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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Golden yellow in colour with a thin quick to dissipate white head, very light lacing. Aroma is quite skunky, highly sweet, some marshmallow and icing sugar, butter. Flavour is high on the butter, lots of sweetness, sugary, maple syrup. Sweet mouthfeel, light body, medium carbonation. Finishes fairly quick, sweet.


What is wrong with the Innis & Gunn beers? All that I really get from them is butter but yet I still buy them whenever I see them. Too much punishment in this for me.


330ml bottle purchased from the LCBO in Peterborough, Ontario.

Opened on November 15, 2009.

Best before May 11, 2010.

Clear golden amber pour with quickly diminishing white head. Skunky aroma along with hay, caramel and vanilla. Taste of caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, and malt. Creamy mouthfeel and nice carbonation but flavours became annoying and cloying after a few sips.

33cl, at 6%Vol, as Innis & Gunn Blonde, Scottish brew, from Beers of Europe Setchey, not complex brew, malty/sweet and slightly woody/bitter, not balanced, clear, small head, simple brew

Aroma is honey, caramel, banana, toffee. Nice and sweet. Palate feels a bit thin. Taste is pretty unimpressive. All the flavour the aroma has but it’s faint and watery. Their other beers are far batter.

330ml bottle. Clear deep golden colour with small macropore white head. Malty aroma with explicit oak flavour. Taste is caramel malty, oak / vanilla is a bit more decent than in other Innis & Gunn brews, but still typically present, adding a woody dry note, therefore narrowing the taste in a way. Nevertheless there’s room for a slightly hoppy finish.

Clear bottle, 330ml. Best before 04 Dec 2008, drank on 23 Aug 2008. Poured well chilled, into a Westmalle Trappist Chalice glass. Pale, very pale in colour. The head fell away to a wisp covering far too quickly for me. The aroma was weaker than I expected, there is an Oak feel to it and a caramel/toffee sweetness which arrives as the beer warmed. A tangy bitter sweet flavour which I found interesting and pleasant. Not your normal English Pale Ale that’s for sure, well it is brewed in Scotland so why should it be? The 6% is well hidden and the beer could almost be discribed as watery, but not quite. The flavours do stay, with the sweetness hanging around longer than the bitterness. Not bad, but nothing special either.

Bottle Light amber with small white head . Enticing aroma of toffee , vanilla , oak . Sweet creamy taste from the vanilla /oak plus some citrus and slight bitterness in the finish . Light body for 6% abv . Pleasant .

Prune juice brown with a thin tan head. Roasty/smokey notes with some caramel and not too overpoweringly sweet.

Clear, medium golden body with a small, frothy, white, short-lived head that leaves some lacing. Sweet malty aroma, grainy and pretty pale lager-like, but with some extra fruits, flowers and a whiff of something sweet that I assume is vanilla. Moderate sweet initial taste that lasts into the finish where it is accompanied by a moderate to light bitterness. The flavours are a bit faint and again close to a pale lager and quite grainy. However, there is also a touch of vanilla that is much more obvious than in the aroma. Finally I get a not-that-pleasant sweet artificial lime note that actually reminds me a bit of the Tuborg Lime Cut. A disappointing beer that is too sweet and tastes too artificial.
[33 cl bottle, from Vinmonopolet Storo, Oslo]

Bottle from ASDA in Hamilton cons 2012-04-17 Uddingston AR: citrus/lime fruit juice, dust, pilzner AP: golden copper, wee frothy head F. vanilla, thin watery, hops, fizzy

33cl bottle. Light golden with small head. Looks like a lager. Nose ; smells like a well hopped lager with spices. Strong citrus taste. I was trying to sniff the wood out and I did but far in the background but I wouldn’t say if it was my imagination or the smell was just so thin. Sip ; Low density, low carbonation. Sweet with interstingly hoppy finish. Not bad overall.