Orkney Dark Island (Bottle)

Brewed by Orkney (Sinclair Breweries)
Style: Old Ale
Stromness, Orkney, Highlands & Islands, Scotland

Bottled. picked up at SH Jones Bicester 28-09-06. Almost black in colour with an absolutely wonderful chocolatey aroma. Taste was a bit sweet, thin, and carried through none of the promise of the aroma some roasted notes but all in all a touch disappointing.

Bottled - A black coloured beer witha thin off-white head. The aroma has a little chocoalte and is a touch sweet and lactic. The taste is also sweet with milky charcteristics. No real roasty qualitles butr seems a bit sweet stoutesque. Not as good as, or with the depth of the cask version when it is on form.

Pretty average stuff. Reddish black with almost no head, leaving almost no lacing. Relatively thin and uninteresting. Dark malts with more of a sour than a bitter finish.

16.9 oz bottle-A dark brown with a nice tan head. Aroma of smoke. Taste of smoke and malt with more smokeand caramel. A nice tasting beer.

Bottle. Poured dark brown with an average creamy brown head that lasted with good lacing. Heavy roasted chocolate malty and smoke aroma. Medium body with a creamy texture. Medium sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. This beer goes well with a cigar.

Bottle. Dark brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is sweet roasted coffee. Flavour is roasted coffee and caramel.

Bottle. Dark, reddish brown, almost clear, with a small beige head. Light chocolate aroma, some roasted sourness, coffee and cocoa. Smoked flavor with notes of coffee. Medium body. Nice beer, but not my old ale. Rating: 5-4-6-4-12-3.1 (060720)

Bottle. Clear, ruby body, topped by a lasting, beige head. Caramel, hints of butterscotch, smoke, coffee, vanilla, peat and a little saltyness in the aroma. Licorice, smoke, peat, caramel and hints of coffee in the flavor. Medium body. Long, coffee-bitter finish. Quite lovely. Rating: 7-4-6-3-13-3.3. (070914)

Bottle. A pitch black beer with a finger-thick beige head. Dryish nose with coffee and chocolate, roasted malts and some dried fruits. There seems to a faint note of peat too. Some sweetness in the mouth, but drying towards the finish. Chocolate, figs and dates, coffee and some peat. Not much bitterness. Dry, full-bodied mouthfeel with a tad too much co2. Coffee-like finish with chocolate sweetness and some dried fruits. A rather nice one, especially considering it’s low ABV. (090620)

(04.27.06) One pint 0.9 oz brown bottle from Golden Eagle, Libertyville, IL. 4.6% ABV. Poured clear dark ruby brown with small white head. Soft carbonation. Strong peat and smoke aroma, characteristic of Orkney. The peatiness and smoke strongly permeated the flavor of this dry beer with some light malt sweetness to balance out the flavor. The peat and smoke continued through the dry finish. This is a very good Scottish “rauchbier”.