Innis & Gunn White Oak Wheat Beer with Dan, Goran & Steve

The last of the new Innis & Gunn (for now) is their White Oak Wheat Beer. This is.. well, it’s a wheat beer over white oak, but maybe you figured that out. It’s also a flavoured beer, as it’s been infused with bergamot and orange. If you’re not familiar with bergamot, it’s that flavour in Earl Grey tea you can’t place.

According to their website, North American white oak has more vanillin that its Eurotrash cousin, and so imparts more vanilla flavours into the beer. The oak is also infused with Bourbon because it’s American, I guess. There’s probably a lot of little steps in making a beer with this many moving parts consistently taste the same. Here’s what we thought:

colour
Dan – apple juice
Simon – apple cider
Goran – classic blonde
Steve – canned apple juice

nose
Dan – apple, sweet, crisp pear
Simon – minty hops, apple sweet
Goran – green apple
Steve – apple vinegar

taste
Dan – honey sweetness, thicker than expected
Simon – light, crisp, very bright, sturdy for lightness, good
Goran – heavy body, balanced but succinct sweetness
Steve – flat shocktop

finish
Dan – clean, slight bitter
Simon – v clean, short sweet
Goran – v clean, no bite, short
Steve – clean, sweet

overall – not visually a wheat beer, filling and tastes good
Dan – 8.25/10
Simon – 8/10
Goran – 8.5/10
Steve – 7.5/10

Innis & Gunn White Oak Wheat Beer – 6.4% 330ml – $3.50 – Scotland

Try it? Yes! Buy it? Yes.