Brewery: The Orkney Brewery | Location: The Orkney Islands, Scotland| Find them: Orkney Brewery | Sinclair Breweries
The Orkney brewery is located on the Orkney Islands (clue’s in the name) in a former schoolhouse. They use traditional methods and brew with British barley and Orcadian water.
Three of this selection of beers appear in a book we have called ‘1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die’ so we decided they were worth investigating. Alex visits Scotland regularly for work, and was able to source these four Orkney brews on a recent trip.
We tried them in order of ABV from lowest to highest – starting with the Session IPA and finishing with a Skull Splitter.
The beers
Island Life: Session IPA 3.7%
A good beer to start. Tasted much like a traditional British ale – more malty than hoppy. It had floral notes and lots of bitterness.
Brewer’s note:
Island Life is a pale golden ale with citrus fruit aromas. Mouth-watering flavours of grapefruit and peach, lead to a crisp bitter zesty finish, to be enjoyed time and time again. This beer is special, much like life on our islands. Orkney has been regularly recognised as one of the finest places to live in the British Isles. So, like the easy-going enjoyment of your personal island retreat, take your time, relax and indulge.
Red MacGregor: Ruby Ale 4%
This was a lovely ruby ale. It was sweet, but not sugary sweet – more like blackcurrant jam with some slight bitterness. You could easily have a couple of these – would love to try it on cask.
Brewer’s note: is a mighty beer indeed a celebration of one of Scotland’s true historic heroes. It was one of the first beers in Scotland that expressively used the American hop Cascade for citrusy fruit flavour. It has a wonderfully complex aroma of fruity hop zest, spiciness and rich malts. This beer offers initial toasted caramel malt aromas and flavours then mouth-watering citrus hop fruits giving way to a clean, fruity, refreshing hop bitterness.
Dark Island: Dark Ale 4.6%
This had similarities to a porter. It was roasty and creamy with notes of treacle and dark chocolate cake. Again, we’d love to try this on cask – definitely worth a try if you like dark ales.
Brewer’s note: Dark Island is an iconic beer. A gold standard-bearer for crafted premium Scottish Ales. It almost needs no introduction. It offers ripe, fruity and roast coffee aromas with flavours of dark chocolate, dates and nuts, from the combination of roasted malts and robust hops.
Beer of the night
Skull Splitter: Scotch Ale 8.5%
This was the strongest beer of the night and also the most complex in flavour. It was very boozy in flavour and had fruit cake flavours. It reminded me of a barley wine or some Fuller’s Vintage ales we’ve tried. definitely a beer to be savoured and got even better the more it warmed up. This was our favourite of the night.
Brewer’s note: Skull Splitter is one of our strongest beers, named after Thorfinn Einarsson the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. It is a sophisticated, satiny smooth and full-flavoured beer. It has a rich fruity wine-like complexity with flavours of fresh and dried fruits, warm exotic spice and mellow summer fruity notes.
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