Mills Tiny Islay

Bottled Dec 2025

A session strength version of Islay Brut, our peat-smoke Champagne beer. Referred to in-house as "the beer no-one was asking for."

Tiny Islay is a single barrel release, brewed in March 2023. The worts was produced from a traditional turbid mash with a decent quantity of maize, giving a more delicate flavour and paler colour than malted barley. It underwent spontaneous fermentation in a small Islay whisky barrel, imparting aromas of maritime peat smoke.

Upon tasting the barrel, we were delighted to find the beer possessed just the right balance of dry-bitter and sweet-acid, as well as the necessary body to carry the smoke, without the need for the ABV-boosting sugar additions we have previously utilised to strike the right balance with these smoky beers.

Finally, the beer was conditioned in-bottle for four months. A large dose of priming sugar was added to produce a rolling, Champagne-type, carbonation. The resulting beer drinks remarkably easily, with delightful sweet, smoky, and spicy aromatics.