The Orkney Brewery has done the double at a major Scottish beer competition, taking top honours in two event categories.

Orkney Dark IslandThe brewery’s flagship 4.6% ABV Dark Island ale won the champion old ales / strong milds award at the Paisley Beer Festival contest, with its 4% Red MacGregor taking the title of champion bitter.

Organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the four-day-long Paisley festival is one of the biggest in Scotland, attracting around 5,000 visitors.

The two winning Orkney Brewery beers will now go through to CAMRA’s champion beer of Scotland finals next summer and will also be entered into the category finals at the 2018 CAMRA Great British Beer Festival in London.

Norman Sinclair, managing director of Sinclair Breweries Ltd, said: “This is an outstanding result for two of our classic and most popular beers. Dark Island in particular has been on the market for many years now, so it’s encouraging to see it maintaining its track record for winning major awards.

“We’re incredibly proud that two of our beers have won category awards and look forward to next summer’s Scottish finals. We’re also very excited to be representing Scotland, and flying the flag for Orkney, at the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival next year. Hopefully we’ll be able to build on this latest success and take the overall British titles, but we’ll just have to wait and see!”