Innis & Gunn Blonde Lightly Oaked Beer

Innis & Gunn
Brewed at Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: English Strong Ale
Edinburgh, Scotland

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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Clear orangy yellow colour with a think light head. Mint, wood and malt nose. Dry oily body with light carbonation. Citrus, grass, fruity malt and butter in taste with a dry sour vanilla and juice finish. Its good but not what I would choose again. Feels almost like a spirit.

From bottle. Yellowy with white head. Vanilla oak aroma. Slightly hoppy taste, caramel, vanilla, oak. Unballanced, harsh. Pish

Medium sweetness, a tad of bitterness to the finish. Aroma is also sweet, there’s alcohol, banana and vanilla there. An amber colour, thin white head. (Bottle)

White foamy full lasting head. Amber colour. Aroma is malty, crispy with bread, herbal and light wooden notes. Flavor is malty too with cereal, corny and toffee tones, ending in an hoppy with a light vanilla accent finish. Light to medium bodied.

330ml bottle. Pours a clear light gold, with a small but reasonably long-lasting white head. Sweet, honeyed notes mix with smooth oak and a hint of grainy malt on the nose. The hops in this beer are initially mild, but build up to a pleasant level of fruity white grape and leaf flavours. The oak comes through quite strongly in the body, which is reminiscent of a heavily oaked chardonnay, and which has a honey-like mouth-coating quality. A mix of oak and cereal notes persist into the finish. This isn’t really that much less oaky than any other Innis and Gunn beers, despite what its label may claim. In my opinion, however, this is no bad thing. Without the oak, I suspect this would be a pretty ordinary beer, but 37 days in American oak have created a beer which, whilst not at the level of some of their other beers, is still a pleasant drink indeed.

Bottle. Skunky aroma also of vanilla and not overly pleasant, pours pale golden with a small head. Beer has a light sweet taste, faintly of vanilla which is light to drink with medium carbonation. Good but not spectacular.

Bottle. Woody aroma, though I definitely got a whiff of skunk here, too. Pale reddish colour, quickly dying head, not much lacing. Taste of wood, smoke, vanilla, slight bitter hops. Disappointing.

330mL bottle poured a pale golden color with a nice white head that settled to a few spots of lacing. Aroma of vanilla and some hops. Taste is malty sweet with vanilla and some oak with a mildly hoppy bitter finish. Decent amount of carbonation and a medium body provide adequate mouthfeel. A pretty good blonde ale.

Appearance: Transparent golden yellow, no head. Tons of carbonation. Aroma: Eggs, bananas, toffee, vanilla. Not very pleasant. Palate: Smooth, fizzy, dry, long finish. Taste: Quite sweet, slightly bitter. Strong notes of vanilla. Not bad.

0.33l bottle. The blond pours a clear caramel brown body with a small bubbly off-white sidesticking head. Aroma is at first kinda bad-lagerish mild metallic-hopy, then some nice strong notes of caramel with some hints of oak. Oily to watery mouthfeeling, average carbonation level and medium-bodied. the flavor is as all the Innis & Gunn-beers I’ve tasted, strongly caramel dominating. Also notes of oak, nuts and butter in the finish and a really longlasting sweet caramel, vanilla and something I will describe as a ash-oaky flavor in the aftertaste. Not like any other blond I’ve ever had, but nice enough.