Trust

Innis & Gunn does not feature frequently on these pages: it's over four years since the last mention, and a further two for the one before that. And that's with good reason: I don't particularly like the beers. Indeed, I'm more likely to invoke the name in a review of something I didn't enjoy than actually pick one off a shelf and drink it. But all opinion, however non-prejudical, must be tested from time to time, and when a raft of new and inexpensive I&G beers arrived into the local supermarket, I thought it only fair to give them a shake and see what fell out.

I have no idea where they're brewed these days. You can probably look it up. The packaging, as always, gave no indication.

Innis & Gunn Session IPA was first, a 4.6%-er in a smart little blue can. The bold claim is that this has all the flavours of an American west coast IPA without the heat or bitterness. The only nod towards America in the appearance was the watery Bud-yellow colour with poor head retention to match. The aroma is quite fun and fruity, hinting at zesty citrus chew sweets. The foretaste that followed was properly charming: a clean and tangy mix of mango and lemon, balancing sweet tropicality with bitter zest. And all hop too: no interfering crystal malt. It falls down on the finish, however, fading much too quickly to a galvanic metallic bitterness and then tailing off into wateriness. This shows a lot in common with other industrial breweries' attempts at doing down-with-the-kids hoppy stuff. It's fine, and at least it's not a big buttery mess.

Longtime readers may have noticed that "gunpowder" is one of my favourite descriptors. I associate it with the spicy saltpetre flavour of geuze in particular. I wasn't expecting that profile from I&G's Gunnpowder IPA but was intrigued nonetheless. The ABV jumps to 5.6% and it's a much more substantial-looking deep and hazy orange. Orange is a theme, doubtless due to the Mandarina Bavaria hops: an orangeade aroma, leading to a sherbet-dip flavour. What it's missing is bitterness, and the fruit candy gets quite cloying quite quickly. When the sugar fades there's more of that tinny thing. Again it's not actively unpleasant but just misses the mark on depth and quality.

We'll pop out for a moment, to Wetherspoon, where they have Mangoes on the Run, allegedly a limited edition. It's 5.6% ABV and claiming to have been brewed as a fruity IPA, then having extra tropical fruit added in. A clear amber colour, there's not much aroma from it, just a vague aspirin metallic thing. Metal is the new butterscotch, it seems. There's a lot of alcopop about the flavour; a sticky syrup sweetness. The base beer is largely absent. I guess some of that stickiness is malt-derived, but it's really hard to tell. Nothing about it suggested hops to me. Another sigh, and we move on.

By now I'm missing the buttery old I&G. A rum barrel red ale ought to deliver the goods: codename Blood Red Sky. It's red all right, the tawny shade of dried blood, so there's a certain accuracy there. There's a strong splintery wood element to the flavour at first, and oaky vanilla in particular, of course. I also get a diesel sharpness of the sort found in dark rum, giving it quite a pleasant spirituous edge. There's a kind of nutty cola effect providing a base sweetness, finishing dry and fizzy, and again indecently fast. While fun to begin with, it gets a bit boring after a while. It avoids being sickly and sugary, but is perhaps a little thin and dry for a barrel-aged beer at 6.8% ABV. Like the I&G of old, there's no subtlety; no integration of spirit, barrel and beer in the way you get from breweries who are good at this.

It's a positive move that Innis & Gunn has diversified away from the barrel stuff, and the fresh hop-forward beers are much better than the usual stock in trade. All of it is second-tier quality, though.