Old Worthy Beer

A while back myself and what seemed like hundreds of others received a tweet asking if they wanted a sample of a beer that hasn’t been released yet from a new brewer on the Isle of Skye, Old Worthy Brewing Co. Loving free stuff (I spent far too much time at uni requesting samples from anyone willing to give them and I also managed to get a semi free PS3 and Nintendo DS but that’s another story) I sent them my details. I saw others receiving a beer and reviewing it but there was never a present on my doorstep. I was beginning to think I wasn’t Worthy after all. Then BOOM, out of the blue when I had started to forget about it a package turned up with a bottle in it. Cheers, Old Worthy Brewing Co.

Well I cracked it open at the weekend and to be honest it was nothing like I was expecting. All the literature out there about this beer talks about Whisky distilleries and peat smoked barley. I was expecting some sort of cross between Innis & Gunn and Brewdog Bitch Please. A beer that tastes like dipping your fingers into a beer after doing a spot of gardening with some peat compost then having a sip of whisky. You might have guessed I’m not a fan of peat flavours so I was going into drinking this thinking I wasn’t going to like it.

How wrong could I have been. The beer poured a lovely amber golden colour with a pristine white head. The aroma was ever so slight, sweet with hints of whisky, a bit like pouring a lager into a glass you have just drank whisky out of (yes I have done this, I used to be a tax dodging scumbag student who would drink anything). The taste was the biggest surprise.  I was expecting soil and got a lovely crisp refreshingly sweet almost lager like mouthful. This beer reminded me ever so slightly of Mikkeller’s Burger & Bun L.A. Lager. I think the style of this beer sits perfectly between a lager and an IPA. It’s very crisp, refreshing, sweet with a slight smoky after taste. I didn’t get any peat at all and for me that isn’t a bad thing.

Old Worthy recommend drinking this beer with a Scottish single malt whisky. I’m not a big whisky drinker so to buy a bottle to just have a dram with one beer I thought a little excessive. But I can certainly see myself buying this beer when it hits the market, so when that happens I might have to invest in a single malt and give it a go.