I don’t like sour beers. This Rodenbach Grand Cru Flanders Red Ale from Belgium is a sour beer. I didn’t like it either. The time cask aging doesn’t fix it. But the website says this is a “specialist beer aimed more at experts” if you wanted to read some pretentious trash on a Saturday. I […]
Dominion City Brewing in Ottawa does a lot of interesting stuff, but Davey and I couldn’t agree on whether this was one of them. As stouts go, it’s great for people who don’t like stouts. Whether it’s for you is yours to discover, here’s what we thought: nose Davey – 70% dark chocolate, acai Simon […]
This one is going to be a very short review. We had this beer with Christmas dinner (not quite 6 months ago), so we weren’t able to take traditional notes. I was hoping for something that might cut the savoury with enough structure and flavours of its own to compete. The Collective Arts Bourbon Barrel […]
We don’t usually do wine here on iScotch but my buddy Davey started working at the Wine… Shop? Store? Wine Bunker..? Nono, the Wine-o-Rama, in the Sobey’s on Metcalfe. He gave me some great recommendations for wines for gifts/supplies over the holidays. Black Cellar Whisky Oak Aged Shiraz-Cabarnet Blend #5 comes highly recommended. Davey says […]
The Continuing Weird Beer Adventures Of Innis & Gunn – Don’s Choice Black IPA with Coconut & Rhubarb. The definition of too many things – a barrel-aged black IPA with coconut & rhubarb which is the result of a “landslide” winning contest suggestion from a Canadian, the aforementioned Don. I think I know a hundred […]
The Innis & Gunn Completionist Blog That Also Sometimes Drinks Whisky Chapter Several Dozen – 15 Barrel Aged Double IPA. This is kind of unfair because I don’t like IPAs but no one else is here. The 15 (pronounced fif-teen, like the number) marks 15 years of barrel aging beer at Innis & Gunn. The […]
Most completistisming going one here. We had the VP01. So therefore we must have Innis & Gunn’s Vanishing Point VP02 or how will we know.. anything? How will we know we even exist unless we experience two similar things and observe their subjective differences over linear time? I ASK YOU. Last year’s beer was only […]
This one’s going to be a little messy. Steph, Dan & I reviewed the Founder’s Original – Dan discovered he does not like Old Fashioneds and bowed out of the Barchef review – fair dinkum. Steph suggested we have some people by – these things are made for parties. So we invited some interesting Ottawa […]
Another big bottled, high abv, milestone-celebrating weird beer here, with a twist – it’s actually good! A lot of times these large format beers can be.. um.. challenging. A lot of hops to make big flavour can make something undrinkable or a lot of yeast to kick up the alcohol content can make things a […]
Add another Innis & Gunn to the roster – Longitude & Latitude Series 001, the Barrel Aged Raspberry Saison. This was a great drink, somehow managing to be 6% and full flavoured while remaining exceptionally light. Hard to drink a case at $5 a pop but hey, that’s not good for you anyway. Here’s what […]
Quick little review with the family while I’m on the road in Vancouver. My sister bought a pre-St Paddy’s Day treat, Innis & Gunn Kindred Spirits Tullamore DEW Barrel Aged Stout for my brother in law and I to try (she did smell it and pronounced it “coffee I wouldn’t drink”). We’ve had Innis […]
Missed last week, Christmas and all. Sorry about that. Had a lovely break, and looking forward to some good drinks tonight. Innis & Gunn Spiced Rum Aged Porter is not one of them. And this is not just a by-product of my not liking rum – Steve digs rum and he gave this a lower […]
Hadn’t seen Vanni in a while and he swung by for birthday drinks with this interesting bottle. Thanks Vanni! Merlot Barrel-Aged Earnscliffe ESB from Dominion City! So many things! We have steered around the wine barrel-aged stuff in the past, having experienced a few examples where the cask overpowered the contents. Getting it right should “just” […]
A quick little review this week, folks, and one that is probably long overdue. Innis & Gunn Rum Finish: once, many years ago, I brushed this aside with an “I don’t like it”, largely because of its rum barrel aging and my distinct distaste for rum in general. I wasn’t being assumptive; I did try […]
Harviestoun Òrach Slie Glenfarclas Cask Aged Golden Ale – so many words. Dan & I have had a Harviestoun before, their Ola Dubh. At the time it was advertised as being aged in Highland Park barrels, but the website doesn’t mention it now. The Òrach Slie is of course the same but in Glenfarclas barrels. We haven’t […]
This is pretty awesome. John at Cooper’s contacted me to see if we’d be interested in giving whisky cask aged coffee a taste. It’s one of those happy coincidences that Dan is a coffeehouse manager and a competitive barista to boot. So we said hell yes. The parcel arrived from Rhode Island with that bag […]
Great Lakes Brewery Beard of Zeus Barrel-Aged Barley Wine. It’s a name whose length is only bested by how long I’ve been meaning to post this review – there just always seemed to be something better to talk about. I believe Ryan picked this up for us to try. We cracked it open and had […]
Bourbon-aged beer – truly it is a promise of great taste. This is the Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout, a nice little post-New Year’s cask aged beer. It’s aged in unspecified Kentucky bourbon barrels for an unspecified amount of time. And for some reason there’s a planetary model of an atom on the front, […]
There are times when I’ll cop to being suckered by marketing. Big velvety blue box, OAK AGED emblazoned on the side, gold leaf script fonts, damn son, two please. While not just a gimmick, it’s pretty gimmicky. The oak the beer is aged in is old VSOP armagnac casks. We didn’t know either, just click […]
Picked up these two bottles of Radical Road Canny Man scotch whisky cask aged beers. Radical Road’s web presence seems to be limited to a Twitter account, so I can’t give you much more info than that they’re from Toronto. What scotch barrels they’ve aged their beer in would be good to know. As beer […]
File this under “about goddamned time” – Innis & Gunn finally realized that a bag of bottles is not a classy way to take their product home and have put out a 6 pack. Only found Original so far, but maybe they’ll make another sampler pack with me having to wait until Christmas. You can […]
Man, I cannot get enough of this stuff. Aged in casks of other booze, Innis & Gunn beer takes on a lot of really interesting flavours. I’ve tried four of the line: Original (excellent with oaky hints, on the right), Blonde (pretty much the same as Original, only less so, in the middle), Rum Cask […]
