Okay, so choosing a beer with a “Reduced to Clear 30 per cent off” sticker to start off Dark Beer Week might not seem like a great idea, but stick with me here.

Yes, I didn’t hold out much hope for this beer either when I picked it up out of one of those half barrels that chain bottle shops always seem to use to stock their discounted stuff. Also, there was the issue that it was a Harviestoun beer and only other beer I’d had from that brewery was the very ordinary Bitter and Twisted. I don’t know about you but, when I buy a beer with that name, I’m expecting something more than a little unusual. What I got was a pretty ordinary-tasting beer (a blonde ale, if memory serves me correctly).

This porter also came with a great name – Old Engine Oil. It calls to mind a thick, black, viscous beverage. But that’s not what this is – but I’m okay with that because it’s still pretty good. So good that I wish I’d bought more than one bottle from that half-barrel full of 30 per cent off bottles of Old Engine Oil.

At first I thought the roast coffee flavours were a bit much for me. But that was before my palate acclimatised to them. When it did, some absolutely wonderful dark and milk chocolate flavours stood up and create what is a very moreish stout – whether you get it at 30 per cent off or have to pay full price.