Heather Ales Fraoch (Bottle)

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!!

Shared with Beerdrenched. Pours orange with a white head. Aroma has nutmeg, butterscotch and a honey-like sweetness. Starts off sour with nutmeg - slightly medicinal with the honey sweetness. This is a medium bodied beer that is very smooth with gentle carbonation (best thing about the beer). The finish has much of the same that was in the taste with more medicinal aspects. It gets more tolerable further down the glass, but still not something I’ll buy again.

Couldn’t find any attraction to this one. Actually expected a lot more than what was delivered. From the bottle. Pours a clear, golden bronze with no head and alarmingly big bubbles that clung firmly to the side giving it the appearance of lucozade. Very distant aroma of wild heather, rusted car bodies and wood. In the mouth it’s quite thin and seemingly watery with a heady fizz to it. Flavour has again distant heather notes with some light chamomile, dull malts, oak, stale hops and dried flower petals. Quite dull, nothing exciting yet it seems quite soothing. Finish has a tinge of salt and honey with more dried herbs set to linger just long enough to dry it out. Overall it wasn’t bad, but it just doesn’t sit right on the palate and lacks the feel of a good traditional Ale. (33cL, Morrison’s, Bayswater, London)

Very Interesting beer. Stong Floral - Herbal aroma and flavor. Pours hazy orange - copper from the bottle with a minimal head. some unique flavors in this one I cant identify. that must be the heather without the hops. some swallows were a little acidic, but most were malty, floral and dry.