Tasting Notes: Bushmills 16 Year

Bushmills 16 Year (Irish Single Malt Whiskey: 16 years: 40% ABV)

Visual: Deep, rich gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Pencil shavings to dry oak. Gin. Tart grapes. Light menthol. Dry cumin spice. Water adds shortbread and mild ginger.

Body: Tingling. Apples. Dry Madeira cake. Green grapes. Suet. Dry oak. Turmeric spice. Water adds more sour grapes and orange skin.

Finish: Dry oak. Milky chocolate. Light earthy spice. Water adds lightly oily. Slight bitter character. Suet.

Conclusion: This feels like the spicy take on Bushmills, if that makes sense. With the ageing used I was expecting the dark fruit to be dominant, and while those notes are there, what seems to really define it is the range of spice it shows.

There is distinct apples and green fruit notes that, along with the sheen to the spirit, feels like the base Bushmills character showing. It has a slightly light feel, which Bushmills often does, but with a suet character and Madeira cake showing those darker fruit notes I allude to earlier and that does help offset the lighter side.

What really shows though is a bunch of gently dry to earthy spice notes that make this a much more grounded dram than I would usually expect from a Bushmills. It is decent enough, but spicy drams have rarely been my favourite style and often goes against the easy drink Bushmills character I enjoy. That may be why this is the Bushmills expression I have returned to the least.

Fine, but not really my thing.

Background: Ok this is incredibly good value. I picked up a set of mini Bushmills from The Whisky shop. It had 3 cl of Bushmills 10,16,21, Causeway Collection 2000 Port cask, 1997 Rum cask and 1991 Madeira cask. For 30 quid. The 1991 Madeira cask goes for 695 quid a bottle, which works out at just short of 30 quid for 3cl of that alone! I have no freaking clue how they sell this for 30 pounds. Any which way, a must grab for me. I’ve already done notes on 10, 21 and Causeway 2000, so this is the first one I tried which I had not done notes on yet. The 1991 and 1997 are still to try. I am a huge Bushmills fan, they were one of the first whiskies I properly got into back in the day. Then ten year is no longer the favourite it once was, but still a dram I enjoy. I’ve not had the 16 year much, it is matured in Oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, then finished in port pines for nine months. Went with Misfits: Walk Among Us as background music for this.

Tasting Notes: Elusive: Triple Oregon Trail

Elusive: Triple Oregon Trail (England: IIPA: 10% ABV)

Visual: Pale, light yellow gold. Thin white head that leaves suds. Slightest haze to the body.

Nose: Jelly babies. Apple chewy sweets. Orange juice. Lightly resinous. Peach. Grapes.

Body: Oily. Kiwi. Resinous. Pineapple. Slightly dry but sweet. Peach. Medium hop bitterness. Quite thick. Fruit syrup. Vanilla fudge. Lightly sherbety mouthfeel. Mandarin orange. Jelly sweets.

Finish: Jolly rancher hard sweets. Grapefruit. Resinous. Oily bitterness. Light charring. Mandarin orange. Drying. Good bitterness.

Conclusion: West Coast – triple – IPA. An interesting mix. Triple IPAs are generally fucking malt bombs in order to get their high abv going. West coast IPAs tend to be well attenuated and dry with high bitterness. Not an impossible match, but always an interesting one.

This opens so jelly sweet like in the aroma, so the first time I encountered it I was worried it was going to forsake the west coast IPA style. It was very fruity, very jelly sweets. However it did have a good resinous note, so there was a promise of a good hop range, but I was worried it was going to end up much sweeter than I wanted and more east coast style.

So, luckily I was wrong. The body is kind of fruit syrup sweet, but despite that manages to still have a dryness that lets the bitterness play. It is lovely and resinous and oily in the body, leading into a bruising kick of hops in the finish. It isn’t super attenuated, but they definitely have enough that you can still call it a west coast.

The body somehow keeps some of those jelly sweets and fruit syrup flavours despite the dryness, with lots of pineapple and peach freshening it up nicely.

