Innis & Gunn Limited Edition Oak Aged IPA (Bottle)

Brewed by Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: English Strong Ale
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

Bottle. Body-thin golden honey body, foamy medium ring of bubbles. Looks like a darker pilsner. Nose-very soft, light cream soda, cola notes, flower petals, a little watered down bourbon/wood. Very unique nose. Taste-cream soda, cottony, medium CO2, watered down bourbon, very muted hops, mildly hot, slightly soapy, artificial sweetener, orange peel, weird artificial medicinal aftertaste. Odd and decent.

This one gets all its marks for looks and aroma. The most important department — taste — dragged down the overall result. It poured a nice burnished gold with an attractive head and pleasant whisky and vanilla aromas. A weird coconut flavour in the first sip made me grimace and I almost poured it down the drain. The coconut taste wasn’t as overwhelming as it warmed and gave way to some rye whisky and vanilla flavours — but that wasn’t enough to redeem it.

Deep orange to copper in color with a thin head of fine white bubbles. The nose clearly shows the oak aging with vanilla and boozy scents followed by some hidden citrus. In the mouth it was medium-bodied and rich with soft, sweet citric flavors along with the vanilla and bourbon from the nose. The finish shows off some alcohol and also grabs a bit of dryness from the hops. While I don’t think barrel aging is the best thing for an IPA, I do believe they pull it off well enough here to make it an interesting beer0...thus bonus points for doing something different.

Bouteille 330ml, courtoisie de Hogtownharry. De couleur dorée foncée et claire. Nez assez boisé (fût de chêne), fruité (pêches sucrées, léger d’agrumes), malté de caramel butterscotch sucré et avec des notes de toffee et de houblon herbeux aux notes florales. Moyenne-mince en bouche avec un pétillement moyen-bas et une texture moyennement crémeuse et aux faibles notes liquoreuses (whisky). Moyen goût fruité (abricots, léger d’agrumes, notes de pêche, de marmelade et traces de pommes) accompagné d’un goût de vanille boisée (fût de chêne asséchant, présent toute la gorgée) lors de l’entrée en bouche auquel se rajoute un goût malté de caramel butterscotch avec des traces de biscuits au miel et de toffee pui en finale l’on retrouve une légère amertume de houblon herbeux ainsi qu’un léger goût de whisky sucré. Post-goût long et sec, composé d’un goût boisé (fût de chêne), légèrement amer de houblon herbeux et avec des petites notes aigres de fruits (noyau de pêche et léger zest d’agrumes).

A Mes rate: bottle at Chris_O’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Gimme the Cheese Tasting.
Absolutely awful. Barrel aged diacetyl. Another stunner from Greene King.

Bottle @ Chris_o.
Pours pale amber with a small, creamy white head. Aroma is pure caramel, some toffee and light oak. Watery and thin palate. Soft flavour, a bit sweet, lots of toffee and only little wood. IPA? Do they know that an IPA need hops?

Bottled, BB 12/6/08. Poured clear, medium golden with a nice looking cap of off-white head. The aroma was odd.. oak, darker fruits, and whiskey malt jump out in front.. dry grassy and hay hoppage also came through, but the malt and the barrel were much more prominent. The flavor had a whole bunch of butterscotch and sweet whiskey notes at the core with dry oak and vanilla surrounding.. this was very sweet with the whiskey notes and vanilla almost making it hard to drink.. sticky-sweet finish. Medium-bodied, sweet, and bone dry on the palate. This was OK, but I probably wouldn’t care to try it again.

Pours clear, golden with a white foamy head... aroma of oak... tastes quite sweet, almost like a citrus, or like a sweet whiskey... very little hops, which is disappointing for an IPA, which should be quite hoppy... all in all a good beer, albeit overpriced and mislabled as an IPA which should be considerably more hopped...