I don't remember why I thought to buy a bottle of Innis & Gunn Triple Matured last October. As I recall it was relatively expensive at £3 for 33cl, and I didn't particularly like the original Innis & Gunn. Plus I'm always a bit stand-offish about contract-brewed beers which don't state clearly where they're made. Anyway, I came home from Newry with it and it's been sitting about the house ever since. Time to bite the oaken bullet.The colour is a rather attractive dark red gold, and the nose is enticing, packed as it is with sweet, rich woody notes. The fun doesn't last long, however. Even from the first sip the sweet-sour oakiness is just too much -- filling the palate with nasty cloying flavours, with none of the subtle fruit or toffee promised on the box. There's some pleasant warmth from the high alcohol, but also a bit of a nasty stale cardboard buzz as well. And then it just stops: after swallowing there is no virtually no aftertaste. I'm amazed that such a whoppingly overflavoured ale, possessed of 7.2% ABV, is completely legless.
It's certainly a complex beer, but only a small proportion of its many elements are any way positive. Perhaps I would have been better off with some of what Lars had.
