Beer of the Week – Cairngorm Black Gold

Friday means that the weekend is just around the corner, and with it the chance to kick back with a beer or three (unless you have already been doing that all week). Every seven days at this time I will be detailing a particular Scottish beer and letting you know exactly why it should be on your drinking radar if it isn’t already. And for this iteration – the twentieth – attentions turn to another challenger for the title of best stout in Scotland.

Our neighbours to the south-west are renowned for being brewers of stouts and porters but for every dark beer across the Irish Sea we have at least one here to stand up to it. Several have already featured in this series (and more will follow) but for this particular example it’s off to the centre of the country and the mountainous background of the Cairngorms. There you’ll find the incredible Black Gold.

20. Black Gold (4.4%)
Cairngorm Brewery, Aviemore
Style: Stout
500 ml bottle

Pick it up here:
At Cairngorm’s online shop (as individual 500ml bottles, 330ml bottles or 5L mini-casks)

In a series devoted to unsung beers, Black Gold is the outlier. Having won well over two dozen awards over the past decade it is one of the shining lights of stout in this country – so if you’ve yet to have the pleasure there really is no excuse. That’s because of all the beers on this list Black Gold has the perfect crossover – widely available in bottled format in beer retailers, large and small, and commonly seen in pubs where it is amazing when served on cask.

Black Gold is a roasty, dark malt-led treat and has supporting elements of dark fruit, bitter coffee and a slightly creamy, mocha-like edge to it. Jet black it carries all of these different flavours from start to finish, but for me it is the first and last of these that really stand out. The roasted malt runs throughout the flavour profile right up until the end, when that creaminess really comes to the fore. It truly is a fantastic stout and one that deserves to be in your cupboard for pretty much any occasion.

(This post also indicates the perils of combining beer photography and inquisitive spaniels)

Beer of the Week Series:
1. Fyne Ales Highlander
2. Swannay Old Norway
3. Broughton Old Jock
4. Traquair House Ale
5. Tempest Easy Livin Pils
6. Cromarty Brewed Awakening
7. Fallen Chew Chew
8. Black Isle Hibernator
9. Isle of Skye Red
10. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer’s Reserve
11. Orkney Skull Splitter
12. Windswept Wolf
13. Kelburn Dark Moor
14. Alechemy 5ive Sisters
15. Loch Ness Light Ness
16. St Andrews Eighty Bob
17. Harviestoun The Ridge
18. Orkney Dark Island
19. Williams Bros Seven Giraffes