Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA review

Innis & Gunn is a brewery in Edinburgh. They mature their beers in new oak, whisky and rum casks. A business started by accident has made quite a name for itself. Their beers are usually highly recommended. I myself am not a big fan of the original oak aged Innis & Gunn (red label), don’t get me wrong, it is good but not nearly as good as this toasted Indian Pale Ale matured in oak casks. Of course that’s only my opinion and the original oak aged beer by Innis & Gunn is worth a try. I truly recommend trying their beers, just anything that comes in your way, because we are talking about pioneers of craft beer.

So, like I stated, the Innis & Gunn story started by accident. In 2002 some whisky distillery approached them for help. They wanted to season some of their oak casks with beer and they had failed in attempting it previously. So Innis & Gunn assisted with a custom-made recipe. After 30 days of maturing, the beer was thrown out and in went the whisky. The whisky maturing with beer infused oak went well and the dram in question was repeated several times. But months later the folks at the whisky distillery called the Master Brewer of Innis & Gunn and said that their oak aged beer tasted brilliant. They tasted the beer themselves and decided to start making oak aged beer. Nowadays the business has grown into several Innis & Gunn beers, matured in different types of oak.

Strong character – refreshing brew

Innis & Gunn Toasted Oak IPA is an exceptional brew. Matured for 41 days in over lightly toasted American “Oakerators”, which apparently means a huge jar similar to a big coffee pot. Instead of coffee grounds there are American oak chips in contact with the malt. The hops used with this Indian Pale Ale are Goldings, Styrian Goldings. The hops are added in unique way, large quantities of hops are being of added at three separate times during brewing.

Scoring

Like I’ve stated before, usually every beer worth getting a review from a novice like me, has been worth the full ten points. This is no exception, remarkable IPA.