Heather Ale Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale (SCO)

I'm not sure I know what an elderberry tastes like. I have a vague recollection of having elderberry tea or jam. Wikipedia says the raw berries are mildly poisonous, so I doubt I've tasted them.

This pours nearly perfect black, with only a slight tinge of purple. The beige head is dense, looking a bit like that from a Nitro can, but without feeling so artificial. The label says:

It is a rich black ale with aruit aroma, soft texture, roasted grain and red wine flavour, with a gentle finish.

Some of this is spot on, but the texture isn't quite so soft. For me, it's a tad over-fizzed. The "roasted grain and red wine flavour" is accurate, though. It's a bit like an oatmeal stout splashed with Cabernet. The fruitiness is subdued, and the berries are at least as tart as sweet.

I bought this as a single, but it's available as part of the four pack that includes Alba Scots Pine Ale, which I think I liked slightly better than Elderberry Black. Still, this is a fine ale and a very interesting one. The late Michael Jackson has an article which refers to St. Peter's Elderberry ale, but I don't think that's available in the States.

Heather Ale Alba Scots Pine Ale (SCO)

With all the talk about hop shortages, no one has mentioned using an alternative: twigs. Scots Pine Ale uses sprigs of spruce and pine for flavoring in place of hops, replicating old recipes. It ends up being mostly a malt bomb, with less piney flavor than in many Northwest US ales.

The bottle says to drink "at room temperature from a wine goblet," but I tried it slightly chilled from a water goblet. It pours a very clear dark brownish-reddish- orange. It's a pretty full-bodied beer, almost syrupy, with merely a spritz of carbonation (which is what I like). The smell is noticeably of berries. As mentioned, the taste is malty, really pretty sweet and fruity. There's also an earthiness to it that keeps the sweetness in check a bit. Maybe that's the pine and spruce, but I don't know if I would have defined it as such if I drank this blindly. At over 7% alcohol, so it's more of a sipper than sessions beer.

I bought this as a single -- drink by April 2009 -- but it's also available in a Traditional Ales of Scotland (or something) 4-pack that seems to be widely available. Alba Scots Pine Ale is intriguing enough that I might recommend purchasing that.

Update: Keith Brainard pops up in comments to references this blogpost of his about the history of brewing without hops, and why brewers might have resisted using them for so long. You can also visit his site My Life with Beer to follow his homebrewing experiment with a hopless (but not hopeless) Pre-Cut Ale with Fir, which he recently bottled.