Tasting notes: Fraoch Heather Ale
Brewery: Williams Bros Brewing Company
Location: Heather Ale Ltd, Alloa, Scotland, FK10 1NT
ABV: 5.0%
The colour of Fraoch when poured from the bottle with its elaborately decorated label is a very beautiful, golden honey-amber. The back label blurb declares that it has a “flowery aroma” which is actually true, there is a very light, flowery scent from the ale, which shouldn’t be a surprise since it is “infused in heather flowers before being fermented in coppers tuns.” The blurb also goes on to say how this is one of the oldest Scottish forms of ale brewing, with native heather infusions in ale going back to before the time of the Picts (on a side note the label decoration draws on the elaborate Pictish art forms which gives it a nice semi-historical, semi-fantasy look - maybe serve it up with Hobgoblin at your next D&D RPG night!) and is apparently brewed to a Scots-Gaelic 16th century recipe (Scots, Gaelic and Picts - ticks all the boxes for Scottishness, couldn‘t claim to be more Caledonian if it had Haggis smoothies added in), part of a range of historic Scots ale recipes the brewer has resurrected.
Okay, I do find the whole Pict-Scots-Gaelic-heather-ancient-recipe a little bit overdone, although I can see why they’d do it for marketing reasons, especially for overseas markets. And the blurb doesn’t affect the taste, which is very smooth and warm; the ale itself has a lightness, slightly sweet (especially the aftertaste), although not too sweet, just right. One odd observation for an ale though - I noticed a very small but persistent stream of bubbles in my glass for quite a while after pouring, which is unusual in an ale, although it isn’t a large amount like you’d expect in a fizzy lager. I have had Fraoch on draught a couple of times (in Edinburgh’s Guildford Arms, an extremely highly recommended real ale emporium) and I’m trying to remember if too had more bubbles than usual. Again it didn’t affect the refreshing, light, aromatic taste, so it doesn’t matter too much other than as a little quirky detail. A nice, different beer to slide into your mix now and again.
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It is indeed quite smooth, lightly fruity, slightly sweet (but as you say not too much, well controlled) with those bubbles serving to give a little bit of zing to the finish. A pleasant drinking experience but not one I could drink all night.
Heather Ales also appear to have changed their bottle size, ditching the 330ml for a 500ml.
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I tried this one years ago and all I can remember was that I really wasn't keen... but we are talking years and my tastes have moved on, so I reckon it's time to re-visit. They always used to stock this one in Oddbins, so I'll have to have a look next time I'm in central Manchester, I reckon.
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Might be worth a try, mate, but as Ed says, not something you'd drink a lot of in on go, although I find that's a general rule with most herbal or flowery or fruity type beers, they can all be a nice change but one or two an that's enough
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