Orkney Dark Island (Cask)

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

Cask at Bon Accord, Glasgow. A deep red beer with a lazing brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of dark Danish rye-bread and caramel. The flavor is sweet with notes of caramel and Danish rye-bread, but the body is thin.

Cask (Grog and Gruel, Fort William): Ruby-black coloured, small and lacing off-white layer; distinctive vinous-fruity nose (dark berries) with a tinge of roasted malt; bitter-sweet flavour with a light acidity, light to medium bodied; roasted malt detectable in the dryish, lingering, fruity-vinous and bitter finish. Nothing to complain......

Hand pump at the Freshfield, black in colour with an off white head, seriously strong aroma of malt on the nose leads onto coffee and espresso taste, fine stuff, malts dominating too. Finishes ever so slightly dry

On draught at The Guildford Arms, Edinburgh. Almost black with a big khaki head. Rich chocolate and coffee aroma. Espresso flavours dominate,especially towards the finish,but there is plenty of chocolate and hints of berries as well. Well-carbonated.A great little ale it is.

Cask, Loughborough Fest 07. Black with a beige foam. Aromas are earthy coffee with mellow dark winter fruit and herbal, liquorice notes. Flavours are rich and malty with roast coffee, liqourice and floral notes. Some chocolate with hints of citrus acidicy. Sweet and vinous. Dark berry fruit. Sweet but never cloying. Earthy and herbal on the finish. Excellent.

Cask@Loughborough Beer Festival 2007. Dark beer with a lightly malty aroma and a lightly malty and bitter flavour. Overall a nice beer.

Any first impressions?
-Suitable foam recedes to a thin ring over the brown-tinged black.
-In the nose, butterscotchy chocolate and fat milk ooze from the oat-like cereals.
-Roastiness hugs the tea leaf hop flavor and bitterness.
-The low carbonation is appropriate, and the mouthfeel well-carved.

What if you dig deeper?
-The butterscotchy residual sweetness gets a little bothersome halfway down the pint.
-The leafy hop bitterness tags up with the roastiness for a pleasant finish.
-More fruitiness and roastiness (and less sweetness), and I would have liked it more. It remains quite flavorful though, just not as complex as I had hoped it to be.

On cask at the Guildford Arms, Edinburgh.

A Mes rate: Cask at Bar Fringe in Manchester. Once again a Fringe serving in perfect condition. Great aroma. Almost black and opaque with good looking lace. Just how I like the appearance. Dark chocolate malt with the expected coffee and a fair bit of yeast too. Faint note of alcohol. Strange bitter yet grassy finish. Slightly poor mouthfeel lets it down.