Bottled BeerCast Awards – Stouts, Porters etc
One of our shortlistees – Highland Orkney Porter
Day five and we reach our final alternative SIBA Awards category. Each day this week we’ve shortlisted our personal highlights from the world of Scottish bottled beer – designed to complement the official SIBA awards. The final section for us to look at is Stouts, Porters, Old Ales and Milds – or as my co-judge Ashton from Appellation Wines described it after a long day of sampling – Pouts and Storters…
The SIBA winner last week was Williams Brothers Midnight Sun (5.6%) – their third class winner out of the five. I was judging this category on the day, and Midnight Sun is a cracking beer – in fact, I remember first sampling it on cask at the 2008 Scottish Real Ale Festival just after it had been released, and liking it then. However, last week I placed it behind Highland Orkney Porter (9.0%) on my judging sheet.
Orkney Porter is an outstanding beer, one that gets the Scottish beer fans excited when a new vintage arrives. It packs a punch, has a wonderful, almost silky complexion, and a really long finish. I can see why some of the judges may have underscored it in favour of a more sessionable example, but I just had to (respectfully) disagree.
That’s not to say there aren’t any great bottled dark Scottish beers at session-strength – Cairngorm Black Gold (4.4%), Black Isle Organic Porter (4.5%), Sinclair Orkney Dark Island (4.6%) and Stewart St Giles (5.0%) are four such examples. All have that tight roastiness coupled with an alcohol content that means you can have several in one session.
But big-hitters are where it’s at for us – if you want to revel in that dark maltiness, then get a boozy hit to back it up. BrewDog Rip Tide (8.0%) is a fantastic bottled imperial stout, and their re-launched Tokyo* (18.2%) takes some beating. Hibernator Oatmeal Stout (7.0%) from Black Isle is also a sherry-esque fruity hit – each sip of these three beers passes all kinds of flavours over your tongue, which is surely reason enough to reach for the bottle opener.
It’s not just dark beers that fill out this category, of course. Sinclair Orkney Skullsplitter (8.5%) is a classic dark amber barley wine, and takes the final spot in our shortlist. Long exported to the US, it may have fallen foul of the Portman Group in 2008 over perceived aggressive branding – but don’t let that put you off what is a great example of an evening beer.
So here’s our final shortlist – Stouts, Porters, Old Ales and Milds…which would be your choice? Depending on the occasion I’d maybe go for Dark Island or Orkney Porter. Or Rip Tide. Or Hibernator. Or…
Speciality Beers (in abv order)
Cairngorm Black Gold (4.4)
Black Isle Organic Porter (4.5)
Sinclair Orkney Dark Island (4.6)
Stewart St Giles (5.0)
Williams Bros Midnight Sun (5.6)
Black Isle Hibernator (7.0)
Sinclair Orkney Skullsplitter (8.0)
BrewDog Rip Tide (8.5)
Highland Orkney Porter (9.0)
BrewDog Tokyo* (18.2)
* Let us know if you agree or disagree with our choices! If a beer isn’t in this list, it may have been in one of the other categories as there’s plenty of crossover. Hope you enjoyed reading our shortlists – most of these beers are readily available throughout Scotland, many throughout the UK and several online.
