Dark Island

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m on a serious learning curve with British beers, and this evening, I’m trying my first ever Orcadian ale. Dark Island comes from the Orkney Brewery. It’s dark. And it’s from an island. So far, so good.

The taste is quite interesting. It pours like a stout, gorgeous blacker-than-black with an espresso-crema-like head. A warm tar smell hits you first thing. I mean that as a compliment: as someone who used to work on traditional wooden schooners, this is very welcoming and comforting aroma.

The taste has a certain obvious stoutishness to it, but there’s something more, as well. The bitter chocolate notes are more obvious, and it has something herbal in there (lavender?), with maybe even cumin making its presence felt as it washes down. The label says figs, hmmm... perhaps. Something of stewed fruit for sure.

So, yet another very good ale from the UK. To think what I’ve been missing all these years...