Today's beer comes in a 330mL clear bottle. It has 6.6% alcohol/vol. The bottle has a slightly unique shape to it, with the "Innis & Gunn" embossing. The beer claims to be oak aged, with hints of toffee, vanilla, and oak.
When opened, I certainly did smell the vanilla and oak. The toffee was a little harder to find. It poured a beautiful clear golden colour with a medium-sized white head. There were an average number of bubbles. The aroma had not changed much since opening the bottle, only getting weaker.
The first sip was pretty good. You certainly can taste the oak. This beer tasted a lot like scotch. There was very minimal sweetness to the beer, and I couldn't find any of the claimed toffee flavour. The beer had a fairly soft feel in the mouth. I found this beer to be pretty good. The scotch angle has me hooked. I would certainly look for this beer again.
I picked up this stuff a number of years ago during my short stint as a liquor store clerk. It was the only stuff in the store that came in a small bottle and was sold individually - for about $4 each. Not only that but there were certain regular clients that would come and buy us out.
ReplyDeleteSo when it finally clicked that there might be a reason to pony up, I finally tried it. I found the stuff incredible. Vanilla and Toffee would be what I would describe, the whisky less so. What you can't taste is the 6% alcohol, Very smooth, mild, and easy to drink. Throw back just two and you're right primed.
Somebody later told me that the stuff was invented kind of by accident. They were making beer-primed casket whiskey, and the workers were taking the beer rather then throwing it away like they were supposed to.
-Aaron