Beer of the Week – Swannay Orkney Session

Posted by on Aug 4, 2017 in Beer of the Week | No Comments

The weekend is once again upon us, and we are into August no less. It seems like the Easter Egg wrappers have just been cleared away but we are on the cusp of Autumn already. With time flying like never before there is less of it than ever to devote to great beer. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. So each and every Friday throughout 2017 I will be suggesting a single beer for you – a spotlight on a great unsung Scottish Beer of the Week.

With hundreds of beers from around 150 Scottish breweries producing at the moment, there’s just so much to keep track of. And that’s even if you ignore everything from south of the border and overseas. So be choosy – whittle it down into 52 easily found brews that if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of trying, will get you through the year in great shape. Like this one, the 31st recommendation. A fantastic session beer from Orkney.

31. Orkney Session (3.8%)
Swannay Brewery, Orkney
Style: Pale Ale
500ml bottle

Pick it up here:
At Swannay’s online shop (as individual 500ml bottles)

Rob Hill is the king of the session beer in Scotland. He might not see them that way, but there is no better producer of cask-friendly traditional pale beers in the country. And people know this – Scapa Special, Island Hopping, Orkney Pale, Orkney IPA – all have won awards and are rightly treasured. So when you think of Swannay and unsung beers (as I have, several times, for this series) then you have to look at the special releases.

Orkney Session is Swannay’s ‘session pale ale’ in everything but name – whether you have a few as part of a session is up to you. That’s because Swannay use buzzphrases like that through gritted teeth (which is great), and because this beer is named after the other kind of session found in pubs; music. Brewed for the Orkney Folk Festival it hits a series of high points of bitterness thanks to the unusual combination of hops used – Bobek, Cascade, Motueka and Simcoe. Something for everyone in there – but isn’t that the best thing about a session?

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
20. Cairngorm Black Gold
21. Strathaven Craigmill Mild
22. Black Isle Red Kite
23. Spey Valley Spey Stout
24. Top Out Schmankerl
25. Cross Borders Braw
26. Williams Bros Midnight Sun
27. BrewDog Kingpin
28. Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack
29. Deeside MacBeth
30. Drygate Ax Man Red Rye IPA

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