Fraoch Heather Ale

FRAOCH HEATHER ALE

Origin: Scotland
Type: Heather Ale
Color: Light Amber
Alcohol content: 5,0%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Williams Bros. Brewing Company
Webpage: http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/beerboard/bottles/fraoch-heather-ale

My first contact with this beer was at one of my favorite pubs, el Estribo. 

This pub has come to have a very special place in my heart not because of its incredible decor, or because of its great food; the decor is quite ordinary and has no food other than some chips. It has simply gotten to have a special place in my heart because of the sheer amount of beer knowledge hanging around.

Indeed, the bar-owner is a walking encyclopedia of beers, brewing processes and breweries from just about anywhere and everywhere. He was the first person to talk to me about craft beers a bundle of years ago, and the first guy I know to sell and promote Spanish craft beers in his pub, coexisting with Belgian, U.K., U.S., Czech and other more traditional beers. 

Nevertheless, it is not only him, but the regulars there tend to also be extremely knowledgeable about beers. Many of them are beer wholesalers or in some other way involved on a professional level with beers.

This means that even in the rare moments where the bar-owner's knowledge fails him when advising you on what to have next, one of your neighbours at the bar will almost certainly have good advice for you.

In this case, it was the bar-owner who introduced me to Fraoch's Heather Ale when I asked him, half-distracted by the sports match I was there to watch, what his novelties were. 

As most of the times he recommends a beer to me, he was spot on. 

Fraoch's Heather Ale is an amber colored ale with a thick full body and a soft, average to not long-lasting head of foam.

Its aroma is quite strong, with a heathery, caramely sweet smell, unknown or at least not very familiar to me in beers before tasting it. This is not strange inasmuch as it is the sole heir (at least at the moment this post is written) to the Gaelic tradition of heather ale, making it very distinct and different from other ales. 

This mix of herby smells with its sweetness is also very present in the taste. 

The heather and the bog myrtle, also added to it, gives it a very grassy-herby taste, which kind of reminded me of tea or a teabag before it is put in the boiling water. The sweetness, on its part, becomes a honey-like flavor when you drink it. Put it all together, and upon trying it for the first time it kind of gave me the feeling of drinking some sort of fresh alcoholy infusion. 

It is made, according to the brewery's webpage, with British Pale Ale Malt, Cara Malt and Malted Wheat. This mix serves to give it a soft malty taste, with only a slight bitterness which does not go beyond balancing out the herbs and the sweetness.

The above makes for a very softly flavored beer, not quite as pungent as normal ales, more aromatic, and every bit as refreshing, ideal and original for social situations in the middle of the day (read, at the end of which you cannot really be schwasted), like a sports match.

All in all, a very welcome addition to el Estribo's repertoir.