Highland Brewing Company : Orkney Blast (6%)

Orkney Blast was another one of the beers that Lew sent me in exchange for some chilli chutney and it was possibly the one I was looking forward to most after all The beer boy (Zak Avery) him self seemed to rate it when he tried it a while back

Having an Orkney Blast..

The first thing that catches your eye is the image of 2 rather jolly looking, half naked merpeople (I think that’s the correct term) on the label, I’m sure there is a story behind the label so hopefully Lew will fill me in sometime and I can update this.

EDIT: Lew has just emailed me the story behind the label so here it is:

“The Orkney Blast was a newspaper published in Orkney for the forces during the second world war. The label, with the merman and mermaid, was the masthead of the newspaper back in the day.”

The next thing are the aromas that gush out of the bottle as you open it, Hops and fruit with a tiny hint of alcohol all mixed in with a lovely woody mellowness.

Orkney Blast pours a lovely copper colour with a decent sized head which did it’s best to last all the way down the glass, it drinks really really well, for something that is 6% ABV it is light, packed full of flavour and goes down a treat.

The individual flavours in the beer can all be picked out, there is a lovely maltyness, that gives just a hint of sweetness with some lovely dried fruit flavours thrown in for good measure, you then get the bitter hops towards the end along with a little bit of pine or grass.

All in all, Orkney Blast was a lovely beer, It was very drinkable and had a great amount of flavour,  It certainly didn’t disappoint, although if I am honest I preferred St Magnus, which really surprised me as from the first sip it was packed full of flavour, especially given it’s lower ABV.

You can follow Lew on twitter here or you can visit the Highland Brewing Company website here, They also supply a fair amount of beers to pubs in Newcastle so if you are in the area, check out this list for where has them on.