Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout (Scotland) 7.4%

Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout (Scotland) 7.4%

This beer is very much a stout; dark and nearly opaque in a glass, Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout has strong elements of chocolate, coffee and smoke from the darkly roasted malt in the taste and the aroma. The task is quite sweet but there is a earthiness (peat?), a bit of a nutty flavour in there as well as wood notes, something red and caramelized and a bitter, lightly smoked taste that lends balance. At 7.4% there is also a cheek-tingling high alcohol feeling though the alcohol does not show up too much in the taste.

Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout is an excellent high alcohol stout, the only knock against it (if you can call it that) is that it doesn't stand out from the pack quite so much as one might expect. Innis and Gunn's more unique, and delicious, offerings are barrel tone heavy versions of their respective styles; Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout, however, is clearly a stout with some barrel tones, not the other way around. If you like other high alcohol stouts, like Russian Imperial Stouts, you'll probably like this easy drinking (dangerously easy drinking) version of a high alcohol stout (like a Russian Imperial Stout without the hoppy bitterness). On the other hand, if you find some of Innis and Gunns other beers too sweet or you don't like the strong flavour imparted by the barrel aging process you may find Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout to your liking.