Dark Island Reserve - The 1000th Beer Bottle

The year was 2000 when I first tried a beer which was not a regular Brazilian Pilsner... and by the beginning of 2001 I had a few bottles decorating my shelf. In 2008, with some 250 bottles in my collection, I set a goal... I wanted to try and collect one thousand different beers before I die.

At the time, it sounded like a reasonable goal... not impossible to achieve, but still hard enough to keep it interesting. In 2009 I moved to Germany, and realized that my goal might had actually been set too low... in 2012 I had 800 bottles and in June, 2014, it finally happened...

It was not like other milestones like the 700th, 800th or 900th bottle, which passed unnoticed... no, the 1000th bottle required some preparation, and it was a hard choice to decide which beer would fill in that symbolic but most important post.

In April 2014 I came across this quite uncommon 750ml bottle in a specialized shop in Caen, France. The label itself called my attention at first, and when I read the specifications of this 10% orcadian ale, I realized I had in my hands a strong candidate for such a special occasion.

It is brewed by the Orkney Brewery in small batches and aged in oak casks which were formerly used for the production of fine malt whiskeys. It is a very exclusive beer and the price paid for it reflects this fact very well...

I am a firm believer that the taste of a beer is much more related to the occasion in which you drink it than to its price... the cheapest, most watered down pilsen in the world can taste amazing if drank in a hot summer afternoon in the company of good ol' friends, and the fanciest sparkling ale can prove to be a quite boring experience if the occasion just doesn't fit...

But when you combine a great beer with a great moment, you can generate a once-in-a-lifetime experience...

The occasion was very well planned, I had friends from different places visiting, the celebration party went from the early afternoon well into the next day's morning and in that meantime we opened the 998th, the 999th and finally, the Dark Island Reserve.

The choice I made for my 1000th beer bottle proved to be a wise one... this is a beer for great moments, and I say that having tried only a small volume of it, after all, sharing it with good ol' friends was part of the experience.

I still haven't defined a number for my new "life goal", but I definitely want to find and drink this beer again. I am just afraid it will never taste as good as it did on that rainy but amazing late June afternoon....

Maybe when I reach 2000... :-)

Cheers!