Orkney Porter Arran Bere Whisky Cask Edition
Swannay Brewery

330ml bottle from Good Spirits Co., Glasgow (£4.90):
Dark mahogany with a patchy, beige surface lacing. It's a dark, malty nose with peat & whisky grains, a little chocolate sweetness backed up with vanilla & some toffee then a few rich, dark fruits to finish. It's quite a rich, complex taste with dark fruits, raisins & prunes. I got some vanilla sweetness on top of the chocolate & caramel. It's a medium body, thinned a little with age but it's smooth, rich beer with soft carbonation & great balance throughout.

Medium: Capped, chalice glass. (6 month in cellar)
Opacity: Almost opaque.
Color: Almost black with a light copper hue.
Head: Slightly creamy brown half a finger.
Legs: Poor but a strong lace reaction.
Smell: Vanilla/Toffee/Liquorice/Whiskey.
Taste: Coffee/Chocolate/Prunes/Raisins/Dark grains.
Feel: Roasted/Earthy/Barrel aged/Salty & spicy.
Body: Light to medium slick, lightly creamy and oily.
Carbonation: Soft crisp, a bit dull compared to regular brew.
Overall: Very good quality craft, producing good warmth. Aging destroyed the complexity a bit compared to the regular brew, yet now it feels dull like a true porter. Also less fruity while more chalky and alcoholic.

Visual 5/10 - Flavors 8/10 - Sensations 7.5/10 - Balance 7/10 -
Freshness 3/10 - Intensity 8/10 - Complexity 7.5/10 - Appreciation 7.5/10

Bottled, presumably bottle conditioned and sent to me by my good friend Zimbo, it only arrived this morning.
Pours a jet black body with suggestions of tan head
Aroma is whiskey and peat and tablet.
Tastes like a great smoky serving of a deftly mixed malt and bespoke burnt sugar mixer

 

Bottle: Poured a deep black color porter with a brown foamy head with OK retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of light peat and woody notes with some whiskey notes and some black chocolates is really quite enticing. Taste is a complex and smooth mix of whiskey notes with some black chocolate notes, light woody notes with some subtle peat notes also noticeable. Body is about average with good carbonation. Superbly balanced with plenty of character and nice drinkability.

Pours basically black with a very small khaki head that indicates very little carbonation and just leaves spotty lace. Swirling glass only produces a tiny bit of extra head. Nose is some dark fruits, chocolate, and only a very slight whiskey. Not a huge nose by any means. Flavor is a rounded and rather "normal" stout flavor that is not as big as the 10.5% would have you expecting and doesn't carry much barrel influence at all. Of course, I tend not to expect a lot of barrel influence in these due to the multiple re-use of the casks as opposed to a bourbon barrel aged beer. However, I would have expected some whiskey notes to come through. Some vanilla and molasses, but overall, this seems much more like a solid 6% non-barrel aged stout.

 

 

BOTTLE: Acquired at Appellation Wines in Edinburgh. Best before: Oct 17. Brown glass. 330ml. Unbranded black pry-off crown cap. Classy understated label.

Served cold into a pilsner glass and allowed to warm over the course of consumption. Expectations are high given how good the base beer was. Reviewed live a an imperial porter.

10.5% ABV. Aged for 18 months in Isle of Arran Bere whisky casks.

No bubble show forms as it's poured.

HEAD: Occupies ~80% of the glass. Khaki colour, creamy consistency...it matches the original Orkney Porter in every way, but the retention is even better somehow, coming in at ~4 minutes. Pretty impressive at 10.5% ABV. Leaves no lacing as it recedes. Fluffy; not real thick/viscous.

BODY: Translucent dark cola amber with very dark hues. Shockingly, it's transparent. I expected an ink-black. This is definitely a departure from the style, and oddly this is lighter than its base beer. Hm...

Looks decent for an imperial porter. The barrel aging seemingly leavened it, somehow. That's a first.

AROMA: Hints of the base beer are there, but they're faint - cream, dark malts, chocolate malts, kisses of fig and plum.

The whiskey cask is subtle...just some refined oak and vanilla. No smoke, leather, coconut, tobacco, et al. The barrel sugars are nice.

Aromatic intensity is average. Suggests a porter on the sweeter side, and the vanilla from the whisky seems to be the best addition to the notes of the base.

TASTE: The vanilla from the whisky cask plays into the cream of the base beer nicely, a good marriage of flavours. More of a rich oak presence would tie the beer together, but all the whisky lends aside from the vanilla is some barrel sugar sweetness that eclipses the dark and chocolate malts of the base. The barrel aging doesn't play to the base beer's strengths, and often overwhelms its notes rather than accentuating them, to the detriment of the beer as a whole. The result is not a gestalt build, and frankly I'm not sure it's even an improvement upon the base. But the vanilla is lovely, though it does seem to come at the expense of the dark fruit notes; they disappear behind the vanilla.

Balanced, if sweet, and less a classic porter than the original. What really works is how well the 10.5% ABV is hidden; I'd guess this was 6% in a blind taste test. Depth of flavour is lacking for a barrel aged beer, but the flavour duration is notable.

I find no hop notes, yeast, roasted barley, peat, coffee, etc. Bringing in some roast, coffee, cacao nibs, coconut, etc. could only help if executed correctly.

TEXTURE: More smooth and wet than I remember the base beer. Near perfectly carbonated (where the original was overcarbonated). Aptly medium-bodied. There's no booziness at all. Apt thickness and heft on the palate helps support the flavours.

Doesn't elevate the beer as a whole, but it fits into the porter schema and supports the flavours nicely enough.

OVERALL: Neither as robust nor as classic in taste as its base beer, this Cask Edition porter is worse for having been barrel aged, much to my surprise. I guess it's always a risk when the base beer is already so good, but having said that, this is still well worth trying. The subtle vanilla from the whisky is a key attribute, and if they found a way to play that a bit more subtly while bringing in more of a cohesive oak undertone that highlights the best flavours from the base, this could be a superb beer. Maybe they need to go ahead and switch whisky barrel providers. Overall, this is a highly drinkable imperial porter with enough good elements to appease the discerning drinker.

B- (3.35)