Heather Ales Fraoch (Bottle)

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

Extremely meaty beer. Not like anything I have ever had before. Some honey was present. The only way I would describe this is beefy. Unique and amazing.

Hazy orange color with a thin white head. Sweet light spiced aroma. Sweet floral flavors with hints of cardamom.

I really liked this beer, and it could be a great everyday beer. In fact, I think that I could drink it all day long, like iced tea. Aroma of honey, wildflowers, spice and a hint of licorice. Tasted a bit like iced tea beer. You notice that it has no hops. Special thanks to my wife, Peggy, aka Quillaraymi, for bringing this beer down from Atlanta.

hazy golden beer. smells like band-aid(medicinal), very herbal, earthy and some caramel notes. taste: bit sweet, bit fruity(apple;granny smith), spicy, herbal, malty and caramel. finishes very fruity (apple, peach). silky smooth texture, low on co2. nicely balanced beer with an intriguing development. lovely!!

Bottle. Pours an orange-gold hue with a a thin, but solid, white head. There is quite a bit of rosemary and sage in the nose, along with some earthy sweetness. The flavor is very herbacious... again with the rosemary (I suppose that is actually the taste of heather), and some malt/hops in the background. Clover and other plants in the finish. This brew has a very organic feel to it all around which, to me, is very desirable. I can see, however, how this could be an acquired taste.

Dry and flowery, this reminds me of a dry chardonnay. Sharp and earthy. I also sense some spring fruits and a nice pie crust malt flavor. Real nice ale, but could be a little bigger tasting.

This beer seems underrated on here. I thought it was really good. Bottle... Poured a hazy orange with a white head. Aroma was a little skunky with with hops and berries probably from the heather flowers. Despite the look of this ale (as being light), it definitely has some substance and depth to the flavors. Well carbonated with strong, floral, leafy flavors with some tartness probably from the malted barley. Pretty tasty.

I’m well aware that nearly anything can be squeezed hard enough to produce oil, and only the less than pleasing taste of most things keeps grocers from selling strange and exotic varieties like “Janitorial Sponge Oil” or “Oil of Panda”. I was not aware, however, that the same principle could be expressed in beer, albeit to a more limited degree. Fraoch is once case where if you try hard enough you can put the flavor of anything into anything. Not to say it’s easy; beer is hospitable to natural flavors from every corner of the globe. Compare this to, say, Pop-Tarts, where chances are slim you’ll find an exotic Sri Lankan flavor next to the Double-Choco-Marshmallow like you would find a Sri Lankan beer a few fridges down from the Coors. Fraoch has claimed to harness the flavor of Scottish heather, to infuse it with the natural good tastes of beer and to make a unique flavor unique to this Scottish brewery. I’d say they’ve done just that. The Fraoch isn’t spectacular by sight: an orange and brown beer, very clear and a mild foam on top. The smell is a notch closer to its quality side, slipping in hints of flower, spices and pumpkin (what a perfect time of year!). A bit more detective work can pick out cinnamon, but my sleuthing skills are comparable to the Pink Panther’s, so don’t trust me on that last claim. Meanwhile, the taste is extremely flowery. Which flower I cannot say, since it has been many years since my infancy and a few calls to poison control since I’ve gone about picking flowers. I imagine it’s the heather speaking. The beer is very mild, great for weaker tastes and nebbish beer tasters, though I’m unsure what the seasonal preference should and would be. I’m inclined to say fall because that’s when you’re missing the flowers most, but fall also is wanting of a deeper and darker beer to stave off the precocious winter cold. Perhaps spring, but I leave it to the consumer. Fraoch is a beer true to its word; an admirable quality in any beer or human.