Innis & Gunn Limited Edition IPA

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

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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Bottle from LCBO. Pours nice full yellow colour with a thin white head. Aroma has an oaky sweetness about it. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Taste is full of malts with some oakiness and sweetness. Fairly bitter finish.

Very pale golden with a white head. Tones of malt, wood and some smoke. Medium body with a malty finish.

Bottle. Poured a golden colour with a medium white head. Plenty of oak in the aroma. The oak flavour is in the taste as well, some hops. the finish to me is all like a whisky.

330 mL bottle. Translucent copper orange with almost no head. Strong brandy-like aroma with lots of oak as well. The flavour is very sweet, with vanilla and sherry. Nothing to suggest that this is/was an IPA. Better than it was a year ago, but still not great.

Gift-boxed 30ml bottle 2007 edition Poured a deep gold with a 1 finger sticky cap. Aromas of thick caramel some earthy and woody tones Interesting IPA..richly malty with deep caramel tastes and some light apple tones in the front..middle gets a tad more interesting..earthy-woody-tart like sour peach...finishes wet with a sweet and sour woody after taste. Not what I look for in an IPA...and I fought the idea that the "butterscotch" aromas and tastes were diacetyl... but certainly well matured rounded ale, very soft to the mouth with interesting unique complexity...but a tad sweet for my liking

330ml LCBO gift to myself. Pours a clear coin gold with some lively fizz building a small lacy white cap. Smells fruity and a hint tart, and sweet vanilla. Mild palate. Taste is led by toffee and a rather ’open’ hop profile and overall top en aromatics. The oak does not clobber it like a bad chardonnay. It’s enjoyable and a little different - inventive/expensive you might say.

Dark caramel red pour, nice sticky layer of white. Oak is definately there in the aroma--vanilla, sort of a soft rummy alcohol, rounded earthiness, floral/peppermint hops. Velvety mouthfeel, a toasted caramel flavor, hop flavor but very restrained bitterness. Low expections (something Greene King was associated with), but very pleasantly surprised. I’m hoping to get a few more of these before they are gone.

[bottle from Waitrose, Marlow] "Only" 68,000 bottles produced of this. The attractive but unnecessary value-added packaging normally means this beer retails at 50p or so above the regular Innis & Gunn’s, but Waitrose had 25% off bringing it down to a reasonable £1.49. Pours amber with a moderate white head that is slow to dissipate. There is moderate carbonation that is well matched to the beer. Aroma is initially grassy hops, but is soon dominated by vanilla and wood. Taste is overwhelmingly of vanilla and cream soda and vanilla ice cream. There’s possibly (of all things!) some dolly mixtures in there, with oaky overtones; it put me in mind of some Glenturret 10yo single malt whisky I had recently (maybe they both use the same barrels or something?) Behind all this, there’s just a hint of citrus. It says on the bottle that it’s called an IPA because it’s made in the same way that IPA’s traditionally were - adding hops to the barrel before leaving it to mature. That may well be the case, but it certainly tastes nothing like a modern-day IPA. There’s no hint of bitterness here at all, in fact it’s one of the sweetest beers I’ve had. Despite that, it leaves none of the syrupy mouthfeel that strong and sweet beers often leave behind; instead it has a very clean, crisp mouthfeel - despite leaving you feeling like you’ve had a Mr Whippy Ice Cream! To be quite honest, I’ve never known another beer like this - as with most of the Innis & Gunn offerings, it’s very unusual, and very challenging - and I liked this one very much! Provided you think of this as a pudding beer (maybe you could use it as a sauce for your banana split?) and not an IPA, it’s superb!.

Boxed bottle from LCBO (01/08). Pours a medium gold with a thin white cap. Aroma is earthy spice, vanilla, buttery. Vanilla & butter carries strongly into the flavour. Minimal hop presence in the finish. Why do so many of these I&G beers taste so similar? Not overwhelmed by this one.

Bottled from my local Waitrose. Reading the blurb on the neat little box that this came in, I was expecting a real hop treat. There were interesting wood flavours present but hardly any hops what so ever! Very dissopointing.