Heather Ales Kelpie

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

Pours a chocolatey black with a fine, creamy head. Aromas of malt and ocean. Makes me think of oysters. Light body in the mouth with flavours of dark malt, smoky/roastiness and brown sugar. An oceanic hint blends into a slightly bitter finish. Very drinkable but more memorable for what it is than what it tastes like. Now I can say that I’ve drank seaweed!

(Bottled). Black with no head, smells chocolatey. Chocolate and coffee aroma, and quite salty.

Deep brown color with no head. Some substantial malt and dark aromas that continued on to the taste. There was a little something else in there that I can’t place, but assume must be the seaweed that the story on the bottle talks about. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

500ml bottle poured a clear very dark reddish brown with a small dissapating amber head. Aromas of chocolate, sea breeze [yes, thats the best way to describe it], and a hint of molasses. Palate was medium bodied and smooth. Flavors of roasted malt, light chocolate and a bit of brown sugar with a smooth sweet finish.

Dark brown in color. LArge amount of malt in aroma, with some molasses thrown in. Moderate head. thin mouthfeel. Not much depth. Something odd on the back of my tongue - perhaps the bladder rack, but not sure.

Bottle 08-04-06. Hadn’t had this for some time but it reminds me very much of Youngs double chocolate stout, very dark, nice balance, quite sweet, couldn’t really notice the Bladder Wrack, but otherwise a very good beer.

i would think that as a marketing device, announcing that a beer contains something most folks find unsavory would simply be a bad idea. this beer contains a seaweed called ’bladder rack’ -- and they freely admit it. nasty. sounds like an intestinal infection. i don’t like seaweed except in the ocean where it belongs. i can appreciate that some people DO, just as some might delight in slug butter or toasted crickets, but at first blush, anything concerning bladder rack suggests fetching not a snifter glass but serious medical attention. all that aside, this is essentially a mild porter, so i’m glad that it doesn’t pour a brackish green hue, but rather a deep black bear sable color, and it’s matched by a foamy little kepi of camel-tone on top. some ashtray aroma mingles with coffee, rubber, and something reminiscent of peppermint hard candy. watery feel with medium body, mild sweetness emerges from dark roasted malts, there’s a waft of smoke and a moderate gesture of bitterness that seems to issue from a metallic or overripe nut sort of origin. on a couple sips i thought i might have detected a mild tidal pool salted mustiness, but it fled in terror before i could snap it’s picture. so fear not the dreaded bladder rack, ’cause even if you DO get it, hey, it clears up in a few days with the right antibiotics.

Bottle: Ruby brown with a tan head. Roast aroma. Roast flav with a little choc. Medium bodied, and drinkable.