Heather Ales Fraoch (Bottle)

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

Hazy, glowing golden colour with small white head. Big, firm aroma of earthy malts, spice (cinnamon, nutmeg) and cut grass. Very unique flavour with a big malt backbone and strong floral notes along with a bit of honey. Finish is dry, slightly acidic, with a pleasant hint of ginger. It took me a couple of mouthfuls to get into it, but I'm really digging this beer.

The Grog & Gruel, Fort William, Scotland. Amberish color. Smells sweet, and tastes sweeter, but not overpoweringly so. Certainly reminiscent of heather fields. (June 8, 2004 Addition): Now that I've had this again... its taste is much more up front this time. I noticed the wonderful spices right up front; it really added a lot. The color was a beautiful dark yellow. I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Not sure if that's a bottle vs tap issue or just being better adjusted to beer.

This is a beer that I had been wanting to try for awhile. As a history teacher/buff, I was very interested in trying Fraoch, an ancient beer brewed in Scotland for a couple of thousand years. I must make one statement. I am easily swayed in my opinions by things that I find interesting. Beer is no exception. The concept of a historical recipe is fascinating to me. I’m not saying that I would give a bad beer a good rating simply because I think it’s cool. What I am saying is that I take into account that historical artifacts (and this would be a "modern artifact") are what they are. If heather ale is not the best beer in the world, it doesn’t lessen its significance. This beer (or something similar to it) was important to people living in Scotland thousands of years ago. To change the recipe for modern tastes would do a disservice to everyone involved. Having said that, I have to say that I was surprised at how, well, beer-like Fraoch looks. I don’t know what I was expecting but this beer looks like beer! Fraoch pours a clear gold, like bottled sunshine. I have read the reviews that say it’s cloudy but I didn’t see it. maybe it was the hefe-weizen I had earlier in the night that "clouded" my judgment. (I can’t resist a pun) The head is a slight off-white. Fraoch really does look nice. The main problem with rating this beer is, what do I compare it to? What stadard do I use? I have never had a heather ale or historical recipe. This beer is unique to me. The aroma is sour, with a very faint floral and hint of alcohol...very faint. I wish I could say it smelled like heather but I have to be honest...I don’t know what heather smells like...this beer maybe? Fraoch has a definite sweet flavor, with a very distant bitterness that flashes quickly and is gone. There is a very faint aftertaste that also lasts only a moment. This beer is very clean tasting, nicely carbonated and very spicy. All-in-all, Fraoch is a good beer. I enjoyed this beer quite a lot, and it is quite interesting, but it’s more interesting than it is tasty. This does not mean it’s bad. It doesn’t mean I will never want another. What it does mean to me is that this beer has an element that many others do not have, along with appearance, aroma, taste, etc. Fraoch has "history" and that gets high marks from me.

Yeah, so like, what do you compare a "heather" beer to when this is the first you've had? The closest I can compare it to is Siletz's Spruce Ale, only not so "pine" tasting. Sorry, that's the best I can do. It's listed here as a Pale Ale but I don't think that's quite it. Beautiful bottle, one that certainly won't be traded in for the 5c deposit. And the design is *not* Celtic, it's Gaelic, dammit! 11.2 oz, "Best Before" date of Dec 2004. Pours a semi-cloudy honey color with little head that doesn't last for long. Smells *really* appealing. Very floral and much like the Spruce Ale. Tastes, well, like the Spruce without the pine. Someone else mentioned ginger and I think they're right on the mark. It's quite floral, which is likely the heather but I've never tasted heather before. Mouthfeel is rather crisp with nice carbonation. Drinkability is good, I could have a few of them but it's not something I'd want very often. Nice beer and a very plesant change from the hoppy beers I've been drinking lately.

Very warm mouthfeel and a seemingly related excellent flavor balance of malt and (I suppose it must be:) heather! Antiseptic light-copper color with minimal head and average lacing. Don’t know why, but this kind of beer appeals to me. The commercial description hits it exactly in saying Fraoch has a "dry wine like finish". I have rated three beers from this outfit and each have been over 4.0 % in my rating -- this outfit is TRUE to the past!

The oldest style of ale is a heafty reputation to live up to. This is great... rich orange colour no head. Aroma is refreshing with hints of pond, honey, florals, roses, butter, fresh, and sweet. Light body with a warm mouth flavor that is difficult to describe. Great malt, lean on the hops, but the heather and honey flavor make up for lack of hoppiness, and make for a great brew. Drink this one up folks!

Original rating from 3/24/07: Pours a hazy amber with sparse but persistent carbonation. Smells of heath, pine, some pepper, spices. Tastes of perfumy wildflowers and sweet malt with a rich flowery finish. This is an enjoyable beer, but not in the same ballpark as the pine ale.
Ar: 7 App: 4 Fl: 6 Pa: 4 Ov: 13

Updated rating 2/23/08: As an experiment, I cellared a 4 year vertical of this beer to see how the Heather affects how this beer ages over time and also sampled an older bottle of Highlands Heather Ale for comparison.

2004 bottle: Aroma and flavor profile is dominated by caramel, some tartness has creeped into this beer, but amazingly, the floral hints presented by the heather have become slightly more pronounced.

2005 bottle: Some fading present, lots of sweetness, some floral hints, but not quite as pronounced at the 2004 bottle. Spiciness has blended nicely with the heather.

2006 bottle: Lots of caramel and some nuttiness as well as some dark fruit. Floral character from the Heather is not as established as in the older bottles.

2007 bottle: Lots of spice and caramel, hints of heather, not as much balance in the beer.

Overall impressions: This beer actually tastes better with a year or two of cellaring before starting to fade at around 3 years old. Nevertheless, this more extensive revisit of this beer has caused me to rethink my rating of the beer and bump the aroma and flavor scores to 8s and the overall to a 16. Definitely one of the more interesting beers out there. I’m looking forward to doing a similar comparison with their pine ale in the not too distant future.

Bottle. I discovered this one in a small pub far, far out in the Scottish highland on a hiking holiday last year. It was -and is- fantastic. It’s light and flowery, sweet and bitter. But most of all, it’s one of those beers I’ll never forget.