Fraoch Heather Ale

excellent ale probably the best ive tried and my favourite.

Fraoch is said to be Scotland's Native beer, brewed since 2000BC. It is one of a range of traditional ales made from native ingredients at the Alloa Brewery in Clackmannanshire, now known as Williams Bros Brewing Co. The others are Grozet, made with gooseberries, Alba, a pine ale, Ebulum made with elderberries, and Kelpie, made with seaweed.

For a full history of Fraoch and these other ales, go to fraoch.com/ which is an outstanding website and gives the fascinating history of this delicious drink in full. The bottom line is that hops do not grow in Scotland and our alcoholic drinks were traditionally flavoured by other means, mainly the things that grew around. The use of heather petals to as a flavouring goes back to the dark ages at least and they give a wonderful character to this flavourful ale.

Fraoch is best drunk cool rather than ice cold, so the flowery aroma is not killed. If you should try it, please realise this is not beer. It does not taste of hops, but rather of warm hillsides in the September sun, with flowers and sunshine but with a cool warning of coming winter somewhere in the background. You can almost hear the bees buzzing.

Well just think of what they write about wine! Seriously, this is a lovely drink. It does taste of flowers as it should, being made with them. I bought some in Morrisons this morning and it cost the same as all the other speciality beers and ales. Those shelves are a real voyage of discovery and if you travel on that particular voyage, give this one a try! You might just go back to Fraoch Heather Ale for a second visit and a third