Orkney Skull Splitter (Bottle)

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

Bottle. Aroma was complex to figure out but came up with fresh harvested barley from the field and some malt and raison. Dark red body with off white head. Flavor had a moderate sweet raison fruit flavor. Full body textue not over sweet or like sludge. Good brew little dry on the palate.

Bottle. Rich ruby color with a decent off-white head and the tiniest amount of lacing. The aroma is a little woody with dark fruits and a hint of spice. The taste is malty with some candy sugar notes. Dark fruits and nice alcohol, even a hint of chocolate ?

This so far is one of my favorite beers. it tastes like candy some hints of wiskey. The higher content in alcohol was covered up by the flavor of the scottish barley wine. Pours dark red, The bottle is very cool also. I spoke to my beer guy about ordering a case of this good stuff.

Bottle. Strong aroma of dark pitted fruit, malt, light prune, cherry, wispy smoke. Dark red-copper pour with a creamy, lacing beige head and legs. Crisp attack, full-bodied and alcoholic, thick malt, alternating between dry and mildly sweet, lightly caramelly with cherry and prune. Light throat burn. Hints at a smoked-wine character, and age without staleness. Not quite what I was expecting; an interesting go, for sure, but I don’t expect to revisit.

Bottle Pours out a redishbrown topped with a very small off white head. I picked up some very good spice and sweet malt on this one pretty good.

Bottle sampled. Pours ruby brown with no head. Aroma of alcohol, smoke, caramel, and citrusy fruit. The flavor is alcohol, caramel, sweet upfront, smoke, and a slight hoppy bitterness. Good body, good brew.

I once got roped into a conversation with a really ugly girl who raved about this beer. She was not just physically ugly, but ugly deep down. At least that’s what I assume. Naturally I was skeptical, but I was wrong. This is good. She said she liked it cause it’s "hoppy," so I’m guessing she also liked crack, because it’s not. It is sweet, malty, and raisiny, with just the right little kick of alcohol in the finish. Nice color, classic barleywine scent. I’d certainly reach for it again.

Bottle from SH Jones, Bicester, 23-09-06. Pours a Dark ruby colour, with an interesting spicey and raisiny aroma. Sweet toasted malts, dark fruits chocolate come through in the taste, and the alcohol is disguised incredibly well. I enjoyed this but felt that it still lacked a certain something and fell a little bit short at the end certainly compared to some barley wines that I’ve had recently.