Innis & Gunn Original

Innis & Gunn
Brewed at Wellpark (C&C Group)
Style: English Strong Ale
Edinburgh, Scotland

Serve in English pint, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Bottle. Same colour as in the pciture to the left. Light bodied, with pretty much nothing but wood to taste, felt like i was licking the dining room table. Subtle caramel and whiskey-ish flavours. But theres too much wood flavours, particularly for a how light the body is. Not good.

The Lure:
Biscuity, caramel malts are wisely organized atop the flowery, fruity esters. Wooden sagacity gets more obvious as it warms up, and succeeds in adding, not masking.

The Festivities:
A slick, rich malty mouthfeel lays out earthy caramel and smoking wood. Alcohol flavors are noted, but without the heat. Everything is judiciously amalgamated, resulting in a soft interplay which straddles sipping and quenching. Not a world beater by any means, but it reaches its goals efficiently.

Transcendence:
A luxurious new piece of furniture. Not a necessary improvement, but quite pleasant if I may say so.

a watery brown with a wispywhite head. This one has a nice vanilla and nutty quality to it... the oak is welcome and necessary touch when considering the fact that there is a bit too m uch of a thinness to the drink. Definitely above average though.

bottle. bright, shiny copper body with a medium off-white soapy head. aroma starts out nicely with smoked malt, earth, and burnt caramel. I like this, warm body without too much apparent alcohol, soft carbonation, and sweet malts. There is also a bit of smokiness and burnt toast flavours. some areas felt a little bit thin and watery. unique for the style. nice bottle too.

Bottle. Filtered. Gassed. Pasteurised. O dear. This is a beer more about marketing than beer quality. The gasing of a 6.6% ber designed to be sipped and savoured really shows a lack of regard for finesse. The filtering and sterilisation also reveals a lack of sensitivity. A Belgian beer this is not. A real ale this is not. A flavoured piece of garbage it is. Nothing holds together in harmony or balance. Everything tastes plastic - false - wrong. There is nothing good about this. But there is plenty of smoke and mirrors - even the carbonation has been cunningly created to mimic some of the action of a bottle conditioned beer. Take away the razzamatazz and you simply have an alcopop somewhere in the region of an Adelscott, but with none of the simple fun, and - to be honest - none of the integrated and pleasant flavours.Too sweet, too fizzy, too artificial, and too stupid for words. *1/2

UPDATED: JAN 7, 2006 The pour put a honey colored ale in my glass with a puffy 3 finger cap. Soft carbonation. Aroma of sweet malts, caramel and fruit with wisps of smokey whisky smells...sorry I didn’t get the "vanilla-orange" smells the brewer promised. Very full tasting ale...a wonderful whack of sweet toffee caramel malts hit you right off as soon as this abundant malt blend settles on your tongue you get hit with a rush of fruit like a mild cider with a wonderful woody-smokey-whisky like decernment...finish is anticlimactic: wet sweet, slightly smokey clean and smooth. Hides the alcohol very well with the huge malt body...it only becomes detectable in the slow "warming" as you drink through a couple of these. A very nice twist on a scottish wee heavy...I’ll be looking to store a few of these away.

Pours a transparent copper body, accompoanied by a medium sized beige head. Aromas are malty, woody, some alcohol (whisky). Taste is bitter, lots of woody and whisky flavours. Some caramel malt to semi balance. Thin bodied. Watery mouthfeel. Nutty aftertaste. Nice fall warmer. Unique coice for the LCBO.

Bottle from the LCBO. Pours a bright, clear copper-amber with a creamy white head that sticks around for a while. Aroma holds a very, very faint hint of skunkiness (helllloooo, clear bottle!), but it mainly smells of a nice woody bourbon, with a bit of caramel and butterscotch. Thin body is a bit of a letdown. Flavour is quite sweet, with some strong influence from the oak barrel. Definately a unique beer that I enjoyed for what it was, but I couldn’t help but imagine that a mild ale with a shot of whiskey dumped into it might be quite similar to this.

Amber color, faint head. A bit of soaked wood in the aroma. Smooth texture. Vanilla notes. Different brew. Warms the body nicely.

Pours a clear copper colour with no head. Aroma is very woody, like a scotch malt. Taste is initially a very powerfull oak malt taste with a harsh and dry finish. This beer is all oak and malt without anything else to balance it out.