Edinburgh, Scotland – Innis & Gunn, the award-winning independent Edinburgh brewer of oak-aged beers, has won three medals in the 2015 U.S. Open Beer Championships.
The winners for the 2015 judging were announced earlier this month. The contest received nearly 4,000 beer and cider entries from around the world, representing 90 different styles.
Innis & Gunn’s Rum Aged won a gold medal in the judging’s Wood/Barrel Aged Dark Beer category.
In the contest’s Wood/Barrel Aged Pale Beer bracket, Innis & Gunn’s Toasted Oak IPA won a silver medal, and the brewery’s Innis & Gunn Original won a bronze medal.
Now in its seventh year, the Oxford, Ohio based beer judging welcomed breweries from over 20 nations including Australia, China, Czech Republic, Venezuela, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, England and the United States.
Judges hailed from England, Canada and the United States.
“Our goal,” says Innis & Gunn founder and CEO Dougal Sharp, “is a complex but very drinkable wood-aged beer, one that pairs historic brewing practices with modern-day innovation and a lot of time and patience. To have our beers recognized by the judges in the U.S. Open Beer Championships is brilliant news. It’s a fantastic ‘thumbs up’ for our efforts.”
Innis & Gunn Original is the company’s firstborn brew, its accidental discovery led to the brewery’s start in 2003. An amber Scottish ale of 6.6% ABV, it’s made with pale and crystal malts, unmalted wheat and Super Styrian hops. It’s a blend of barrel-aged beer and beer aged for 77 days on bourbon-infused oak in the company’s patented Oakerator wood-aging device. It features subtle ale/fruit esters, notes of biscuity malt, light caramel, vanilla and oak, all in a creamy bodied beer. It also features the signature fine carbonation and well-hidden alcohol level of all Innis & Gunn beers. Awards for Original include a prestigious Grand Gold at the Monde Selection Awards in 2012, an honor reserved for high-quality beers that have won Monde Selection gold medals for at least three consecutive years.
Innis & Gunn Rum Aged is a ruby red ale built with pale, crystal and chocolate malts and a small amount of roasted barley. It is matured for 57 days in an Oakerator over oak heartwood infused with specially selected rums. It’s a spicy, quaffable oak-aged beer with flavors of malt, turbinado sugar, rum, oak and vanilla. It is 6.6 % ABV. In 2012 Rum Aged also won a prestigious Grand Gold at the Monde Selection Awards for having earned gold medals there for three consecutive years.
Toasted Oak India Pale Ale is refreshing UK-style IPA built with pale malts, a dash of wheat, and classic British hops in three additions, including a post-boil hopping. It features restrained (by US IPA standards) hop flavour and bitterness, and notes of fresh-cut grass and grapefruit. These charms meld with light notes of oak and vanilla. Toasted Oak IPA is aged on lightly toasted oak chips in an Oakerator for over 40 days. Its deft balance of malt, hops and oak calls to mind an IPA from the UK’s nineteenth century. It’s 5.6 % ABV.
All three of these beers are made with Innis & Gunn’s proprietary base malt and ale yeast. The beers are fermented at cooler, lager-like temperatures for an especially smooth body and character.
Learn more about these three award-winning beers and Innis & Gunn’s other acclaimed beers at www.innisandgunn.com
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About Innis & Gunn
Launched in 2003, Innis & Gunn was born from a very fortunate discovery. The year before, brewer Dougal Sharp was asked by William Grant distillers to create a distinctive beer for seasoning whisky barrels for a special whisky. After distillery workers alerted him to the wondrous taste of the beer being drained from the barrels after seasoning, Sharp launched the company.
Innis & Gunn has won a multitude of awards for its unique range of oak-aged beers. The company employs over 50 people globally and has been recognized for its contribution to industry by winning the IGD Outstanding Small Business of the Year Award in 2013 and collecting two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in International Trade.
Available in over 20 countries, Innis & Gunn is the second-biggest supplier of specialty beer to the UK off-trade, the top bottled imported ale brand in Sweden, and the best-selling British bottled beer brand in Canada. It has enjoyed 30% average annual growth over the past two years.