Heather Ales Alba

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

Bottled. Cloudy ruby-copper in appearance, with no head but a lot of bubbles. Scent is quite malty with lots of berry fruit, particularly raspberry and strawberry. Very carbonated but with a smooth, syrupy mouthfeel. Quite bitter, some sweetness and a dry end. At the front, I was mainly getting strawberry jam, and some grapes, almost wine-like, at the back. There was some pine present, but I really wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t on the label. Nevertheless, very unusual, and nice.

Bottle. Glowing orange/red appearance a definite highlight. Aroma is decidedly sweet, with layers of honey, cherry, taffy and berry-fruit-scented candle. Sharp and strongly bitter alcohol body stings like a right-uppercut, with minor malt creaminess doing little to soften the blow. Bitter-focussed flavour is difficult to describe as the bittering agent is so unusual but this brew seems to have a sharper, more obnoxious bitterness than the traditional hops profile. Needless to say, it’s quite apparent why hops is King. Heavy alcohol effect also offers an OE-like malt liquor experience. Worth trying…once.

THOUGHTS: Had a skunked bottle of this about a year ago so I never rated it. But this one was fresh and was an incredible beer. Almost like a liquor. Slightly warming too. Would definitely have this one again. Not as piney as I would have thought. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, medium to dark amber with a small, slightly off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was heavy caramel malt, toffee, honey brown sugar, maple syrup, raisin, apple, wine and maybe some spruce. The initial flavor was moderately sweet and lightly bitter, while the finish was heavily sweet and lightly bitter with an average duration. The flavor was mostly the same as the aroma. It was a little like a thiner Samichlaus. The medium body was syrupy but slightly watery with fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent finish.

Beautiful headless red amber pour. Aroma sweet, malty, slightly sick-tinged. Fudgy caramel with peardrop. Not a needle of spruce. Clean, sweet and caramelised. Lovely-tasting Belgian-like barley wine with a caramel apple/peardrop fruitiness and a lick of varnish. Disappointingly pleasant. What happened to the pine??

Pours a murky dark amber, with very minimal head. Aroma: lots of sweet things, none of them particularly enticing, alcohol, and something sour. I’m hoping I didn’t leave this one in the fridge too long......Taste: Not as bad as the aroma, or as bad as I was getting ready for. Weird to be honest, nutty malts upfront, followed by some strange woody flavour accompanied by what must be spruce, and a hint of pine. It has a slightly full mouth-feel which is decent. Not terrible, but I really can’t help but be mildly grossed out by certain elements. The aroma is honestly nauseating, and the better aspects get drowned out by the weird, somewhat unpleasant ones. Maybe I got an off bottle, or like I said, left it in the fridge too long, but seriously, this brew seems like it wouldn’t be so great even under the best conditions (IMHO). The last of my "Historic Ales of Scotland" pack, which was decent but not what I had hoped for.

Tasting notes from 2003 Harbury Beer Festival. Reddish-brown with light head. Malty aroma. Fairly sweet ale start to finish with notes of honey, carmel, and spices.

Bottle, pours hazy dark copper with a thin off-white head that quickly becomes a ring of foam. Sweet caramel aroma with berries, pine, earth. Medium body, a bit chewy, with light carbonation. The berries show up in the brown sugar-sweet taste, along with more pine. Dry woody and vaguely smoky exit. Interesting, and surprisingly tasty!

Pours a dark hazy orange with a short lived white head. A very intriguing aroma, very sweet and malty, with some notes of fieldberry jam, and a light note of pine forest. The flavour is sweet, malty, with some caramel, pine, and something else I can’t quite pin, finishes with a sweet aftertaste. The 7.5 alcohol gives it good body that ties the whole brew together. A top notch brew that is better appreciated out of a snifter. Interesting and unique.