Heather Ales Alba

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

11.2oz bottle from a Heather Ale mix sampler box. Not so sure about this one. Very different. I either like it or I don’t yet I’m not sure which. Hmm. I am perplexed.

Pours a clear orange color with a very small head. Aroma is like pine sap and some sweet malt, plenty of floral characteristics, and some alcohol. The flavor is nicely fruity with a distinct honey flavor, a little too sweet to the point of cloying. That pine flavor is certainly there as well. I didn’t mind it, but it’s not something I would seek out.

Aleish with some astringency in the taste. Murky. Does have a piney taste.

I like this Alba Scots Pine Ale but if it’s all the same, I’d really rather have a Jessica Alba. That being said, the price was somewhat dear but again, this is not a beer you come across every day. Colour was a murky dark tawny, to use the brewer’s word, and the head was a wee bit small and off-white. Aroma was certainly that of a Scotch Ale, with some obvious malting. Taste-wise, well, there sure is some malt but more is going on as well. Some indecipherable spices (at least by me), and in the background there is a tart snap to the taste, as if one had bitten into a pine needle. Mouthfeel is smooth, but the aftertaste is too sweet for my liking.

Pours hazy amber color with thin off white head. Aroma of berries with some alcohol. Berry and spruce flavors. Slightly sweet and alcoholic. Medium body with prickly carbonation.

This shit is wack. What do you say about a beer that has so much crap suspended in it that it looks like some acid trip bubble tea. I’ve had this sitting for 45 minutes and NOTHING has settled. I think the beer colour is orange / red or something...it’s really hard to tell! Poured a small light tan head with some lacing. I cannot believe how much stuff is in this brew. Aroma is truly awsome and very strong. I don’t know about the malts, but I’m everywhere on this - caramel, biscuit, dry cat food....probally more on the caramelly side if anything. The alcohol is there to be found but nothing that would turn you off from this. I don’t know if I’m finding pine or not, like some other pine or spruce infested brews and I think that’s what is so fine about the aroma. Has a dark, thick Belguim qualilty to it - plums and a sweet nutty fruit. Awsome. Now that it has warmed quite alot, I am finding the tree-ee-ness. As for the taste, what the hell is this? Do I love it or consider never buying another one? Sweet and tart and.....I just actually chewed something.....candy like but musty at the same time. Dirt? This is very complex. You can barely notice the 7.5%. More malts now - I’d have to say a mix of biscuit and caramel - it’s really hard to say. Plums, spice and an empty watery taste sometimes too, usually on the back end of the flavour. Medium bodied. Soft feel with very minimal carbonation and an interesting bitterness. Finishes...chewy? dry? unknown. An excellent beer to try on occasion but who knows how you will react to it. Just bought it, may have been in the store for a month or more, BBD of Dec ’07. Once I thin out my beer selection down to under 30 different types, I’ll get more. i fear cellaring this but I may try just for the hell of it.

Very nice malt flavor with a freshness imparted by the pine and/or spruce. Complexity improved as it warmed.

Bottle. Pours amber with a thin white head. Aroma and flavour of berries, spuce and pine notes. It’s quite sweet on the palate but overall I liked it. If it was good for CC it must be good for us all.