Review 119: Innis and Gunn Winter Beer 2012

Review 119

12/15/12

Innis and Gunn Winter Beer 2012: 7.4% abv

There is nothing better than a reunion. And we’ve had some good ones with Innis and Gunn. This is more like a high school reunion. A poor one. I recently had an Innis and Gunn Rum Cask, which is a fantastic Scotch Ale. This particular beer is a “porter”, but it doesn’t have that ominous black oil-like color that a porter normally does, so maybe the porter was...under-roasted? Despite this, it sounds like a pretty interesting beer, being an oak aged Scotch porter brewed with molasses, it is certainly unique. It is also a limited run beer, so we had to grab it. 

Well all of this self-hype was unnecessary, as the beer is not worth it’s cost if you’re looking for the same quality you got with the rum-cask Innis and Gunn. This isn’t against the company, but this just simply doesn’t do it. Here’s why: The nose gives off some good notes, shooting off raisons, caramel, vanilla, honey, milk chocolate, a slight sweet coffee flavor, cream, cantaloupe, molasses, and a moderate background tartness. This is the best part of the beer. 

The arrival is eventless, being sweet and light, with a slight lemon-lime character and some raisons. The taste contains raisons, coffee, slight hops, toffee, soda water/mineral water, and water in general. The body does contain a larger amount of wateriness, and there is more to be said about this later. The finish contains raisons, coffee, molasses, slight hops, toffee, earthy mineral notes, caramel, and an out of place tartness. So what’s the end result? 

KCM loves that beer makers can produce new ideas at a much faster rate than distillers, but this particular statement by Innis and Gunn is light, watery and inconsistent in flavors. The complexity isn’t there to speak of and there was a general disappointment in the lack of quality. Go grab a Rum Cask Innis and Gunn. It is still a fantastic brew.

Score: 6.25/10

Review 112: Founder's Backwoods Bastard

Review 112

12/6/12

Founder’s Backwoods Bastard: 10.2% abv

Here we go with another review. Backwoods Bastard. Might ring a bell, even if you haven’t heard of it. Why? Well, this is a bourbon-barrel aged Scotch Ale. I’ve done some small research on Scotch Ales, because there is a bit of contention about this term in our minds. If you go to Founder’s website, they will tell you Backwoods Bastard is reminiscent of a Single Malt. I will clarify to you that this is not the case. It contains malt flavors, but in this sense it reminds us of malted barley, as is a prominent flavor in TONS of beers. The problem we have with saying this is reminiscent of Single Malt Scotch is that it really won’t remind you of that, and eludes to some intrinsic quality in the beer. This beer has no real affiliation with the spirit itself, so far as we can tell. 

Anyway, now let’s talk about the beer itself. The nose has malt in it for sure, but you get the classic bourbon dominant flavors like caramel, oak, large butterscotch, toffee, vanilla, and wheat. There is even the presence of raisons, cream, plain yogurt, molasses, and slight starfruit. That makes this a fairly unique, interesting nose. The arrival reflects the smell pretty accurately, but with a little less to it. Prominent flavors include vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, and dried fruits. The body contains the same sort of flavors, with butterscotch, malt, vanilla, caramel, weak coffee, milk chocolate, creaminess, and even slight ginger. The finish contains cinnamon, malt, vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, slight grapefruit and apple. 

We can comment that is a pretty bourbon-dominated beer, and if you want to understand the influence bourbon has on beer, this is a great combination of two beers to try it out, with Dirty Bastard and Backwoods Bastard. On the other hand, we think this bourbon influence was a little overdone. A unique quality that bourbon brings out in beer is a creamy butterscotch flavor, which isn’t necessarily huge in bourbon itself, but time and time again we see it in these beers to varying degrees. Overall, the complexity wasn’t earth shattering, and neither was the balance. We like Dirty Bastard better and this could use a little less of its oak time. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 94: Belhaven Wee Heavy Ale

Review 94

8/26/12

Belhaven Wee Heavy Ale: 6.5% abv

We have visited Belhaven before. A Scottish company which is known for their standard Belhaven Scottish Ale. It is easy for you to remember Belhaven if you’ve smelled it in the past. There’s a distinctive reason. It smells quite prominently of marijuana. That isn’t a joke, not an exaggeration, and we only know because we live all around the people that smoke it. Well, do you think it was a fluke, or maybe we had a skunked batch? No, people, no. 

Let me just start on the nose for this one. Marijuana. Like, you felt like you were getting high just smelling it marijuana. Let me explain before I continue though. What we noticed before, and noticed in this review as well is that there is a prominent, strong note of marijuana as soon as the bottle is opened, but if you give it 5 to 10 minutes, then you will start to notice that it fades away. There is no mistake about it. So is there really anything else to be smelled in this beer? Absolutely. Here’s the list, and it is a large one. 

There is maltiness to this beer, with unmistakeable raison, caramel, molasses, wheat, semi-sweet chocolate, cocoa and cream in the darker notes, with fruity notes including apple, raspberry, kiwi, and some light lemon citrus notes as well. To top it off, we have a unique brown tea smell we extracted as well. So don’t let the initial smell put you off, because there is a lot more to it. Unfortunately, that stands more for the smell than anything else. 

The arrival to the ale is noticeably nutty in character, with molasses/brown sugar, and chocolate to it. It leads into a dark and mellow body, holding the molasses character but continuing with chocolate, hazelnut, nutella, raisons, wheat and nutmeg. Finally, we get to the finish. Only to find it isn’t there. It is short with little flavor, but what little flavor we picked out was of the same sweetness of molasses we had before, with some slight nuttiness and chocolate, and even some ripe banana left over. 

Overall, we were really excited when this beer started to open up, but in the end, it provided some disappointment the more we dug into it. It certainly is unique, and it provides decent complexity, but with a lack of overall balance and an almost lacking flatness to it, we weren’t blown away. 

Score: 8.0/10

Review 71: Innis and Gunn Independence Day

Review 71

7/4/12

Innis and Gunn Independence Day: 7.0% abv

Ladies and gentleman, there is no greater honor than to support the people who serve this country and represent American freedom. Innis and Gunn, although a Scottish Brewery, has dedicated a beer to our Independence Day, and made it taste good as well. Here at KCM, we hope every has a safe night and appreciates their holiday, but also keeps our troops in mind. 

This special edition brew is aged in oak, like all Innis and Gunn beers, but is made from the fresh, new oak barrels, that haven't had all the whiskey in them. So let's see what we can find. On the nose, there is caramel, molasses, oak, vanilla, lime pear, green apple, lemon, white grape, roasted almonds, cantaloupe, slight pine and honey. The nose is complex, and that's an encouraging sight, but unfortunately, it doesn't continue from there. 

The taste is simpler, representing oak, toffee, vanilla, peach on the arrival, apple, pear, molasses, and slight licorice. The finish carries over several of these tasting notes, including pear, apple, slight pineapple and black cherry. Beyond this the beer offers very little, losing complexity incrementally. It does have a lot to offer on the nose, and is a light, drinkable beer for these awfully hot, summer days. This isn't by any means a bad beer, but doesn't meet the standards that other Innis and Gunn beers hit. Enjoy a safe holiday. Bless the troops and those away from home. 

Score: 8.0/10