- The malt powder is Munton's Dark. This is what it said in the recipe, although now that I look at the photo closer, I should have gotten amber instead. Oh well.
- I used light candi sugar instead of homemade invert sugar, whatever that is.
- The yeast is a White Labs Hefe-Weizen Yeast instead of the Wyeast 3068 because that is what the store had.
- I couldn't find anywhere that carried the specified Marsh rosemary, or its recommended replacement in North America, Labrador tea, at a price that was reasonable. Instead, I found Heather tips, sweet gale, and mugwort at Modern Brewer, and Yarrow root at The Herb Store. This gave me an herb profile closer to this ale, so I am using those timings for adding the herbs.
- I wasn't as picky about the honey. I jsut got a two pound honey bear squeezer when I picked up everything at Beer & Wine.
- I bought malto-dextrin but completely forgot to use it! Oops.
So, to recap everything I did:
- Steep the grains in a cloth bag in 2 gallons of water until the water is about to boil.
- Once boiling, add the malt and sugars.
- After 15 minutes, add half the yarrow and all the mugwort.
- After an additional 15 minutes, add the gale.
- 15 minutes later, add the remaining yarrow.
- 10 minutes later, add the heather.
Now, some heather ale recipes call for two separate additions of the tips, but they aren't gruit ales. They're hopped! Not that I'm enough of an expert to know exactly what I'm doing yet :)
Oops, I just pitched the yeast and forgot to take a hydrometer reading.
