Williams Brothers Brewing Company
The story of Heather Ale Company begins in 1986 at Glasgow's homebrew shop in the West End owned by Bruce Williams. Bruce was given a recipe for heather ale that had originated from an islander's family recipe written in Gaelic. After a number of tweaks to the recipe, today's Fraoch was born and first brewed at the now defunct West Highland Brewery in Argyll. Fraoch was then brewed for a time by Maclays of Alloa but is now brewed in cask format in the renovated former grain mill that is now the Craigmill Brewery near Strathaven. Heather Ale was founded in 1992 by brothers Bruce and Scott Williams. In early 2004 the two brothers purchased the Forth Brewery in Alloa to meet the ever expanding demands for their beers. In addition, the firm has changed the name to Williams Brothers. Bruce has many years experience in the homebrew trade and has served as consultant to a number of Scotland's newer brewing operations.
With the help of Historic Scotland, the two hundred year old buildings of the Craigmill Brewery we restored and now house a brewing plant with a weekly capacity of around 36 barrels. The brewing setup contains former dairy equipment as well as some previously used at Tennent's Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow. A somewhat unique feature of the brewery is a 500 gallon stone-clad brewing kettle of eighteenth century design. The Craigmill facility was popular with visitors but the demands of production hastened a move to the much larger former Forth Brewery location in Alloa. At the same time, the company changed names to now use Williams Brothers and is in fact a family operation.
Unlike many of Scotland's more recent breweries, the vast majority of products are produced in bottled format although cask versions are to be found in outlets all over the U.K. Bruce sees the U.S. as an important market for bottled products but Fraoch also sells well in Canada, Germany and France. The company has a unique commitment to producing products based on historical recipes using a high content of indigenous ingredients. Indeed, Swallow IPA is the first commercial beer to be brewed with Scottish-grown hops, these grown in the Clyde Valley.
Products (descriptions abridged from brewery website):
Ancient Flavours of Scotland Line (bottled and cask):
- Fraoch - 5.0% ABV
- Gaelic for "heather", this is Heather Ale's flagship product. It is a light amber colored ale with a full malt character and peaty floral aroma brewed with infused heather flowers
- Alba - 7.5% ABV
- A triple style ale inspired by those brought to Scotland by the Vikings. Brewed with sprigs of pine and infused with pickled Scots pine and spruce shoots that obviously leads to a woody finish
- Grozet - 5.0% ABV
- A pale golden beer with a fruity wheat flavor and aroma brewed with lager malt, wheat, bog myrtle, hops and meadowsweet and fermented in the secondary with the addition of Scottish gooseberries (Grozet is Scots for "gooseberry")
- Ebulum - 6.5% ABV
- Inspired by a sixteenth century recipe for elderberry ale and made with roasted oats, barley and wheat boiled with herbs and fermented with the addition of ripe elderberries producing a rich black ale
- Kelpie - 4.4% ABV
- A dark ale brewed with organic barley and bladderwrack seaweed giving a rich roasty chocolate flavor and a salty finish
Williams Brothers products:
- Coming Soon
- Coming soon.