Heather Ales Alba

Aromas of candi-apple, berries, pine, and solvant; yep, its like chewing on a pine sprig dippd in vanilla and butterscotch; it has a somewhat dry finish with a viscous body and sweet front end; strange, different, and actually pretty good.

Cloudy brown with little head. Aroma is kind of bland. Tastes ofcaramel, pine, red licorice. Very nice beer.

(11.2 oz bottle: Part of the "Historic Ales from Scotland" giftpack) The "traditional ale" category is rapidly becoming one of my favorites because each beer is so unique, vastly different from what I expected, and strays far enough from "modern" beers to really stimulate the palate and nose. This beer is another example. I don’t necessarily love this beer, but it’s so unique and different, I’m really enjoying the change of pace. There’s a strong maltiness dominating the flavor of this beer, fairly sweet from start to finish, with also a prominent raspberry-like fruitiness and a moderate bitterness gathering steam after the initial malt onslaught. Another flavor is fresh, crisp pine, somewhere between spicy and the piney flavor of strongly hopped beers. Full, dense mouthfeel, medium "plus" in body. The nose is truly one-of-a-kind. It smells very strongly of sweet raspberries, but instead of being a fresh "real" raspberry aroma, it’s more like the fake-smelling raspberry filling in store-bought cookies, so while it’s interesting, it’s not as enjoyable as it could be. When I really swirl the beer in my tulip glass, I get quite a bit more hearty, sweet maltiness temporarily supplanting the raspberry aroma. Medium brown in color with a bit of amber hue in there. It’s fully cloudy, obscuring any objects from showing through the beer. The beer pours with almost no head, instead showing a layer of large bubbles that rapidly disappear, leaving only the very tiny rim around the glass.

Caramel colored with an airy off-white head. Mild but nice spice and malt aroma. Roasted flavor with a sweet candied note. Caramel and spices. Tasty and very drinkable.

Deep amber color with a slight off white head. The taste is a sweet, spicy and light sour combo with a very complex and strong palate.

Bottled:
Flavor is malty, fruity, big notes of raspberries. Light resin notes in the end. Nice fruity beer, fine notes of wild berries.

Fouth and last of a gift-pack series of "historic ales from Scotland". This one was my favorite. Pale red and opaque, with only slightly more froathy lace than the other 3 I sampled (Froach, Grozet and Ebulum). Smelled raspberry sweet, I didn’t smell much pine at first, but it slowly crept up in the nose towards the end. Fresh, but not pine-sol, chemical fresh. Really piney taste, with a little malty and berry sweetness, aftertaste was like homemade spruce beer but with a decent alcohol finish.

Bottle. Orange-brown colour with a medium baige head. Sweet floral pine aroma and a sweet dry taste. Medium body and a sweet light caramel finish.