Heather Ales Alba

It’s not a bad beer, but the pine addition doesn’t do much for me. If you are really desperate for something new, then give this one a whirl, otherwise, look elsewhere.

Bottle from Super Saver. Deep coppery ruby pour with 1-finger off-white head. Nice appearance for this one. Smells caramel malty, piney and hoppy, with some fruit and brown sugar hints. Tastes caramel malty at first, then becomes more heavy in the piney, sprucey hop arena as it warms, with even a nut browny almond and brown sugar flavor. Nicely balanced, unique, and complex.

I’m a gluten for punishment when it comes to trying flavored or enhanced beers as I’m usually disappointed. This one certainly won’t find home in my cellar any time soon but I must say I’m glad I tried it. Deep orange/red, slight cloud, med head. Head and lace quickly disappeared. I poured this one cold, brewer says room temp, so I sampled a few cold sips and then let it rest a while. A lot more interesting once warmed up, notes of coffee, bourbon, toffee, bitter candy, herbal, cloves, malty. Whiffs of bourbon and alcohol though only 7.5%. Now on to the pine/spruce: It’s there, regardless of what some of my predecessors here have said, just not overwhelming....not so subtle either. Way back when we used to camp up in the North Woods and Canada and we’d brew this concoction of pine, spruce, honey, ’herbs’, etc. The pine always overwhelmed the other flavors. But with this beer they managed to keep those strong pine tones under control. My bottle says the pine and spruce were collected in May of 1998. If your expecting Pine-Sol® you better leave the mop because this is a well crafted beer regardless of my score. Had this one with skirt steak, peppers & onions which was not a great match but then again, what would be a good pairing with this type of brew? $2.50/bottle @ Case&Keg, Boca Raton

Bottle. Copper beer with an off-white head. Toffee and swet malt aroma. Sweet malt, caramel, and light pine flavor. Lighter body than expected. Lingering caramel/toffee. Easy to drink. Much better than expected and not nearly the pine influence I would have thought.

I couldn’t get past the aroma of this beer. It was paint thinner thru and thru. I got no pine, no berries, no nothing more than a sweet paint thinner aroma. Appearance was dark caramel in color. Taste was slightly banana and a other fruits, slightly hoppy/pine characters, so it is drinkable. Overall I was rather off-put on the nose. I think this was my first beer where I picked up paint thinner.

Sweet malt and fruit aroma. Flavour reminiscent of raspberry, chocolate and some other dark fruits. Alcohol noticeable in the finish. Interesting spruciness develops but I was hoping for a whole lot more than that. Maybe if it were fresher?

Interesting beer... was expecting more of a brown ale type beer and so was pleasantly surprised. Great flavor. There was a lot of sediment floating around in the beer, which was either cool or gross, I can’t decide. But I would recommend this for sure.

Interesting, with a but of a fruity eucalyptus nose. Very earthy, with some mineral flavors, butterscotch, some spices and dry vegetal flavors, with some very light but very true pine and spruce earthiness. Definitely unique.