Innis & Gunn Scottish Pale Ale

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

Serve in English pint, Thistle

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[330ml bottle from Beers of Europe] Pale amber with a negligible head and a slight fizz. All the usual Innis & Gunn flavours are there up front - oak, vanilla & cream soda, with possibly more whisky & caramel than is usually the case. Lemon soon comes through - the hops are a little more evident in this than in your usual Innis & Gunn (although it’s by no means strongly hopped), and give a touch of bitterness in the finish. The problem is, the hoppy half of the beer doesn’t go with the barrel-aged half. It’s like a golden ale has been mixed into a normal Innis & Gunn beer - I like the two halves individually, just not together. There’s plenty to like about this beer, but it is unbalanced & not up to Innis & Gunn’s normal standard.

Pours a clear orange amber color with a white head that dissipates quickly into a small ring. Aroma of sweet vanilla with bourbon and some earthiness. When it?s cold it smells kinda skunky/sour but looses that as it warms. Taste is vanilla, oak and a half ice smooth grassy bitterness. Very creamy and smooth on the palate.

330ml bottle from Appellation Wines. Orange amber walnut brown colour, not much head. Vanilla rum aroma. Sickly sweet perfumey rum flavour. Unbalanced bitter sweet aftertaste. Not my sort of beer.

330ml bottle courtesy of JohnRMurdoch - clear deep golden, lovely vanilla and alcohol aroma, sweet, caramel drowned out by vanilla, very nice

Bottle from a trade with Cunningham. Pours clear golden with a big fast collapsing white head. Aroma is light fruity malty, bourbon. Taste is light sweet malty, toffee and wood, light alcohol burn at the finish.

Botle. Pours a clear light-medium amber with a thin white head. Sweet oaky aroma. Taste is malty, sweet, some citrus notes, but not hoppy or bitter, warming mouthfeel. Some oakiness. Finish is kind of grassy, with a sweet oakiness. Decent, kind of interesting, but could use more hops to balance out the malts and oak.

Funky on the nose, aroma similar to Heineken. Creamy, smooth taste with hint of scotch whiskey flavor

330ml bottle. Pours a medium amber/gold, with a white head. Spicy, woody aroma, caramel, heaps of butterscotch, dill, wet saw dust, malt, vanilla. Off-dry, light to medium body, low bitterness, balanced CO2. Buttery, woody taste, drier than most other I&G offerings, diacetyl, butterscotch, vanilla, caramel, fruit, malt, faint floral and/or citrusy hop notes. Fairly dry finish, very buttery, slightly harsh. The alcohol cuts through rather sharply, yet it fels a bit thin for an ABV of 7%. (2012-08-09)

Bottled. Clear golden, small head. Buttery rhum aroma. Mid sweet with medium body and rounded mouthfeel. Butter and some spicy hops, vanilla and rhum bitterness.

330ml bottle pours a golden color with a small white head that does not leave any lacing on the glass. Aroma is caramel and light fruits with some hints of bourbon. Taste is fruity and caramel malty sweet with a generous hop bitterness in the finish, mostly grassy. Light to medium body with light carbonation. A pretty decent brew, but nothing really leaps out.