Innis & Gunn

The Scottish brewery Innis & Gunn is known far beyond the borders of Great Britain for its barrel-aged beer. But the brewers at Innis & Gunn can do much more than that, their lager is Scotland's most popular craft lager and their Blood Red Sky is simply amazing. And it's not just the Scots who like the beers - we're also enthusiastic about the creations from the Innis & Gunn Brewery! There's also such a curious story behind the brewery's beer that you just have to love it.

Knight in hoppy armor

The fact that Innis & Gunn are now the leaders in barrel-aged beers is thanks to a happy coincidence. In 2002, a well-known whisky distiller needed help: in order to develop an innovative type of whisky, the whisky distiller needed flavored oak barrels. These were to have the full-bodied malt character of a beer, which would then be passed on to the whisky that matured in them for several years. All previous attempts to get the beer flavor into the whisky failed. Expert Dougal Gunn Sharp decided to actively support the desperate whisky maker and with combined expertise a recipe was developed, beer was brewed and finally bottled in the appropriate barrels. The barrels had 30 days to take on the characteristic beer aroma before the beer was drained and the whisky was filled. This time the experiment was successful and the whisky distiller's efforts were rewarded with an excellent whisky.

So far so good.

Cheers to curiosity!

The really amazing part of the story comes now. Around ten months after the cooperation with the whisky distillery, an unexpected call came. The distillery workers had not thrown away the beer after storing it in the oak barrels, but had instead taken a sip or two of it. And they were delighted! In an almost symbiotic process, not only had the oak barrels taken on the taste of the beer, the beer had also taken on the characteristic aroma of the oak barrels. The end result was an incredibly drinkable beer with a very special taste that Dougal Gunn Sharp did not want to withhold from the world. That was the birth of Innis & Gunn and one of the greatest coincidences in the history of beer.

Who knows what would have happened if the distillery workers hadn't been so curious? We drink an original to calm our nerves and are happy that chance was on our side!