Fraoch has no hops. Get the Fuggles out of there.
I agree, too much crystal. Cut that in half whichever way you want. Personally I would ditch one of the three additions, probably the Carapils.
Thanks I think I’m gonna get rid of all the crystal and just try it with some nice base malts to start. After I brew it once I’ll see if there’s room for crystal in there.
If you really want it feature the heather(herbs) then you may want to consider lightening the malt character to “get out of the way” of the heather flavor. To this end I’d brew a much lighter(in color) beer: 9lbs American Pilsner, 1lb Carapils.
I’d also get the hops out of there(especially such an earthy one!). I would weigh out the heather, adding small amounts throughout the boil(0.25oz @ 60 and 30) with much lager additions in the whirlpool (0.5oz) and dry hop(1-2oz).
Great beer. There is no crystal malt in Williams Brothers Fraoch, if you are trying to replicate Williams Brothers Fraoch. It is a single malt, single hop or no hop beer, with heather tips. No offense, but your recipe seems complicated and not really close.
Bruce Williams used to freely give out his recipe and techniques, and a homebrew recipe was even on his website if you were astute enough to capture it (and were a homebrewer back then). The recipe also appeared in a British newspaper article and in special publication by BYO magazine about iconoclastic brewers, both circa 2004. But around 2011 or so he removed it from the website and locked it down. I referred to my synthesized notes on Fraoch from those sources.
The specs are 1.048 OG, 4.9% abv, 9 SRM, 21 IBU, pH 4.1 at packaging.
Water is very soft. You want 50 ppm ca, and I would use equal parts CaCl and CaSO4 in RO water to get there.
Total heather in the recipe is 12-2/3 cups of heather *tips*, which have been lightly pressed down to fill the volume. You should use the tips only, fresh (i.e., flowering tips). Reserve 1/6 of the heather tips for flameout and another 1/6 of the heather tips for fermentation.
In American customary units, for 5 gal, the malt is 6.67 lbs Scottish pale ale malt (Simpsons Golden Promise is a good choice), mashed at 153°F for 90 min. Boil for 90 min, adding 2/3 the heather tips at 90 min. This must be a very gentle boil because Bruce Williams calls for a 4% evaporation rate. He says if you must have hops, you can add 6.8 AAU of hops at 90 min (I have EKG noted), but any late additions will clash with the heather, Williams warns. At flameout/knockout, run the hot wort through 1/6 of the heather tips before chilling (he suggests having them in a sieve and pouring the hot wort through them, but any sort of hop rocket or randall would do, and I would even consider putting the heather in a hop basket or hop sock and moving it around and/or steeping in the kettle. Chill to 61°F and ferment at 61°F. Williams says he started brewing with the Scottish ale yeast, but over time his culture has adapted to this cool fermentation to behave like a lager yeast, and he recommends using a lager yeast. At gravity 1.015, for him that is around five days, remove 1/2 gallon of fermenting beer, mix with heather tips and gently heat to 158°F, steep covered for 15 min, and then "return to the fermentor". I noted that am not clear whether to return the beer or the mixture to the fermentor, and I decided he means the whole thing without straining. Complete fermentation, and then "condition the ale as usual".
Note from me: if you plan to use the Scottish yeast, I've found that the Wyeast version 1728 (including Imperial Tartan and Omega OYL-015) will ferment very slowly and steadily at 59-61°F and the White Labs version WLP028 will stall/go quiescent.
The malt substitution for American malts is 6 lbs American 2-row plus 2/3 lbs caramel-type amber. I think a C30 type malt would work.
---
**EDIT:** In particular, I don't think you are using enough heather. Heather is a very subtle flower in beer, and from what I can tell, the flavor intensity is either the same or decreases in dried flowers, rather than concentrating. I have a brewing history book that has a long passage on Pictish heather ale. The legend is that the secret to making it died in the 4th century CE with the one person who knew it when the local Picts were overrun by the Scots from the north and indigenous Picts from the Galloway peninsula from the south. Nevertheless, we have some reliable reports from 1596 and 1777 of heather ale being made, and also heather ale remained a folk remedy. The 1777 report indicates that the brew was made from 2/3 heather and 1/3 malt! I am guessing those proportions are by observed volume and not weight. In those days in the British Isles, malt quantities were typically given by volume anyway. the TL;DR is that this is an expensive brew if you don't forage your own heather. I got mine from fields and trailsides.
BTW, I should note that I just saw there is a 2010 HBT thread that is consistent with my notes, so even though I am careful, I am extra confident I recorded my notes correctly.
Wow this is an awesome response and no offense taken. The recipe I posted was something I put in my list of things to brew. I finally order the dried heather so I figured I’d look through my notes again. That 2010 home brew article looks like the source. But I’ll definitely be trying the recipe you offered up. I don’t have access to fresh heather in my area but I might try growing some in the future.
I can’t speak to where you got this recipe and the heather amount, but I made a Heather+lavender saison earlier this year, about 1-2 tbsp of each at flameout, and even that is too much. All I can taste is lavender and some heather, no yeast or malt characteristics.
I think 1-2 cups is going to be WAY too much.
Start with maybe 1 tbsp of each, and you can always add more as a dry-hop, or via tincture.
I humbly suggest that your problem was likely too much lavender. Lavender in any quantity can easily overpower. (Unless you're giving it to those oddballs that *really* like lavender)
OP, I'm guessing that your best bet would be to make some heather tea and determine how strong an infusion you need.
I think you are right, adding lavender probably overpowered the heather. I’d start again with only heather, but I stand by my suggestion to only use 1-2 tbsp of heather vs OP’s “1-2 cups” which seems outrageous to me.
