Beer # 95 Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale

Ebulum

Heather Ale Company Williams Bros. Brewing Co.

Kellibank, Alloa, Scotland, UK
Independent
Fruit Flavoured Ale 5.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$2.71 (Canadian) At LCBO $10.85 for a four pack

Twitter: @williamsbrewery

Third beer from the Historic Ales of Scotland pack. another Gruit Ale flavoured this time with Elderberries and Bog Myrtle. Elderberries are the fruit of the Sambucus plant, they grow in large flower-like clusters. The berries range in colour from red to purple to almost black, and grow in most temperate zones around the world. Elderberries have a long tradition with magic, especially earth magic. Druids and Witches (Wiccan) use the leaves, fruit, and bark in spells and ceremonies. And of course, if you have read the Harry Potter series, you will know that the most powerful wand ever made was made from an elder branch. The flower makes an excellent wine as does the fruit. The bark has vast untapped medicinal uses. A saying handed down to me from my maternal grandfather goes... "if you have an elderberry tree in you back yard; you do not need a doctor" (He lived to 86). Watchmakers used the pith of elderberry trees to clean their tools. and branches of the elderberry have been used as flutes, and spiles for collecting sap for maple syrup. Most commonly the berries are used to make syrup (elderberry cordial), or jam or are baked into pies. (sweet, delicious, yummy elderberry pies!) And of course the essential oil of the Sambucus... flavours the Italian liqueur Sambuca  The wood of the tree however has always played into folklore and superstition. If a crib was made of elder wood, the baby would die or amount to nothing. Wood from the tree could never be used with out asking the Elder Mother's permission, often in the form of this chant:

"Old girl, give me some of thy wood and I will give thee some of mine when I grow into a tree."

The recipe for this beer has it's origins in Wales, apparently introduced to Scotland by Welsh druids in the 9th century.

Onto the beer:

Very dark garnet and chestnut brown.Thin tan head made up of medium sized bubbles. The nose is like a porter, with dark roasty malts, and molasses, charred wood, and nutty notes. First sip gives us a rich syrupy sweet porter, notes of dark blue fruits, zippy and tangy. Finish is short with a sticky sugar feeling on the lips. Has a subtle port-like mouthfeel.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 

Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 5/6 PASS
Re-Order:  4/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS

Final Thoughts:

Very nice to taste elderberries in a beer. I loved elderberries as a kid, we used to eat them by the handful off the trees. The are loaded with anti-oxidents and vitamin C. But dear reader even I learn something every day. I learned today that raw elderberries can contain enough CYANIDE to seriously sicken you. Elderberries should only be consumed cooked. This was quite a shock to me considering I must have eaten enough raw elderberries to poison a small herd of elephants. No wonder I have a cast iron stomach...

Cheers

CJT


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Beer # 94 Grozet

Grozet

Heather Ale Company Williams Bros. Brewing Co.

Kellibank, Alloa, Scotland, UK
Independent
Fruit Flavoured Wheat Beer 5.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$2.71 (Canadian) At LCBO $10.85 for a four pack

Twitter: @williamsbrewery

Tonight's beer from the Historic Ales of Scotland pack is the Grozet. Claimed to be from a 16th Century Scots monk's recipe. The beer could technically be called a "Gruit Ale" (and possibly so could Beer # 93: "Froach" ) Gruit ales used various herbs and berries to bitter, or preserve beer before the use of hops was widely accepted. One of these herbs is Bog Myrtle, which makes it's appearance in this beer as it does in the previous. Other herbs included Henbane a toxin that often caused mild hallucinations... (hmmm Pint Jockey Brew Project idea?). However our ale tonight also contains hops, so it would be somewhere in between a gruit and a modern flavoured beer.

For more information on the Williams Bros. Brewing Co. please check out their website or look back at Beer # 93: Froach.

