Orkney Dark Island (Bottle)

Date: 03/04/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

dark ruby red, big smokey peaty aroma and flavor, nice malty sweetness tries to balance the smoke, light bitterness blends nicely with the smoke,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

500ml bottle from Peckham’s, Glasgow. It’s just not as good as in cask. I had this last week in Glasgow and it was great. This has lots of malts, choc, decent sourish dark fruit with some liquorice, but it’s just so lacking in that mouth widening cask feel. Shame.

Bottled, bought at Prestwick airport. Rich smell, very full malty flavour. Tracle, a little spice, some roasted malt, too. Lots of flavour for a 4.6%, I look forward to the aged and stronger version of this!

Tasted 22/08/2007. Happy birthday big bro. Unbelievable nose - so fruity, almost fortified. Hints of port, vanilla, chocolate, figgy pudding, date, dried apricot... you name it. A lot of caramlisation character. Dark but not black. Tan head. It’s an 8% beer with a 4.6% label... superb. In the mouth it’s surprisingly dry, nicely fruity, full of good toasty character and begging me to bed..... yummy, scrumptious.... a thumbsucker, without the high-alcohol. Complex beyond what I could think a 4.6% beer could be.

Bottle. Pours almost opaque black with some dark amber highlights. Some dark fruit and smoked malt on the nose. Fair amount of smoked wood and malt with a hint of roasted coffee on the palate. A bit too watery and thin. Tastes a lot more like a smoked than an old ale.

Pour is a dark beer with a small tan head. Aroma is hard to detect at firat but then you get a bit of wood smoke. Flavor is a lot more smoky than the aroma. The somke flavor overpowers anything else going on in this one. A odd beer ,more of a smoke beer than an old ale.

Now I’m not saying this is a bad beer. I’m just saying that in my opinion, it’s horrible. The Smokey maltyness ich-spit-phoeigh flavor prevented me from finishing one bottle. Sent it to our enemies and they will surrender at once

Delicious smoked character really brings life to this stout/old ale. Roasted coffee and chocolate flavors built a solid base, smooth and very full bodied. Light earthy moss flavor mixes with the smoked malts in the finish. Mine doesn’t pour red ruby wine like the description, more dark chocolate black with red hues against the light, like a nice stout or porter.