Fraoch Heather Ale
"Fraoch" (Gaelic for Heather) 5% ABV

**Heather Ale recently won the Bronze Award for Specialty Beers at The Great British Beer Festival in London

Heather Ale has been brewed in Scotland since 325 BC by the Picts, a Celtic tribal race who defended their land from Roman, Saxon, Briton and Viking invasions. However, traces of a fermented beverage made with heather flowers have been found by archaeologists dating back to 2,000 BC. Brewed with heather flowers and Scottish malt, Fraoch has a distinctive floral aroma, full malt character and a dry wine-like finish. As one of the oldest styles of ales in the world there are many legends and folklore surrounding it. Visit the Fraoch Heather Ale Web Page for more of the legends and folklore.

Although Heather Ale has been brewed through the ages, it was in 1986 that Bruce Williams, a brewer and "homebrew" shop owner in Scotland, began making batches of Heather Ale using an old recipe.   Into the boiling bree of malted barley, sweet gale and flowering heather are added, then after cooling slightly the hot ale is poured into a vat of freash heather flowers where it infuses for an hour before being fermented in copper turns.  Once the formula was perfected, Bruce began selling Fraoch throughout Scotland and England and it is now available internationally.

Awards:
Best Drink Award and Supreme Award (Best Overall Product) at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh, Scotland 1997. This award recognizes the best retail products that are 100% Scottish owned and resoured.

Gold Medal - 1997 and 1996 - World Beer Championships conducted by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago.

Only beer served at the 1996 Academy Awards and Governors Ball to honor the movie Braveheart.

Complements to Fraoch:
Salmon and other seafood, roast chicken and turkey, cheese, rich and spicy foods.

Quotes:
"flowery-fruity bouquet, firmness of body with spice and apple notes in dry wine-like finish"
~ Michael Jackson

"heather & herbal aroma...quenching fruit and spicy finish"
~ Roger Protz

"This is a well-made beer with unique character-it grows on one..."
~Fred Eckhardt

"A beautifully subtle spiced ale that would nicely complement a stuffed roast chicken."
~ Garret Oliver

"sweeter far than honey, stronger far than wine"
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"If I did not taste the heather at least once a year, I think I should die"
~ Sir Walter Scott

Drink slightly chilled from a fluted flass or wine goblet.