Heather Ales Alba

From a slender 11.2 oz. brown bottle with a blurb and a notched best before date on the right side of front label, Feb/2007. Served at cellar temperature. Made a decent appearance, poured a reddish and orange hued amber with a small foamy, fizzy topped pale tannish head that settled into a thin bubbly lacing, moderate carbonation overall. Had a piney, and yes, spruce, and an apple, pear fruity nose with a faint herbal and earthy background. A crisp, smooth medium bodied mouth feel, good drinkability. Piney, spruce, spicy and apple fruity taste, a earthy herbal bitterness, a nice alcohol warmth towards the middle and a spruce, herbal and fruity finish, a bit on the dry side. A nice herbed ale, tasty and balanced, well worth trying.

Pours a murky reddish brown, white head. This was good, not overpowering on anything. Nice brown sugar and caramel sweetness, along with dark fruits, roasted malt, no pine though? Everything blended great and very drinkable.

12 oz. bottle from BevMo LaJolla. Pours clear, rich cherry mahogany color with a large off-white head leaving stringy lace. Aroma is fascinating, piney, syrupy, oily, herbal notes, maple and rosemary. Flavor is like sweet malt syrup infused with pine oil, bitter grass adn herbs - like I imagine Pine-Sol might taste. Medium body, gentle carbonation. This one got much more pungent and potent as it warmed, definitely one of the most interesting beers I’ve had, but the flavor just didn’t do it for me.

Wasn’t too sure what to expect with this one, but was pleasantly surprised. Sweet caramel flavors, a good combination of spices and bitterness. Good stuff.

Bottled. Red brown colour with a beige head. Malt and sweet caramel in the aroma. Roasted sweet caramel in the flavour.

Bottled. A still, copper-colored beer with a small beige head. Malt and caramel-sweetness in the aroma. It’s pleasant, almost bock-like. Malty flavor with some alcohol and sweetness. A bit dry. Lightly sticky full to medium body. Rating: 6-4-6-4-13-3.3. (060422)

Bottle. It pours a hazy orange-golden color, with almost no trace of head on top. Malty-sweet, citrusy and woody nose with some alcohol sweetness. Full-bodied and warming. The flavor is caramel-sweet and quite fruity, with some bitterness, but the tree-flavors seems to disappear in the alcohol. Still, it’s a quite nice beer. Nothing I could drink a lot of though. (090513)

I’m extremely happy with this beer. It’s a nice beer for later in the evening; the alcoholic potency didn’t really hit me until it almost put me to sleep. Pours with a medium light brown creamy head on a hazy red-brown body. There are no hop aromas (since the beer contains none), just delicious malty ones. As the name suggests, lots of pine and spruce backed up with some creamy caramel. There are so many hints of spice (coriander?) you could never name them all. The body is oily slick with a little fizzy carbonation. Just the thing for indigestion! The rich and chewy texture carries the beer through a long finish. Flavors are those mentioned in aromatics.

Excellent brew. Bottle. Nice deep brown colour and spicy aroma. Excellent with a plate of fish n chips.