Heather Ales Alba

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

contains scots pine and spruce shoots! it was thick and flavourful - each sip brought something new and it all mingled together well. very interesting.

Pours a nice, slightly hazy amber color with a small white head. The aroma is malty and slightly fruity with no hints of pine or spruce. Full bodied with medium carbonation, the flavor is very fruity with the pine and spruce showing up in the finish. Very smooth with quite an interesting flavor.

Bottle. Flattish dark brown beer. The aroma is intensely malty and dark berries, the flavour is deeply malty with a fruity warming dandelion and burdock quality. Overall a reasonable beer.

Hints of raspbery and honey. Flavor is a nice smoother porter-esque feeling. Nothing too grand, ut still a decent brew.

I’ve now tried all three of Forth’s top rated beers and I have to say this is the only one that’s worth a Scottish damn. It pours a really lovely dark amber with thing ring of head that leaves a few spots of the old lace. I was expecting a big whiff of pine in the nose but what I got was much more fruity. I’d probably describe it as berry or tutti-fruity if I had too. The pine does come out in the flavor though but it’s not really at all the kind of a piny flavor that you get from hops. It’s more vague than that, sort of a sharpness. It’s somewhat ironical to me that hops taste more like what I’d expect actual pine needles to taste than actual pine needles do. Ha! Anyway, as is common with this brewery I found the palate to be somewhat thin but in this case the carbonation was quite active, feisty even, lending a refreshing touch. I can taste the alcohol here as well but it’s not so bad as it works pretty well with the fruity spruce notes. Altogether, I’d say this was more of a worthwhile curiosity than a great beer.

bottle. aroma of sweet berries, alcohol, and sweet malt. brown in colour with a tinge of orange/amber. full body. there is some pineyness to this, as well as being very sweet and alcoholic. sticky finish that lingers. Pretty good stuff!

Poured a nice mahogany color with a thin white head which had nice lacing. Aroma was a mix of nice wood notes and a sweet cherry like fruit note to it. Flavor was very sweet some honey and sweet fruit too it with mild pine notes. Carbonation was low, and body was moderate. good.

I was expecting more of a pine taste and smell to it. But still it was a very good beer. It was sweet. I didn’t notice it tasting to strong at 7.5% alc. I would buy this again.