Today was marked by a Heather Mead Ale, braggot; inspired by Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, "Historically it was almost impossible to extract the honey unless the entire comb was removed from the hive and boiled.  In the making of mead from heather honey, this would mean that the entire contents of the hive would be boiled together: angry bees, propolis, pollen, royal jelly honey and wax."  I left out the bees and wax, but got the rest !

This mead, beer or braggot, not sure which it really is, took some time to source the fermentables, of note is the use of real Heather Honey from scotland, royal jelly, propolis and bee pollen...none of these were cheap or easy to find.  My most expensive 5 gallons, I expect fermentation to take 2-3 months, and then 9-12 months in the bottle before a tasting.

Heather Mead Ale (braggot).

10 Good Earth Green Tea Bags (must be good earth w/lemon grass)

3.3 Pounds Marris Otter malt extract; $15.00
1 Pound Dry Malt Extract (Muntons), extra light $5.00
1 Oz Fuggle Hops bitter
1 Oz Cascade Hops finish

4 Oz Heather Tips

6 Pounds Heather Honey (scottish); (approx 1/2 gallon) $80.00
1 Pound Wild Flower Honey
8 Oz. Royal Jelly $45.00
8 Oz. Bee Pollen $5.50
8 Oz. Bee Propolis Powder $26.00

Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast 125 ml.
Top fermenting yeast which leaves residual sugar after fermentation.

Basic concept was an extract beer formulation, than I strained the hops from the hot wort, added 1 gallon of water to cool the wort a bit, then added the honey and honey products (royal jelly, propolis and pollen) and heather tips.  Stirred vigorously than topped up to a complete 5 gallons. 

11/23/2007 - In the bucket, no sign of fermentation; nasty heather tips floating on top, smells like a combination of mown grass, piney tree sappy and sickening sweet...i'm expecting a very explosive and messy fermentation....blow off hose in place

11/25/2007 - Fermentation progressing nicely, no issues with blowoff or clogging, temperature at low end of range, 65 degrees, turned cold in kansas city, will be hooking up a "brew belt" to warm up the fermentation a bit. Progressing well

11/27/2007 - Too cool, still fermenting well, but placed a space heater in closet with bucket.  Raised temperature up to 72-74 degrees.

12/2/2007 - Racked to secondary.  What an ugly mess.  The mass of heather tips floating on the top with yeast was a unique odor.  Maybe should have filtered out the heather tips before fermentation, but i've read that the combination of yeast and naturally occurring mold on the heather tips add to the medicinal, inebriating and pshycotropic powers of the brew.  Carefully siphoned to secondary, removing most of heather tips, very cloudy at times when siphon either clogged or sucked up stuff from bottom.  Lost a good gallon of product to ensure that too much sediment and trub was not picked up.  Definetly the most trub i've seen, propolis looks to have settled directly out of the wort, looks the same for some of the bee pollen, lots of heather tips and standard trub; the compost pit is getting the most expensive trub i've ever produced !  I plan on letting it sit in the secondary 3 months, at least until Feb 2008.

From the bonny bells of heather,
They brewed a drink longsyne,
Was sweeter far than honey,
Was stronger far than wine.

From Heather Ale, a Galloway Legend
by Robert Louis Stevenson