(Calluna vulgaris) is a widespread, small bush-like plant that grows on dry, acidic soils. In the northern hemisphere it usually flowers in August and has a strong and pleasant aroma during flowering. Both young shoots of heather and the very aromatic flowering shoots may be used for bittering and flavoring beer. In many areas of Europe, heather was a common component of gruit, a mixture of herbs that was widely used in beer in the centuries before hops became predominant. See gruit. Heather shoots are also well known for their coloring characteristics (yellow–brown). Flowering heather is very attractive to bees, and a dark aromatic honey is produced from heather nectar. This honey may be used to produce mead, and it has also been of interest to brewers through the ages. It may be used directly to increase sweetness and alcohol strength and more indirectly as an alternative to traditional brewer’s yeast to promote and regulate the spontaneous fermentation of beer. For this use the honey, which contains entrained yeasts, must be nonheated when added to the cooled wort. See honey. Furthermore, associated with heather itself is a specific fungal growth (colloquially called “fogg” or simply “white powder”), which possesses a wild yeast capable of fermenting beer. Heather grows wild all over Britain and it is believed that the old tribes of the British Isles, the Picts and the Celts, made beers with heather during the Iron Age. Archeological digs have found heather in the residues of beer-like beverages buried with the dead in their graves, both in the Bronze Age and in the Iron Age. Today, a number of craft brewers are rediscovering heather as an interesting ingredient that can bring pleasant floral aromatics to their beers.