Light and Flowery

Okay for this one I picked a bit of an awkward one that I enjoy, but definintley in the different category. This particular one is called Fraoch, and it is a heather ale. Heather is a small flowering plant that can be found around the globe. This ale originates in where Scotland is today, but traces it's roots back to around 2000 B.C. when there was no Scotland. Is this that exact recipe, no that would be a miracle considering the lack of written material from that era. We do know through general research that an ale was made from heather in the area for thousands of years and that's about it. The original recipe has probably been changed so much since it's inception it's really kind of irrelevent in the long run, although in medieval times it was supposedly extremely potent. This one comes in at about 5.4% alc. so pretty much close to any microbrew you may have today. It has a nice light color to it, and as shown is best served in a goblet. Why? Because this brew still has an extremely strong floral presence, it smells exactly as if you were to smush your face right down into a patch of these flowers. This also gives it a light sweetness on the aftertaste, that nectar flavor that comes from natural flowers close to a honeysuckle if you've ever had one. IPA lovers BEWARE!! There are absolutely no hops used at all in this beer! Not a one, because the heather acts as the flavoring agent instead of hops. Other plants can also be used in a similar pattern, but heather is one of the most prominent. I have seen another heather ale in a bottle, but I don't recall the name of the beer or brewery. The only other brewery I know that prominently brews a heather ale is Roots brewery in Portland (MANDATORY if you ever visit this city!!). Besides the wonderful floral and herbal sweetness, the beer has a wonderful crispness that gives it a completely different, but definetly wonderful flavor. And hey if you homebrew and have trouble getting hops, why not give it a try. I picked this one up from Top Foods in Puyallup (best Top for beer selection), but I've seen it at 99 bottles, Metropolitan market, and Tacoma Boys so it's not extremely difficult to find. So sit down and drink up a good brew that if you have roots to the UK your ancient naked relative could have been getting ripped on thousands of years ago.