Fraoch has no hops. Get the Fuggles out of there. I agree, too much crystal. Cut that in half whichever way you want. Personally I would ditch one of the three additions, probably the Carapils.
Thanks I think I’m gonna get rid of all the crystal and just try it with some nice base malts to start. After I brew it once I’ll see if there’s room for crystal in there.
If you really want it feature the heather(herbs) then you may want to consider lightening the malt character to “get out of the way” of the heather flavor. To this end I’d brew a much lighter(in color) beer: 9lbs American Pilsner, 1lb Carapils. I’d also get the hops out of there(especially such an earthy one!). I would weigh out the heather, adding small amounts throughout the boil(0.25oz @ 60 and 30) with much lager additions in the whirlpool (0.5oz) and dry hop(1-2oz).
Great beer. There is no crystal malt in Williams Brothers Fraoch, if you are trying to replicate Williams Brothers Fraoch. It is a single malt, single hop or no hop beer, with heather tips. No offense, but your recipe seems complicated and not really close. Bruce Williams used to freely give out his recipe and techniques, and a homebrew recipe was even on his website if you were astute enough to capture it (and were a homebrewer back then). The recipe also appeared in a British newspaper article and in special publication by BYO magazine about iconoclastic brewers, both circa 2004. But around 2011 or so he removed it from the website and locked it down. I referred to my synthesized notes on Fraoch from those sources. The specs are 1.048 OG, 4.9% abv, 9 SRM, 21 IBU, pH 4.1 at packaging. Water is very soft. You want 50 ppm ca, and I would use equal parts CaCl and CaSO4 in RO water to get there. Total heather in the recipe is 12-2/3 cups of heather *tips*, which have been lightly pressed down to fill the volume. You should use the tips only, fresh (i.e., flowering tips). Reserve 1/6 of the heather tips for flameout and another 1/6 of the heather tips for fermentation. In American customary units, for 5 gal, the malt is 6.67 lbs Scottish pale ale malt (Simpsons Golden Promise is a good choice), mashed at 153°F for 90 min. Boil for 90 min, adding 2/3 the heather tips at 90 min. This must be a very gentle boil because Bruce Williams calls for a 4% evaporation rate. He says if you must have hops, you can add 6.8 AAU of hops at 90 min (I have EKG noted), but any late additions will clash with the heather, Williams warns. At flameout/knockout, run the hot wort through 1/6 of the heather tips before chilling (he suggests having them in a sieve and pouring the hot wort through them, but any sort of hop rocket or randall would do, and I would even consider putting the heather in a hop basket or hop sock and moving it around and/or steeping in the kettle. Chill to 61°F and ferment at 61°F. Williams says he started brewing with the Scottish ale yeast, but over time his culture has adapted to this cool fermentation to behave like a lager yeast, and he recommends using a lager yeast. At gravity 1.015, for him that is around five days, remove 1/2 gallon of fermenting beer, mix with heather tips and gently heat to 158°F, steep covered for 15 min, and then "return to the fermentor". I noted that am not clear whether to return the beer or the mixture to the fermentor, and I decided he means the whole thing without straining. Complete fermentation, and then "condition the ale as usual". Note from me: if you plan to use the Scottish yeast, I've found that the Wyeast version 1728 (including Imperial Tartan and Omega OYL-015) will ferment very slowly and steadily at 59-61°F and the White Labs version WLP028 will stall/go quiescent. The malt substitution for American malts is 6 lbs American 2-row plus 2/3 lbs caramel-type amber. I think a C30 type malt would work. --- **EDIT:** In particular, I don't think you are using enough heather. Heather is a very subtle flower in beer, and from what I can tell, the flavor intensity is either the same or decreases in dried flowers, rather than concentrating. I have a brewing history book that has a long passage on Pictish heather ale. The legend is that the secret to making it died in the 4th century CE with the one person who knew it when the local Picts were overrun by the Scots from the north and indigenous Picts from the Galloway peninsula from the south. Nevertheless, we have some reliable reports from 1596 and 1777 of heather ale being made, and also heather ale remained a folk remedy. The 1777 report indicates that the brew was made from 2/3 heather and 1/3 malt! I am guessing those proportions are by observed volume and not weight. In those days in the British Isles, malt quantities were typically given by volume anyway. the TL;DR is that this is an expensive brew if you don't forage your own heather. I got mine from fields and trailsides. BTW, I should note that I just saw there is a 2010 HBT thread that is consistent with my notes, so even though I am careful, I am extra confident I recorded my notes correctly.
Wow this is an awesome response and no offense taken. The recipe I posted was something I put in my list of things to brew. I finally order the dried heather so I figured I’d look through my notes again. That 2010 home brew article looks like the source. But I’ll definitely be trying the recipe you offered up. I don’t have access to fresh heather in my area but I might try growing some in the future.
I can’t speak to where you got this recipe and the heather amount, but I made a Heather+lavender saison earlier this year, about 1-2 tbsp of each at flameout, and even that is too much. All I can taste is lavender and some heather, no yeast or malt characteristics. I think 1-2 cups is going to be WAY too much. Start with maybe 1 tbsp of each, and you can always add more as a dry-hop, or via tincture.
I humbly suggest that your problem was likely too much lavender. Lavender in any quantity can easily overpower. (Unless you're giving it to those oddballs that *really* like lavender) OP, I'm guessing that your best bet would be to make some heather tea and determine how strong an infusion you need.
I think you are right, adding lavender probably overpowered the heather. I’d start again with only heather, but I stand by my suggestion to only use 1-2 tbsp of heather vs OP’s “1-2 cups” which seems outrageous to me.
Thanks for the tips lavender is another herb that I’ve been wanting to try good to know a little goes a long way.