Batch 044: A Scotsman on a Horse: A Heather Mead
One of Patrick's Christmas gifts to me, Stephen Harrod Buhner's book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, inspired me to use some of the heather tips I've had kicking around for a while. Named after a short and silly MP skit I love.
Ingredients in this batch
- 1 oz Brewer's Best heather tips (calluna vulgaris)
- 40 oz Kirkland clover honey
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- ½ tsp yeast energizer
- ½ pack of RedStar champagne yeast, rehydrated in ¼ cup oz of 100-degree water
Yield: Aye, she's a 1-gallon batch.
Instructions
I boiled 98 oz of bottled, purified water, then added the heather tips in a brewing sock and allowed them to steep until the water was around 90 degrees F while I bottled batches 29 and 35, approximately two hours. I poured the honey, yeast energizer, and yeast nutrient in a sanitized glass carboy, then topped it off with the heather tea and filtered tap water to the 1-gallon line. As usual, I aerated for approximately 10 minutes by capping, shaking, and uncapping the carboy repeatedly. Pitched the yeast and done. Starting gravity was 1.07.
Observations
- 2016-12-26T16:00:00: Ferment away, my friend!
- 2017-03-04T16:00:00: At bottling, this one sat at 0.996 SG (9.58% ABV). The heather really isn't coming through at all at this stage, and I hope it develops into something more interesting yet.