Orkney Dark Island (Bottle)

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

I could definitely taste a kinship with another Orkney brew, Skullsplitter, and I liked this almost (but not quite) as well.

dark enough..with a scattered swampy frothiness..a nose of smoked peat, soil, earthy malts and cigar smoker's bubble gum...added hints of dr. pepper and cola with pinches of vanilla..very smokey flavor but overly watery in the mouthfeel...chewy at times..with nice smokey/malty sensations...

Sampled March 2007
Pours with a frothy, fully tan colored head that starts out about two-fingers thick. The beer is a very dark, almost black colored beer. There is an interesting spiciness here in the aroma, it is sort of cinnamon like (but not really) or perhaps a touch of clove (but again not really). Mainly the aroma is full of notes of chocolate, coffee, touches of molasses, some dusty chalk notes.

Fairly sweet up front, but then an interesting salty, smoky note becomes noticeable. So now that spicy note in the nose makes sense. Peat it is. The salty, smoky peat character couples with notes of chocolate and a host of (though in no way dominating) burnt characteristics (acidity, dusty burnt grain, and a touch of coffee). This is an interesting beer, I was not expecting this at all. The smoke actually adds something like sweetness, which couples with the residual malt sugars. This is quite a tasty brew, once again I am quite impressed with this brewery and of course I always love tasty, lower alcohol brews.

toffee, chocolatey, and peaty aroma, a hint of fruit/cherry; toffee, smoke, roasty and musty malt flavors; bitter-ish and somewhat long, maybe a bit dry finish; strong flavor but rather thin palate; tasty

Bottle. Poured dark brown with an average creamy brown head that lasted with good lacing. Heavy roasted chocolate malty and smoke aroma. Medium body with a creamy texture. Medium sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration. This beer goes well with a cigar.

Very dark in the glass with a lively head that contributes some lacing. Aromas are light raosted, caramel, soda, esters. Palate is pretty smooth and long with a weight slightly on the light side. Flavors are excellent: sour cherry, bread, chickory, earth and apricot. If only the tastes contribute to the nose, this would be a great brew. Love to try the cask version.

Poured from a bottle into a thistle glass, this beer is a cloudy, dark brown with a thin tan head. The aroma is strikingly peaty, along with toffee, fruit, and malt aromas. It’s very drinkable, starting malty and fruity and developing into a strongly peat-flavored, smoky, and noticeably sour complex of flavors which blend nicely with the hops at the finish. A bit watery at some points of the flavor profile, and the mouthfeel is only ordinary, but the flavor is quite nice. Not one I’d want to drink often, but this distinctive brew goes quite well with cajun style black eyed peas, for example.

Bottle. Very dark brown with a creamy beige head. Chocolate, coffee, earth and hint of fruit in the nose. Flavours are mostly chocolate, but also vanilla. Espresso hits lightly towards the finish. Could probably be more full-bodied. Can be recommended.