Heather Ales Kelpie

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

Does one dare try a seaweed beer? Why yes they should!! Chocolate and mahogany with more than enough roasted lurking stuff to compliment a good serving of seaweed. Fresh and tasty indeed!

Nice dark ale, in a bottle. Poured out like an oily dark premordial swamp. Smelled like a porter. I was a little wary of the kelp but I really couldnt detect it (a good thing I think). This is a good beer, although if you are looking for a seaweed tasting beer (who are you) u might be disapointed. But I really appreciated the craftmanship of this beer.

Pours almost black with a thin off-white head. Slight roasted coffee and dark chocolate nose. Mouthfeel was a bit thin. The coffee and chocolate come through in the flavor. I didn’t really notice any seaweed, though. But would I know what seaweed tastes like? It was a bit sweet and fruity, mostly dried fruits. Long lingering dry finish. Not a bad ale. I’d drink it again.

Just let me say, I have a seafood phobia, so this beer and I didn’t get off on the right foot to begin with. Anyways, once I got past the ocean thing, this is an enjoyable beer. Sweet, chocolate, fruity.smells like chocolate and vegetables, which sounds gross, but really it’s good!

Pours a pitch black with a slight brown halo and a tan head resting on top. Aroma is chocolate, dark fruits, butterscotch, and veggies. Flavor is lots of dark fruit, chocolate, and a slight kelp flavor, though not nearly as much as I expected. Palate is acceptable. A very original beer, for sure.

Smells of sweet malts and cereal. At first the taste was almost like light coffee or subdued cocoa. light body, full flavor. The taste became more vegitated and mixed with the existing qualities. produced the same effect in the finish. Really cool.

Aroma spills out of the bottle on cracking the cap, but I hold off from studying it until other aspects are examined. Pours a deep, dark brown, almost black, with a lush, creamy, proud cocoa-colored head that doesn’t want to quit. And that smell? Surprisingly sly snd soft, when lifted to the nose, but virtually indescribable, and utterly unique, but I’ll give it a whirl...mossy, briney, vegetal, dark, cocoa, and nuts. On the palate, very soft and pleasantly smooth. Some slight hops appear, but the thick and flavorful malt is fully in power. More flavors show themselves, more cocoa and nuts, more and more it feels like a very good brown ale. The seaweedy aspect bobs up again and again, but is inoffensive, unobtrusive. Oiliness in the texture, but terrifically smooth, with a nice, tasty finish. This is their recreation of a historic style, from a time when seaweed brine washed over the barley fields, and infiltrated the flavors of Scottish ales. The label calls it "a rich chocolate ale which has an aroma of fresh seabreeze and a distinctive malty texture." That’s about right. Anyone looking for an ale that’s all about seaweed (and who are you, again, and why aren’t you locked up?) will be disappointed. I had this with an Ethiopian dish called Raafu, consisting of kale, carrots, potatoes, peppers, herbs, and spices. Went together well.

A nice rich looking dark beer with a thick tan head that disspated quickly.TAsted the roasted malt but that was it.Was kind of boring, no pop in th eflavor.