REVIEW 104: INNIS & GUNN BOURBON AGED DARK ALE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Scotland

BREWERY:  Innis & Gunn

STYLE:  Scotch Ale

ABV:  7.4%

PURCHASE:  N/A (gift)

SERVING:  22.3-oz. bottle, poured into Chimay branded chalice. A normal pour produced maybe, maybe a quarter-inch head. On Round 2 I poured twice as fast, and barely got half an inch. Retention on this beer is an absolute joke.

APPEARANCE:  Dark, opaque, root beer brown body, with tan suds (where visible). Steady, albeit minor, bubbling action. No lacing whatsoever.

BOUQUET:  Predominantly woody--oaky, to be more specific. That's okay; I'd rather sniff wood than metal (at least in a beer). Malty as well. The barley notes are rather obvious. No real hop presence in the aroma; no real anything-else factor either.

PALATE:  Well, it looks like a cross between root beer and black coffee, but thankfully does not taste like it--although it does feature a cola-like carbonation. Texture is moderate but leans heavy--these scotch ales are also known as "Wee Heavies" in case you didn't know. Taste-wise, this is malty with barely a trace of hops. A little lacking up front, but gets progressively richer from mid-palate to finish to a caramelized aftertaste, which is a tad spicy--surprisingly so--but also roasty and even a little smoky. Rounding things out at the end was a tinge of orange, liqueur-like in nature. Think Grand Marnier. The box claims this is "matured in bourbon oak." I, however, detected more of an orange liqueur--a la Grand Marnier--presence than a bourbon presence. Maybe I'm wrong.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  This is a sneaky beer. Comes off as smooth and easy at first, but can knock you out if you're not careful. Like a good liqueur, such as Grand Marnier. It is, after all, more than 7%.

This is also a fairly simple and straightforward brew. Not much complexity. No gimmicks. Hey, nothing wrong with that. Some of the best things in life--at least on the surface--are fairly simple in nature:  Air, water, sunlight, sleep, etc. And, I suppose . . . Grand Marnier.

This is a new beer in the Innis & Gunn lineup, released just last year. It needs tweaking. But it's off to a promising start. 




GRADE:  B