Onto tonight's historic brew:

Clear gold in colour with the slightest hint of green. Thin wispy white head made up of uneven sized bubbles. Cloudy and translucent. The nose is fruity and citrus, with gooseberies evident right away and the more subtle wheat notes beneath. As you get deeper into the nose the fruit is replaced with raw grain and hint of spice. First sip gives up some more gooseberry, more subtle than the nose. Very dry and wheaty some citrus, clean, crisp, slightly effervescent. Finish is short and clean with a lingering of grapes and gooseberries.


Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 

Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 5/6 PASS
Re-Order:  4/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS

Final Thoughts:


Being Welsh... I love gooseberries, and I miss them as they don't see their way to Canada often. Sadly, the ones I have had here are not the sweet-tart, bursting with flavour gooseberries of my youth. So this beer brings back some memories. Supposedly Shakespeare drank a version of this beer, so perhaps if I consumed more I would become more eloquent, and poetic. But perhaps, if his version of this beer had Henbane in it... that would explain a lot too.

Cheers

CJT


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Beer # 93 Froach Heather Ale

Fraoch Heather Ale

Heather Ale Company Williams Bros. Brewing Co.

Kellibank, Alloa, Scotland, UK
Independent
Heather Ale 5.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 330 ml.
$2.71 (Canadian) At LCBO $10.85 for a four pack

Twitter: @williamsbrewery


I have wanted to try these beers for a while. They often pop up as a gift pack in the LCBO in winter as we near Christmas. I believe I may have tasted one of them a few years back at a trade show but I didn't take any notes and I don't quite remember, but it may very well have been this beer.

Erica (Spring Heather) Not Used in Brewing,
 but just as pretty.

Common Heather or Summer Heather
(Calluna vulgaris) Used in Brewing.

Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale)

Williams Bros. Brewery started life in a brew your own shop called "Glenbrew" in Glasgow. In 1988, a lady came into the family owned shop and requested assistance in producing a batch of "leanne froach" or heather beer from and old recipe that had been handed down to her. The owners helped her in exchange for a copy of the recipe and then began to experiment with it, and using it as the foundation for the beer we are tasting tonight (I hope the poor lady got some royalties or at least a few cases of beer!). When they had perfected their version, (using different malts and adding bog myrtle as well as heather) they brewed a 5 barrel test batch at brewery in Taynuilt, Argyle. The batch sold out almost immediately, and with heather being seasonal, they had to wait until the following year to brew again. This time they froze the heather to ensure continued brewing. The beer became very popular and the new found Heather Ale Ltd. began to eye expansion. over the years they added Alba a pine beer, Grozet a gooseberry beer, Kelpie, a seaweed beer, and Ebulum an elderberry beer. When the demand for they beer surpassed the capacity of the brewery in Taynuilt, they built a brewerin and occupied it for 6 years starting in 1998. In 2004 further expansion was required and they purchased the Forth Brewery in Kellibank, Alloa, and renamed their company William Bros. Brewing Co.

I will also post three more beers from this pack so stay tuned!

Onto tonight's brew:


Honey coloured with an off-white thin head made up of small bubbles. The nose is very earthy boggish, damp underbrush. First sip is a cavalcade of flavours. Heady florals, ginger, sweet, mildly citrus, spruce needles, and grains of paradise. This beer has a lot going on. The finish is very short, and I find I have to take multiple sips to tell what I am tasting. A very clean beer, only a slight drying of the mouth and the faintest hint of ginger is left after a sip. The malt is there, underneath, takes a few sips to feel it on the tongue. Aeration gives us pure flowers, like walking down a mountain side after the rain dragging your hands through the heather.


Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 

Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 5/6 PASS
Re-Order:  4/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS

Final Thoughts:

Commercially brewing historic beers, is an excellent way to preserve our brewing past. This beer style dates to 2000 BCE that's 3000 years of brewing tradition. Quite a lot of responsibility for one little bottle, but one it carries quite easily. It is a very good beer. I can't imagine it becoming a "regular beer" as it is very unusual. However, it would be great fun to pair it with food, such as a medieval dinner, or just plain BBQ. and I would certainly like to try to cook something with it... Scottish lamb perhaps? 


Cheers

CJT


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