Irish Whiskey Cask Stout from Innis & Gunn Brewery

By Don

So, we headed off to Cleveland for Easter this year to celebrate with my wife's family.

Still in search of some more Very Mad Cow Stout from Revolution Brewing out of Chicago, I thought I would check in Cleveland.  I saw on the Revolution website that they had a distributor in Cleveland.

I didn't have a lot of time so I only went down to the beer and wine store near my InLaws house.

No luck.

But while I was there, I thought I'd look around and see if anything jumped out at me.

And then I saw it.

On the top shelf, I spotted a 4-pack of Innis & Gunn's "Irish Cask."  Innis & Gunn is a brewer from Edinburgh, Scotland.  Irish Cask is an Oak Aged Beer.  It's a Scottish Stout matured in rare Irish Whiskey Barrels.  Sounds interesting!

I grabbed the 4-pack and went up to the counter.  As I was checking out, the guy behind the counter said, "Have you tried the Kentucky Bourbon Ale?" Then, he went off to retrieve it from the cooler.  My father-in-law said, "I'll get that one for you."  More on that one later.

Irish Cask pours to a nice chocolate brown with a foamy head that dissipated quickly, but left a thin coating on the top throughout my tasting.  Of course, with the whiskey element, there's good lacing left on the sides of the glass.

The aroma of this one isn't overwhelming.  I detected faint hints of whiskey, vanilla & chocolate.

This one has a sweet chocolatey taste with hints of vanilla and caramel.  It's "oaky" and is really smooth.  Not much carbonation at all.  Good feeling going down your throat.  I felt like it was "thin" for a stout, but that wasn't a bad thing.

This would make a great after dinner, sipping, dessert beer.

7.4% ABV.

Great stuff from Scotland!

Cheers!