Feature Beer Friday: Innis & Gunn's Bourbon Barrel Porter

By Eric Ducote

Good morning everyone on this Labor Day weekend!  I'm still at work for today, then headed out on vacation, but don't worry, there's a Wakey Whiskey coming for you all on Sunday.  Just because it's football season though and the whiskey is flowing doesn't mean the Feature Beer Friday posts have to stop.  I can multi-task pretty well it turns out. Today's #FeatureBeerFriday is coming to us from Innis & Gunn out of Scotland, and I believe it's my first international beer to be featured. Innis & Gunn features a wide lineup of craft-focused beers as well as three brewpubs throughout Scotland.  

This particular beer from Innis & Gunn is their Bourbon Barrel Porter.  It comes in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles, which I found recently at my local Rouse's store but should be in other stores around town with a good craft and international selection.  It's 7.4% with an undisclosed IBU, but I wouldn't expect too much hop pressence from a porter to begin with and even less after some barrel aging.  

Innis & Gunn's Bourbon Barrel Porter with a cameo from The Adorable Bentley.

The beer pours exactly how I would expect, a deep brown color with a finger or so of off-white head.  The aroma is sweet, with notes of toffee and chocolate, and just a hint of bourbon and the familiar vanilla notes.  The taste is incredibly smooth, layers of flavor including toffee, vanilla, dark chocolate, and bourbon, but none particularly stand out and dominate, giving it the complexity they claim, but maybe without a crazy amount of richness.  It's actually not a bad thing at all as too heavy in one facet or another could throw this well balanced beer completely out of whack.  

I know the USA tends to be thought of (with good reason) as the world leader when it comes to craft beer, but this offering out of Scotland shows that we aren't the only country putting out a quality product.  Cheers, enjoy your holiday weekend, and Geaux Tigers!