Orkney Skull Splitter (Cask)

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

Half pint at a local beer festival. Aroma is strongly alcoholic, and sweet. Taste is pretty syrupy sweet, caramel, a little wood and whisky flavour, then a strong alcoholic finish, a little cloying. A bit too sweet and alcoholic for my liking.

Cask @ HAF09. Dark amber - red colour, small tan head. sweet malty aroma. Flavour has sweet malts, glue, phenoles, sticky and sweet finish.

[Gravity cask at Chippenham Beer Festival 2009] Banana, vanilla, cough mixture. Sweet and sticky mouthfeel, with noticeable alcohol. Bitter earthiness in the finish comes too late to save what I thought to be a pretty nasty beer.

Cask - White Cliffs Beer Festival. A red hued barley wine with a loose, beige head. Whiskey and spices on the nose with dark fruits and some woody notes. More spiciness in the flavour with some toffee apple and sherry-like properties. A pleasant, syrupy body and mouthfeel. The alcohol is well disguised, which makes this dangerously quaffable!

Cockney Pub, Aarhus, DK. Cask. Dark golden with white head. Aroma of alcohol and caramel. Flavor of crystal malt and some fruit notes. Alcohol

Tasting notes from 2003 Harbury beer festival. Amber with lasting beige head. Caramel, spice/earthy aroma notes. Caramel and fruit flavours...mainly sweet. Farily drinkable and smooth Barley wine.

Purchased in a 330ml bottle at Acquistapace’s Covington Supermarket in Covington, LA. Poured it into a Pilsner Glass (yes, yes, I know, give me a break! ;) ) Poured a deep ruby/brown with a light brown head that produced nice lacing. Nose is predominantly nutty with pecan being the predominant note. Fruity notes, specifically, cherries underneath. Taste was consistent with the nose with a nuttiness predominating. Slight frutiness as well with a neutral buscuit finish. This was a thrououghly enjoyable brew. Not too obnoxious and heavy as barley wines can be sometimes. Complex enough to be interesting, smooth and clean enough to be refreshing. Very good!

Cask (gravity) @ The National Winter Ales Festival 2008, Manchester, UK. Unclear medium amber color with a small, fizzy, fair lacing, fully diminishing, light beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, caramel, english licorice. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily - syrupy, carbonation is flat. (190108)