Heather Ales Alba

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

Poured a dark amber color with a large (4 finger) off white head. Lots and lots of large floaties. Fruity aroma with berries. Tastes of berries, pine, and caramel. I didn’t care for this one too much.

The third beer I tried from this sampler. It has a deep amber appearance with a sweet malt taste. For being at 7.5% abv it does go down smooth. The aroma definately has some spiciness to it.

Holy crap! Murky peat-bog body, musty sweet aroma. Sips smooth and velvety, with berry notes. In the mouth, the palate is rich dreamy perfect consistency of maltiness and action. Flavor is Mixed Berry Yoplait Yogurt, growing in sweetness and fruitiness long after the swallow. This is the most surprising aftertaste I’ve encountered yet--thus the high flavor and overall ratings. This was from a bottle, cold. Next I’ll try it as suggested at room temp. Wow.

got this from one of my good friends in scotland....not what expected at all....thought it was going to be a hoppy pine citrus thing. poured hazy brown with a thin whimsical tan head. nice malt nose of cherries and framboise. this followed on the palate with huge fruit berry flavors, some rock candiness, and malt fullness. very easy to drink and palatable. never realize it has 7.5% abv. more in the brown ale infused with fruit flavors. good.

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.