{"id":2535,"date":"2011-04-09T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T12:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2011-06-23T04:49:28","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T16:49:28","slug":"heather-ales-grozet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/04\/09\/heather-ales-grozet\/","title":{"rendered":"Heather Ales ‘Grozet’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heather<\/a>
Heather Ales 'Grozet'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you’d probably guess, we buy a lot<\/em> of beer at work. And frequently, it seems we fill in the corners of an order with some half-dozens of especially random stuff. Because why not?<\/p>\n

Peter and I were working one Saturday afternoon,1<\/sup> and these things<\/em> were staring at us from the fridge, prompting questions for which we didn’t even have the beginnings of answers. Perhaps the Overboss (being mostly-Scottish) was already familiar with it when he ordered it, or maybe he was just being nostalgic and whimsical. But it was a mystery to us<\/em>, and the Blessed Internets were contradictory in their reports and thereby less help than usual. So, being good empiricists, we just had one. And being publicly-minded learners-of-things, we also cut in those people with the unanswerable questions. That did<\/em> carve a 330ml bottle into a half-dozen shares, but what we lacked in per-person sample size, we made up in roundtable (or over-bar) discussion.<\/p>\n

Handily, this both mild<\/em>, and weird<\/em> — two things which are usually\u00a0enough to stimulate controversy and conversation on their own. I’m a fan of both<\/em> factors, in general, but only half warmed to this — I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as the weirder<\/em> beers by the same brewery, which also makes ales flavoured with heather<\/a> and pine. I should elaborate on my Diary<\/em> note:\u00a0I don’t only<\/em> like my weird beers to be very<\/em>-weird — the favourable comparisons Dave (from Hashigo) and I were drawing for this were to N\u00f8gne \u00d8\u2019s lemongrass ale<\/a>, which I’d had relatively-recently — but I wanted this<\/em> to be weirder. It would’ve suited being weirder; not being moreso tipped the mildness dangerously close to unforgiveable limpness.<\/p>\n

And damn, “weird” is another one of those words that look\u00a0weird<\/em> when you type them or read them too-many times in quick succession. Appropriately enough, I suppose.<\/p>\n

\"Grozet<\/a>
Diary II entry #86, Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale 9\/4\/11 random bottle @ MH. 330ml \u00f7 6 including Peter, Dave & Denise. From the brewery who make the heather Fraoch<\/a> and the pine Alba. This was controversial in the crowd. Dave would buy a keg, Denise thought it was too… nothing, normal. I’m half way. I like weird, but I want weirder. Nose was better than taste — tinned pineapple, says Pete.<\/p>\n

\n

1: Er, Saturday the 9th of April 2011, obviously. As you can tell from the datestamp. But I’m writing<\/em> this on a Thursday evening in June. Which shows you how bad the backlog has gotten. This time-travelling posting-plan does my head in sometimes, self-inflicted as it is.<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you’d probably guess, we buy a lot of beer at work. And frequently, it seems we fill in the corners of an order with some half-dozens of especially random stuff. Because why not? Peter and I were working one Saturday afternoon,1 and these things were staring at us from the fridge, prompting questions for … Continue reading Heather Ales ‘Grozet’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,19,13,10],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-scotland","tag-fruit-beer","tag-wheat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":292,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/10\/29\/fraoch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":0},"title":"Fraoch","author":"Phil","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Fraoch Heather Ale. 500ml, $7ish, 5%, 29\/10\/07. Watching Dr Who, and having been randomly given a sprig of heather on Lambton Quay. Heather instead of hops. Apparently old school Gaelic. It's good. Flowery, very slightly peaty (less than they say). The only fault would be that it's not different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fraoch Heather Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1040-Fraoch-Heather-Ale-280x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/02\/10\/emersons-brewers-reserve-tally-ho\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":1},"title":"Emerson’s Brewers’ Reserve: Tally Ho!","author":"Phil","date":"February 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am very fond of the Brewers' Reserve series, and I am even more fond of golden ales, so when the former produces one of the latter... I have myself a little Beer Geek Moment. We got two kegs of this at work, about a week apart. Uncharacteristically, when I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's Brewers' Reserve: 'Tally Ho!'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Emersons-Tally-Ho-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18122,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/04\/26\/beer-diary-podcast-s05e02\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":2},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast lost episode (s05e02) \u2014 Dave Wood & Denise Garland","author":"Phil","date":"April 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In September 2015, we sat down for a few beers 'on the record' with our friends Dave\u00a0Wood and Denise Garland. Dave is the general manager of Wellington beer bar Hashigo Zake\u00a0as well as the\u00a0current President of SOBA (the Society of Beer Advocates) and Denise is a journalist \u2014 and both\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":721,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/06\/yeastie-boys-her-majesty-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":3},"title":"Yeastie Boys ‘Her Majesty 2010\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"September 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"And so begins Diary II. I'm kinda surprised I lasted a week since the birthday-closing of Diary I. But this was a hell of a way to kick things off; with a big, mad, not-concerned-with-style kinda thing. The Yeastie Boys are no one-trick ponies; they can make crazy hoppy pale\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yeastie Boys 'Her Majesty 2010'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yeastie-Boys-Her-Majesty-2010-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2005\/04\/16\/belhaven-scottish-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":4},"title":"Belhaven ‘Scottish Ale’","author":"Phil","date":"April 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A.K.A. Belhaven 'Export', A.K.A. Belhaven 80 Shilling (when it's in casks). And, on the same day as the Diary gets its first English beer, it also gets this, its first Scot. Verbatim: Bellhaven Scottish Ale. 330ml, $5, 3.9%, 16\/4\/05. Ooh. 1719 est'd. Darker amber. Very full taste. Nutty, in fact.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Belhaven 'Scottish Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1024-Belhaven-Scottish-Ale-300x139.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1165,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/02\/09\/marstons-pedigree\/","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":5},"title":"Marston’s ‘Pedigree’","author":"Phil","date":"February 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A classic English ale, with a nice old-school bent in that they still use a peculiar system of oak casks all piped-together for the brewing, which does give it definite woody undertones, especially late. It's a nice light amber, starts smooth, and is generally easy-going, understated, but rewarding. Lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marston's 'Pedigree'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Marstons-Pedigree-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2922,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions\/2922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}