TWO HISTORICAL FALLACIES : HEATHER BEER AND ITISGE BEITHE. 17 



that honey-producing plant should be fermentable. Indeed, the extract from Boece in 

 which he calls attention to the liking for heather by " beis" seems to indicate the origin 

 of the tradition. The locality of inquiry, then, was changed to the inland north of 

 Scotland, where there could be no doubt that an acceptable fluid had been quite recently 

 used under the title of heather beer. And from Miss Paull of the Manse of Tullynessle 

 was got a recipe from "a woman who makes it often, says it is very good and supposed 

 to be very strengthening." Here is the recipe : — 



\ peck of malt. 



1 oz. hops. 



3 gallons of water. 



Twa guid gowpenfu's of heather blossom. 



1 lb. sugar or treacle. 

 Small teacupful of yeast. 



Put the malt, hops, and heather blossom in a bag, and boil in the water for two 

 hours. Add the sugar or treacle and strain ; let it stand till lukewarm, then add the 

 yeast. Let it stand till the third day, skim it, and then bottle it. The malt may be 

 omitted if preferred. If the ale is wished sweet, more sugar must be added. 



As the user of this recipe was quite willing to make some, I got a few bottles as a 

 sample. It was not well brewed, was exceedingly sweet, and certainly had a curious 

 taste, no doubt the result of the heather added to it. In fact, it was a poor sample of 

 sugar beer with heather instead of ginger. 



The heather employed was to be gathered in full bloom, was to be by preference not 

 bell heather, and might be kept some time before using. 



Another authority, who hails from Glen Urquhart, was equally positive that there 

 they used " deep heather, the under part of the stems, bits that have not got the sun. 

 You simply boil it a long time, sweeten it with syrup or sugar, add barm, and bottle it." 



Finally I got a recipe, holograph, of the manufacturer : — 



2 lbs. of heather bloom. 

 5 lb. hops. 



2 oz. ground singer. 



3 lbs. syrup. 



Boil all together in 2 gallons of water for half an hour. Strain and add other 2 

 gallons of water, and when it is cold as new milk, add half a cupful of barm. Cover it 

 up for twelve hours. Skim the top, pour it off gently to keep the barm that has sunk 

 to the bottom, then bottle and cork firmly. 



There is a reason for confusion between the heather top, that is the flowering stem of 

 the heather, and the heather bloom, as both in Gaelic are called barr. 



All my first information pointed to the use of the heather top, and so I collected 

 with considerable care a quantity of the finest flowering stems of the common heather I 



