This one should be good!
The tranquil Orkney Islands, with their fertile farming lands and fishing grounds, have been inhabited for over 5000 years. The Orkney brewery is housed in the former schoolhouse in Quoyloo 1 mile from Skara Brae in the heart of Neolithic Orkney…
You’ll find everything you need on their website (http://www.sinclairbreweries.co.uk/home.html) or you can get them on twitter @OrkneyBrewery.
Dark Island is an iconic beer: a standard-bearer for traditional Scottish ales. In cask, this beer has twice won CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Scotland.
On the nose, this dark beer offers bitter chocolate, figs, toffee and hints of fruit.
On the palate, this resolves into beautiful, silky-smooth, coffee-and-chocolate flavours, followed by figs, dates and dried fruits, with a very appealing, lingering aftertaste of fruits and hop bitterness.
Appearance
A very dark beer with a deep ruby tint, displaying a tight, smooth, almost white head
Aroma
Chocolate, winter fruits and dried fruits, with hints of smooth roasted malt, coffee, nuts and toffee
Palate
Chocolate, coffee and roast malt flavours, giving way to warm winter fruits and a balanced, more-ish aftertaste. Flavour profiles of dark island dark ale: dark chocolate, dark fruits, roasted malts.
Key Ingredients
Chocolate malt, crystal malt and wheat give this beer its smooth, full-bodied, maltiness and sweetness; First Gold and Goldings hops combine with the malt flavours to deliver the winter fruits and dried fruits aspects
My verdict:
A very dark colour with a hint of rich ruby in it if held up to bright light- quite beautiful. A creamy, pale, beige head. A slightly alcoholic bite on the nose, but mainly rich, roasty coffee and chocolate.
Full of flavour. The roast coffee and chocolate on the nose follows through to the taste, along with something like a sticky toffee pudding- dried fruit and caramel. A dry finish despite the sweetness you would have thought from the flavours. More effervescent than I was expecting, resulting in a bit of a smoky aftertaste as the roast aromas are given off.
A real winner- can I have some more?
Leave a Reply