Ölbeat 326 (BC17 #13): Swannay Barrel Aged Orkney Porter (Isle of Arran)

Brewery: Swannay Brewery
Country: Scotland
Style: Imperial Porter
Abv: 10,5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small tan head. Aroma has chocolate, nuts, roast and oaky-spicy alcohol (very nice!). Taste begins with bittersweet fruity chocolate. Sweet roasted malts, dark chocolate and booze-soaked fruits take over. Towards the end spicy chocolate and dry oaky-fruity alcohol mix deliciously, while sweet roasted malts give the liquid a solid backbone. Aftertaste has sweet fruity-spicy chocolate and dryish oaky-bitter whisky.

Rich and sweet barrel-aged Imperial Porter. The sweet chocolate-roasty basic porter is obviously nicely present, the aging of 12 months (in previous editions 18 months) in Isle of Arran Orkney Bere casks shows up in fruits, spice, oak and booze. The whole package is delicious. The brew has a fine story and tastes simply great.

Ölbeat

"I am a mountain / I am the sea / You can't take away from me." Well, OK, the Orkney Islands are mainly quite flat but there are some steep coastal cliffs. But the Isle of Arran is called Scotland in miniature: there are some mountains. And certainly, presence of the sea is always strongly there in the Scottish islands.

Biffy Clyro: Mountains (YouTube)

From the 2009 album Only Revolutions, the song was written by Simon Neil.

Ölbeat 247: Swannay Island Hopping

Brewery: Swannay Brewery
Country: Scotland
Style: Golden Ale
Abv: 3,9 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is clear golden yellow with a small white head. Aroma has lemon, malts, butter and some sweet fruits. Taste begins with fruity bitter malts. Sour-bready malts and bitter citrus take over. Towards the end sour and bitter citrus gets through with some sweeter fruits lurking in the background. Aftertaste is grainy-malty dry, citrus-oily sour-bitter and in the very end even fruity sweet.

Unbelievably tasty low abv (3,9 %!) ale. Pale malts meet fruity New Zealand hops in a crisp and fresh way. Many kinds of citrus present - sour, bitter and even sweet. Very drinkable, still.

Ölbeat

A light but refreshing ale from a brewery in Orkney, Scotland. The singer of this trio was born in Orkney, and the trio's name Lau means "natural light" in Orcadian dialect. The brew was naturally light, so it's a match.

Lau: Ghosts (YouTube)

From the 2011 album The Bell That Never Rang, the song was written by Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke.