Orkney Dark Island Reserve

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

Bottle courtesy of magic_dave. Pours dark brown with a thin tan film. Smells of nutty malt, some raisins, hints of booze. Tastes of cherries, some clove, touches of coffee, nuts.

Appearance: Pours a oily-looking, black body with a scant, brown head. Smell: Rather peaty aroma with notes of molasses-coated grains, anise, chocolate. Taste: Chewy, sweet dark maltiness. Smokey peat character throughout. Hint of aniseed. A few drops of Maggi seasoning. A jigger worth of scotch. Only a very slight underlying bitterness. A touch of vanilla, dark chocolate, and molasses. Sugary, smokey, warming finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Rather mild carbonation. Drinkability: A fine, reasonably complex beer packaged in a classy-looking bottle.

Bottle @ ORL throwdown, courtesy of hopscotch. Black brown body with a thin little ring of tan head around the edge of the glass. Smooth bubbles glide up every once in a while. On the nose bourbon, smoke, some roast and caramel malts, a little alcohol, vanilla, chocolate hints, some fig. Super smooth, scotch smokey barrel notes and warm caramel and sweet malts. Wow!

Bottle courtesy of hopscotch. Watery brownish black pour with virtually no head. Strong peat smoke scotch and sweet malt aroma. Smooth malt taste with lots of peat and whiskey in it. Fantastic beer.

bottle courtesy of hopscotch: pours a darkalmost cola black coour no head but just a beutiful colour. aroma is great with a good scotch nose, fantastic caramel, deep peat, awesome dark fruit of figs, slight chocolate. flavour is an awesome peat, scotch flavour, deep and dark rich caramels and a good amount of the barrel. fantastic world class beer.

thanks to the orlando throwdown black pour oak and roasted aroma slight saltiness chocolate dark fruits complex but not overwhelming flavor is very balanced

Throwdown. Big scotch nose on this with plenty of roasted malts and dark bitter chocolate. Flavor is a hit hot with alcohol plus dry roasted malt. Finish is somewhat tannic with a long lingering bitterness. Very dark brown.

22Oz bottle from Hopscotch at the Solan’s Mom Throwdown. 100th rate. Poured a dark inky black with a small tan head. Nose was absolutely sick. Peat Smoke, Fruit, Chocolate, Caramel and Dalmore 12. For the 10% ABV the alcohol doesn’t really come into play until at the end. Its just warming, no burn. Starts off very heavy on caramel and oak. Then that distinctive Dalmore flavor comes through in the finish with a touch of molasses and smoke and some lightly bitter chocolate. Truly a remarkable beer. This is absolutely a after dinner beer.