The Best Places To Buy Orkney Beer

Orkney Brewery, located in the Orkney Islands, offers a wide range of ales and merchandise available for purchase in their online shop. The brewery, housed in a former schoolhouse, is known for its iconic beers such as Dark Island, a tribute to the Vikings and their cultural legacy in Orkney. Beers such as Skull Splitter, Red MacGregor, and Northern Lights are also popular choices. Orkney beers can be found in their online shop, as well as in select retailers across Scotland and England. The brewery also exports its beers to various countries, including North America, Canada, Australia, and several European nations. In addition to their online presence, the Orkney Brewery Visitor Centre offers tours, a shop, and a cafe serving hot and cold food, providing a unique experience for visitors exploring Orkney.

Orkney Brewery Visitor Centre

The visitor centre boasts a shop, a tasting hall cafe, and guided tours of the brewery. The shop offers a wide range of ales and merchandise, including iconic brands such as Orkney Dark Island, Northern Light, and Skull Splitter. The Tasting Hall cafe serves hot and cold food, coffees, cakes, and, of course, beer! You can enjoy a Tasting Paddle of Orkney ale or linger over a sample at the end of your tour.

Speaking of tours, the Orkney Brewery offers guided tours that provide an in-depth look at the brewing process. These tours can be booked in advance and usually last around 30 minutes, excluding tasting time. Children are also welcome on the family tours, which include a jotter and Corncrake trail for younger explorers and the opportunity to dress up in the school uniform from the old Victorian schoolhouse.

The visitor centre is family-friendly and accessible, with picture support to ensure that guests with reduced mobility can fully enjoy the experience. The team is also happy to accommodate guests with specific needs—all you need to do is reach out and let them know how they can help.

Orkney beers in the UK

Orkney beers are available in the UK in a variety of ways. Firstly, the Orkney Brewery, located in the former schoolhouse for Quoyloo, offers an on-site shop that sells its full range of beers and merchandise. The visitor centre is open between April and October and features guided tours, a tasting hall café, and a shop. The Orkney Brewery also has an online shop that delivers across the UK, with prices starting at £10 for a case of up to 20 bottled beers.

In addition to the brewery's own shops, Orkney beers can be found at various retailers and beer sellers across the UK. For example, the Real Ale Store offers a selection of the finest ales from the Orkney Brewery, including blondes, golden ales, amber ales, and the famous Dark Island and Skull Splitter. The website also mentions that Orkney Brewery ales can be found throughout Scotland and England.

Another option for purchasing Orkney beers in the UK is through the Swannay Brewery, which offers award-winning beers crafted in a rustic farmstead in the north-westerly tip of Orkney's mainland. Their website provides information on their core range of beers, including the Scapa Special, a classic pale ale, and the Orkney Blast, a strong ale/IPA hybrid. The brewery shop is open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 2 pm, and they also offer UK-wide delivery.

Overall, whether you visit the Orkney Brewery in person, shop online, or explore local retailers and breweries, you can easily enjoy the unique and diverse range of Orkney beers right in the UK.

Orkney beers in North America

Orkney beers have made their way across the pond and can be found in North America. The Orkney Brewery, one of Scotland's first independent microbreweries, exports its beers to North America and Canada. Their beers are also available for purchase online through their mail-order system.

The Orkney Brewery, founded in 1988, is located in what was once an old schoolhouse in Quoyloo, Orkney. The brewery is now owned and run by Orcadian Norman Sinclair, who acquired it in 2006. Sinclair has since transformed the site into a 30-barrel brew plant, carefully preserving the school his father once attended as a boy. The old schoolhouse has been converted into a 5-star visitor centre and tasting hall, where visitors can learn about the brewing process, sample beers, and purchase local crafts and merchandise.

The Orkney Brewery prides itself on using high-quality raw materials, such as Orcadian water, to brew its beers with passion in small batches. Their beers include iconic Scottish ales such as Dark Island, Red MacGregor, Dragonhead, and Skull Splitter, as well as progressive pale ales like Orkney Gold. Dark Island, a rich, fruity, and vinous dark ale, is their biggest seller and has won Champion Beer of Scotland on several occasions. Red MacGregor, a bitter with citrusy fruit flavours, was one of the first beers in Scotland to use the American hop Cascade. Skull Splitter, an 8.5% ABV barley wine, was named after Thorfinn Einarsson, the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney.

In addition to their traditional ales, the Orkney Brewery also offers innovative brews. Their Corncrake Ale, for example, is named after a secretive bird found in small numbers in Orkney. The brewery donates a portion of the sales from each bottle to the RSPB, making it the only brewery in the UK with an affiliation with the RSPB.

Orkney beers in Australia

Orkney beers are available in Australia through online retailers such as Beer Cartel, which claims to be Australia's "#1 Online Craft Beer Store". The Orkney Brewery, founded in 1988, creates "traditional craft-brewed ales full of flavour using only the finest of ingredients".

Beers available from the Orkney Brewery include Dark Island, a gold standard-bearer for crafted premium Scottish ales, which offers ripe, fruity and roast coffee aromas with flavours of dark chocolate, dates and nuts. Dark Island Reserve is a variation on this beer, which is finished in old oak casks formerly used to mature fine Scotch malt whisky, resulting in a beer full of fruit, spice, oak and roast malt flavours. Skull Splitter is one of the Orkney Brewery's strongest beers, named after Thorfinn Einarsson, the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. It is a sophisticated, satiny smooth and full-flavoured beer with a rich, fruity, wine-like complexity. Red MacGregor is another beer from the Orkney Brewery, which was one of the first beers in Scotland to use the American hop Cascade for a citrusy fruit flavour.

The Swannay Brewery is another award-winning brewer of Orkney beers, with a range that includes Scapa Special, a classic pale ale; Orkney IPA, the brewer's interpretation of India Pale Ales; and Orkney Lager, Orkney's first lager.

Orkney beers in Japan

Orkney beers are available in Japan, although it is not clear whether this is limited to bottled ales or includes cask ales as well. The Orkney Brewery, founded in 1988, is Orkney's oldest brewery and offers iconic brands such as Dark Island, Northern Light, and Skull Splitter, which pays homage to the 7th Earl of Orkney and the Viking heritage of the islands. The brewery is located in the former schoolhouse for Quoyloo, just a mile from Skara Brae in the heart of Neolithic Orkney.

The Orkney Brewery's cask ales are available in various pubs across Britain, and their bottled ales are sold throughout Europe, North America, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and most European countries. The brewery's visitor centre, which is located in the old schoolhouse, is open to the public between April and October and features a tasting hall, a shop, and a cafe. The centre has been awarded five stars by VisitScotland.

Dark Island, a rich, fruity, and vinous dark ale, is the biggest seller of the Orkney Brewery's beers. It has won Champion Beer of Scotland multiple times and is considered a gold standard-bearer for crafted premium Scottish ales. Another popular beer is Red MacGregor, a 4% bitter that was one of the first beers in Scotland to use the American hop Cascade, giving it a citrusy fruit flavour.

The Orkney Brewery's website offers an online shop where customers can purchase a wide range of ales and merchandise, with UK-wide delivery available.

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