Orkney Dark Island Reserve

Brewed by Orkney (Sinclair Breweries)
Style: Barley Wine
Stromness, Orkney, Highlands & Islands, Scotland

750ml bottle. shared by tytoanderso at An Evening with Pantanap #4. Pours black with a brown head. Nose of chocolate, alcohol, and sweet malts. Sweet and boozy flavors. Chocolate, brown sugar, green apple, and alcohol.

Big thanks to Badgerben for sharing this rare and expensive beer. The aroma is nice, peat, smoke, and malt with very light spice. A black beer and no carbonation. Exceptionally complex flavor. Peat, seasalt, smoke, malt, and oak that imparts a wood, and vanilla flavor. The high abv is well hidden and not noticeable in the aroma or flavor.

750 ml bottle. Shared with the Chi-Town crew at P4. Left my tasting notes there, so these are transcribed by Kan from my chicken scratch and then BM’ed back to me. Aroma of boozy whiskey, wood and thicker malt. Fairly faint though. Pours a thick, nearly lifeless dark brown with no head. Flavor of green apple skin, chewy toffee malt, wet wood and a heavy whiskey presence. Lush and creamy on the tongue. Very carbonated with a hot boozy finish. This a very boozy beer.

1st edition. Black of color with a nice brown head. A roasted aroma with malty, coffee, whisky and liqurice notes. A flavor with prunes, liqurice, roasted and weak smoked notes. 6-4-7-3-14. 2nd edition. Black of color with a creamy brown head. An aroma of burnt malt, whisky, roasted and chocolate hints. A flavor of liqurice, smoke and burnt.

This is a very tasty brew. complex flavors that are nicely complemented by the whisky barrel aging.

750ml bottle. shared by tytoanderso at An Evening with Pantanap #4. pours black with tan head. nose is green apple, wood, some chocolate. flavor of green apple, alcohol, baker’s chocolate, some espresso. this is a barleywine? taste and looks more like a stout. the green apple and over barrel aging hurts this beer.

bottle thanks to tyler who brought this for the latest P tasting.... pours a dark brown with brown edges with very little head ......aroma of some sour apple, whiskey, and soy..... a lot of that sour apple comes through in the flavor with a big boozy whiskey factor as well. somewhat boozy

Bottle big, big thanks to Craig, ’cgarvieuk’ for getting this for me, cheers mate! Had this 03-04-08 Pours shark eye black looks like a bottomless pit or grimping mire, Stephen Hawkins has written books on things that aren’t as black as this, even the tan head seemed to cling to the side of the glass desperately trying to avoid being sucked into the black void. Aroma of vanilla, some light whisky and also woody. Bitter orange on the first sip and noticeable in the fact that this lacks the sweetness of many of its ilk. Quite drying at times and the bitterness forces its way back through, a slow drinker especially if you have it all to yourself save for 125ml that I gave to Loz’s dad. I liked this beer, very tasty and most enjoyable.