Heather Ales Fraoch (Bottle)

Brewed by Williams Brothers (Heather Ales)
Style: Traditional Ale
Alloa, Central, Scotland

Pours amber into a shaker. Head from agressive pour quickly recedes to skim surface. Floral aromas. Flat with front to back bread and hay. Nothing redeeming - but not a drain pour - finished because I knew I wasn’t going to get my money back.

Bottled. Pours a hazy light amber with a thin white head. Floral aroma with some wood/peat, fruit and honey spice. The body is medium with light carbonation. The taste is sweet with fruit and bisquit augmented by the same tastes as the aroma. A bit of spice on the finish.

Hazy golden color with a thin white head. Malty, friuty and flowery notes. Medium body with a sweet aftertaste.

Bottle from Super Saver. Pours somewhat hazy deep golden/dark straw with 1-finger, creamy, perfectly uniform off-white head. The aroma is bready malty, with some honey-toned malt, fruit, and honey. The taste is malty and piney, with some hops, honey, apricot, and a sprucy note. Medium palate that is smooth and fairly complex. Gets flowery and morepiney as it warms. This one is underrated by half a point or so, and well worth seeking out. Get ya some!

From a bottle, a clean pour that’d gooden with a thin head. Thick falor, the flor taste of the heather comes through as hints of mead: milk and honey. Oddly flat, nearly no carbonation. Flat flavor finish, as well.

Cask @ GBBF 2006. Pours a golden colour with a small white head. Fruity spicy aroma. Sweet malty spicy flavor with some herbal hints. Sweet malty finish.

Wonderful beer, Such a great story. Drinks crisp , wonderful with Stilton. Its lovely in the bottle and better in cask in Edinburgh!

First sip! Not sure whether to say "Wow!" or "EEK!!" Definately a unique flavor in that there are zero hops in there, but the flavoring/preservative agent is the pretty little heather flower. Cloudy condition. Zero head when first poured into the glass, but slight head forms if left alone for a moment. Doesn’t last too long though. I’ve seen it on the shelf for years, but was reluctant to try it based on the US$5 price tag. Finally got aroud to buying a bottle. Now I can move on with my beer tasting life saying I’ve tasted it. :-) . To my tastebuds a rather harsh pallate, and not necessarily a flavor I think I can get used to. Aroma is fine. Its a few more minutes since I opened the bottle and I’m noticing a flavor that is remenicent of Bill Owens’ Pumpkin Ale. Not as strong, but comparable. Beautiful color of a dark orange marmalaide. Flavor that lingers on my pallate, sort of like I’d been munching on wild heather a few minutes ago. (Is that a good thing?) Due to its uniqueness I gave it a few points on the Overall rating that wouldn’t have been there had I been rating yet another normal pale ale or pilsner! If you’re adventurous give it a shot at least once, otherwise spend the money elsewhere as its single bottle price equals about 2/3 of a six-pack of a nice micro!!