Canada Day 2011 Edition
Innis & Gunn

 

 

 

 

 

A- Pours a hazy...perhaps chill hazed coppery brown color, and without much of a head. The carbonation appears to be plentiful, but also looks to be finely tuned as well. Like I said, the head is not very impressive, but instead there is a thick layer covering the beer, and is more eggshell in color. The lacing is modest, with small clumps of foam sticking to my glass. Overall, not a great looking I&G beer!

S- The aromas are quite nice, as I smell malt sweetness, a mild oak scent and muted hop bitterness. As for the sweetness details, there is much to note...I smell toffee, caramelized sugar, fresh vanilla bean, and even some ripe banana....it's quite nice and reminds me of a warming winter ale of sorts.

T- This one will wake you up for sure. Right at first, the booziness was prominent, but this subsides as you have more tastes. The woodiness of the oak is noticed as well, but there is mostly flavors of sweet caramel, vanilla, toffee, molasses and other assorted sweet baked goods, such as raisin bread. The finish is a combination of woody bitterness and leaves a rich lingering aftertaste that could be described as a little cloying.

M- Most definitely a medium bodied beer, that even leans towards full bodied. The carbonation is fine and doesn't overtake the beer. It is somewhat boozy, and needs to be sipped on, as it is very rich on the palate. I really do feel like I'm sampling some rich caramel/vanilla drenched baked product.

O- This one, while nice, doesn't stack up against other I&G offerings, I'm afraid. It's good....in fact, it is better than a good percentage of beers out there, but I find it lacks the drinkability of past offerings. This could be because I'm drinking this out of date, according to the brewery, but then again, it is a high alc/vol beer so I'm not sure that's what it is. I still recommend trying this out if given a chance, and I missed the 2012 version, so i guess I have to wait till 2013 to compare the next one!

 

 

Pours coppery brown with a large, creamy head.
Nose shows toffee, caramel, butterscotch, oak and vanilla. Very sweet-smelling.
Similarly sweet flavours, almost syrupy sweet. Butterscotch, golden syrup, brown sugar, oak and soft booze. Pretty cloying to be honest.
Could use a thicker body and more carbonation.

BB 0612 so out of date and cheap, tho why on a 8% + beer I am unsure.

Pours a hazy gold, one finger head looks good but dies. Little lace on swirl. Lots of clumps in bottom of bottle.

Aromas are sweet, brown sugar, some toffee. Add in whisky to start with, tho that dies.

Taste is very sweet, vanilla, spirit, smoke notes. Label notes oak-aged, and there are significant whiskey/bourbon notes.

Mouthfeel a real let down, far too light for ABV or style.

All in all, kind of OK, but lacking something. Strong beers should not dies so quickly imho, but I suspect this is past it.

 

 

 

 

 

A fine beer on it's own but for the cost - stick with the Innis & Gunn Original. This one is lacking in comparison to the Original.

The flavour is nice, toffee, carmel with some spice but not as well balanced or rounded as the Original.

You won't be disappointed with this one as a sipper on occassion, but I recommend the Original all the way.

 

 

Had this one since the summer, held off drinking it for a while. A bit cloudy, little to no head. Slight carbonation. Vanilla oak aroma, alcohol, caramel, usual I&G nose. Tastes of Sweet candy, toffee, alcohol. Rather liking this, it has a nice bitter finish that I wasn't expecting. Almost tastes like a oak aged IPA. At just over 8%, it's definitely a sipper, which is fine with me on a cold winters night.