather Beer)

Dried Heather Tips

A while ago I read the book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers and it triggered the herbalist/gardener in me to want to make herbal beers.  I was intrigued by Fraoch and decided I needed to seek this beer out.  Fraoch is brewed with heather, a low growing shrub, instead of hops.  Well, what an endeavor that turned out to be.  Originating in Scotland, it turns out that this beer is not readily available in the states.  But alas, after many months of search, I found one and it was great!  This is not the typical beer that a hophead would like as it is on the sweeter side with no hop bitterness, but the herbalist in me likes the sprucy flowery herbal essence.  So I decided, I needed to make this beer since it's so hard to find.  So the search for heather begins.  Do I try to harvest it fresh or buy it dried?  And either way, where do I find it?

Turns out that more and more people are trying to brew this style and finding dried heather wasn't too difficult.  I was able to find an 8 oz. bag from Austin Homebrew Supply. 

Now, how do I brew it?  I did some research and found some pretty complex recipes out there.  A fraoch is technically a gruit; a mixture of herbs used to bitter/flavor.  I decided for my first batch to make it simple, and to only make 2.5 gallons in case it wasn't drinkable.

I mashed as usual for 60 minutes.  When it came time for the boil I added one addition, 6 oz of heather tips and boiled for 90 minutes.  Then the tricky part came.  Separating wort from heather.  The dried heather is ground up in small bits and a little powdery, I could see the advantages here of using fresh heather tips as it would be far easier to remove from the wort.  I debated using a bag, but I didn't have one big enough, so I just tossed it all in.  I used a small sieve and scooped out as much as I could then ran the wort through the sieve on the way into the fermenter.  Not too bad.  O.G. was 1.040.  Fraoch are not traditionally a very big beer.  This one turned out to be 3.6% ABV.

After a week of fermenting and a week of secondary I decided to "dry heather" the night before I kegged it.  To eliminate a bunch trub I did this by boiling 1-2 cups of water.  Then seeping 2 oz of heather for 5-10 minutes after which ran it through the sieve into the secondary carboy. 

Batch Size	2.500 gal	Boil Size	2.500 gal
Boil Time	0.000 s	Efficiency	70%
OG	1.033	FG	1.008
ABV	3.2%	Bitterness	0.0 IBU (Tinseth)
Color	4.4 srm (Morey)	Calories (per 12 oz.)	106

Fermentables

Total grain: 3.314 lb

Name	Type	Amount	Mashed	Late	Yield	Color
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	Grain	3.001 lb	Yes	No	79%	2.0 srm
Carared	Grain	5.000 oz	No	No	75%	20.0 srm

Hops

Name	Alpha	Amount	Use	Time	Form	IBU
heather	0%	6.000 oz	Boil	90.000 min	Pellet	0.0

Yeast

Name	Type	Form	Amount	Stage
US-05	Ale	Dry	0.388 oz	Primary

I have to say I am quite pleased with the end result.  The recipe could use some tweaking but I like it.  Very cloudy as expected with that much heather added.  The aroma is amazing, no doubt about it, there is heather in this beer.  It's a pretty thin, but it also only came in at only 3.6% ABV.  I would definitely try to get more body and more maltiness next time, but I like it for the first one because you really taste the heather, it's pretty in your face.  The heather really lingers on the palate and sours a little at the end.  Reminds me of a kombucha, basically just a fermented heather tea.  Some honey flavors to next batch would pair nicely with the floral and balance out that sourness.  I've never used honey malt, but I think this would be a good recipe to play with.  And I just got this cute little keg for my small batches, so no bottling.  Double win!