Just before St Patricks Day this bottle arrived wrapped in a Jiffy bag, quite how it survived the post I’m not entirely sure but it did and a few days later it ended up in my glass.
As far as I’m aware it’s the first time the Innis & Gunn have brewed a stout and unlike a lot of beers that are aged in Scottish whiskey casks this one has been aged in ones from Ireland…a neat little gimmick just before St Patricks Day.
For me it was strange seeing an Innis & Gunn beer that was a stout so I opened it with some in trepidation and worry about it being too sweet and sickly.
I needn’t have worried it smelled really tasty, like most of the I&G beers it had that slight vanilla and oak note then a little bit of whisky (or should that be whiskey as the label says?)
In the mouth it had nice body, not too heavy and not too thin, it was a lot drier than I had expected and no where near as sweet as I thought it would be.
Flavour wise this had plenty going on, there was a flavour that reminded me of flambéed bananas with toffee sauce accompanied by roast coffee…all in a nice mellow way, there was a little bit of whisky there but not in a boozy spirit kind of way.
It was actually quite refreshing and went down really easy for a stout of over 7%, I really enjoyed it and found my self wanting another bottle of it and it’s been a while since I can say that about a strong stout, usually I’m full after the first one.
