Edinburgh: Innis & Gunn launches 20th anniversary beer
The Original: XX Edition was launched two decades after the Edinburgh-based company’s announcement, featuring a groundbreaking beer that had been aged in oak casks formerly used for single malt Scotch whiskey.
The casks for the new 7.7% ABV beer were laid down that same year, 2003, and contained a rare 20 year old Speyside single malt filled with the original XX beer.
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Dougal Sharp, Founder and Brewmaster of Innis & Gunn said: “Introducing The Original in 2003 by aging our beer in single malt whiskey casks seemed like an act of revolution.
“The interaction of beers with oak had all sorts of historical antecedents, but it seemed that none of these brewers wanted the taste of the oak barrel to affect the taste of the final beer.”
“I wanted the opposite. After all, if oak of different origins and fillings can add so much complexity and intrigue to whiskeys and wines, why shouldn’t the same be true for beer?”
“Twenty years after the launch of Innis & Gunn, we are aging this celebratory beer in casks using a twenty-year-old Speyside whiskey of real elegance. And with this limited edition Innis & Gunn Original, we have created an extraordinary marriage of beer and oak.”
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Innis & Gunn was formed in 2003 as a partnership between Mr Sharp and William Grant & Sons, shortly after Mr Sharp, a former head brewer at Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery, came up with the idea of aging beer in bourbon casks. In 2008 he bought the Scotch whiskey distillery.
Celebrating the brewery’s 20th anniversary, the beer is said to have a distinctive smooth body with notes of vanilla, toffee and spicy oak. The beer is available online from Innis & Gunn from today and is priced at £6 per 330ml bottle.
