hist-brewing: RE:Heather ale body (was: Re:Kingdoms!?!?)

[Angus]

--- Mark Poliner <allotta at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>I usgest using a Scottish ale recipe.  OG 1.080.  Rich & malty.  Use other
>malts for color & flavor. I suggest 1/2# Scottish caramel, 1/2# Gambrinus
>ESB or Brown malt, 1/4# chocolate.  Use 8# light DME.  No hops.  1/2#
>heather tips and nice scotish ale yeast.
>
>This worked wonders for me.

What level of alcohol are you aiming at for the heather ale ?  As a quick guideline FG is often placed at OG/4 so the above recipe would give (80-20)/7.3 = 8.2% ABV.
If you aim higher or lower, adjust your OG.

Water treatment is another thing to fiddle around with to give more body.  Adding NaCl (common tablesalt) to the water will give a fuller taste.

Mashing temperature plays a minor role as well.  Higher temp yields more dextrines (unfermentable by S. Cereviseae(sp?)).

Personally I like to add a bit of unmalted oats for a Scottish type ale.  My last batch had 60% unmalted,flaked oats in it.  I dry roasted it in a pan and poured 1/2 cup of cask strength Laphroaig over it.  I nearly lost my eyebrows when setting fire to it but when the flames had died out parts of the top layer looked like dark malt even though I'd turned it a few times while burning.

I kept the mash temp around 78 C and the final brew turned out a nice coppery/brownish red with a licorice smell and malty taste.  Bittering was done with hops alone since I couldn't get any heather.
It has plenty of body but not quite a knife-and-fork body.  A spoon will do.

/Angus

==
If you look at the sun without shielding youreyes you'll go blind.  If you look at the moon without shielding your eyes you'll become a poet.

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