Orkney Dark Island (Bottle)

Brewed by Orkney (Sinclair Breweries)
Style: Old Ale
Stromness, Orkney, Highlands & Islands, Scotland

Bottle: Ruby chestnut with a rocky off-white head. Sharp fruity aroma, with some smoke after you have a sip or two. Medium bodied with prickly carbonation

Dark, almost black colored, big beige lasting head. Sweet, fruity, creamy and mildly roasted aroma. Medium bodied. Roasted coffee is strong in flavor, aftertaste has some sweet roasted tones which last long. Carbonation is mediumly strong, fits here well.

bottle. poured a very deep burgandy with a frothy white head that lasted and laced quite nicely...initial not at all sweet malt with a very smokey, peaty, roasted, toasted, coffee, wet card board flavor, bitter almost sour hop finish, reminds me of a smokey porter, good.

Rather dark brown. Light smokey aroma. Flavor is rich roasty, smokey malts. Pretty good, nothing incredilble.

Bottled. First impression is that it’s not that alcoholic for what should be listed as a Scottish beer. Still malty, but those malts have a light chicory coffee and toffee note, with some plums toward the end. Not cloying at all. A well-rounded session beer.

Sept, 2002: Filtered Bottle.The flavour is splendid, lots of morello cherries and licorice, but the body is a little thin. On first gulp I thought this was an awesome world class beer, but as the glass progresses the sweet-water quality of the brew starts to disappoint. By the end of the drink I was starting to think that this was a gutter rat’s reject piss. All the flavour appears to be in the head (which foams up a treat - an absolute cathedral of foam) - but as the head evaporates, so does the rich dark malt flavours, leaving only a sickly sweetness. If this is drunk quickly in small doses it’s a wonderful beer, but a full pint is way too much. [2.7]

Dark brown, opaque pour. Dense and foamy lasting tan head. Rich aromas of heavy malt. Earthy, peaty, and smoky with a touch of sweetened cocoa. Fair flavor development. Hearty smokey flavor but all other constituents lack ranging from peaty, coffee, and bitter chocolate, lack some and could stand to be more pronounced. Somewhat thin but not too watered down. The aroma here could really sell it by itself. The flavors really don’t do it justice. The overall brew is blended well though with a good malt and hop balance.

Very dark brown, with a volumnous tan head, foamy and lasting. A rich, smokey, peaty, roasted malt profile. Smoked, like a Rauch with cocoa and roasty flavors. A bit thin bodied but that’s the only real negative with this delicious beer.