The finish is where it really nails it. Bitter, resinous, now with grapefruit freshness rather than the pineapple style which makes it sparkle more, and west coast dry rather than jelly sweet. Which all gives the perfect end to a bitter, resinous, oily punch.

I’ve respected and enjoyed most of Elusive’s varied takes on Oregon Trail, but this takes the difficult to do west coast TIPA and made it work and with that gained my respect so much. It nailed it so well.

Background: I love me some west coast IPAs and Elusive have done a solid range of different takes on them. I, however do not think I have encountered a west coast Triple IPA before. I would have to search to check, but I think this may be a new one on me. Well, depending on definition – at 10% ABV it lines up with few west coasts I’ve had that call themselves double IPAs or just Imperial IPAs, but any which way sounds fun. Grabbed from Independent Spirit a few times before I finally did notes on it, I kept returning so I already knew , barring a horrible batch accident, that I was going to have fun with this one. Decided to go for some lovely Sisters Of Mercy: Floodland as music to back it, I knew I was going to have a good time, so some cool tunes would make it all the more cool.

Tasting Notes: Ilkley: Mary Jane

Ilkley: Mary Jane (England: English Pale Ale: 3.4% ABV)

Visual: Pale, clear, light gold body. Some small bubbled carbonation. Thin white dash of a head.

Nose: Flour. Dry bitterness. Kumquat. Sharp lime. Sour dough. Dry lemon.

Body: Nettles. Prickly. Lightly oily. Palma violets. Dry orange. Slightly peppery. Lemon juice.

Finish: Flour. Dry bitterness. Peppery. Lightly oily. Light raspberry. Carrot and coriander. Lemon juice.

Conclusion: This beer took a while to grow on me. Initially it seemed to suffer from the curse that affect many more hopped, moderate abv beers, where they can come across too dry and so the bitterness becomes too harsh and the flavours less evident.

Over time a dry, pleasant lemon note comes out, along with other, still dry, citrus notes. It grows to a very pleasant lemon juice style that is very drinkable and works brilliantly against the harsher bitterness elements.

It still has some flour like dry character which can get a bit sticky, so not perfect, but it has improved massively from my first impression. It also gets some soft raspberry and other lightly tart flavours helping to round it out.

Overall, not bad, not stand out but doesn’t fall to the worst of the flaws this style that it could have – it flirted with them early on but managed to move away from that to something pretty decent.

Background: Another beer from the X-Mas visit up to see the family. Crap, I have been rubbish at putting these notes up. By memory Ilkley have been pretty good at doing more traditional British beer styles, but it has been a while since I tried anything from them, so they may have pivoted focus since then. Erm, not much else to say. Chilled up north, checked out what new bars had opened since I last visited. Had a good time.

Tasting Notes: Isle Of Harris: The Hearach: 1st Release

Isle Of Harris: The Hearach: 1^st Release: HE00002 23 (Scottish Island Single Malt Whisky: 5 Years: 46% ABV)

Visual: Pale gold. Fast, thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Juniper. Madeira cakes. Green grapes. Vanilla. Alcohol air. Water adds tart grapes. Menthol.

Body: Green grapes. Raisins. Boozy alcohol. Fruitcake. Cherries. Vanilla fudge. Slight custard. Sherry soak raspberries. Slight sour grapes. Water brings crushed grape pulp. Crumpets. Cough syrup.

Finish: Dry fudge. Green grapes. Sherry soaked raisins. Water adds slight sour grapes. Honeycomb. Crumpets. Palma violets.

Conclusion: Well, this is another one that changed a lot with time to air. Initially it seemed, well, fine, a touch alcohol touched with youth but generally fairly standard. It felt like a kind of Highland like whisky with no real stand out elements. Good for its age but nothing special.

Soooo … time has changed it quite a bit from then. I don’t think I can see the whisky I would have described like that any more.

Now it still has the alcohol evident from its youth, though less than you would expect for 5 years old and 46% ABV. There is a base of toffee and fudge sweetness but that is where the resemblance to the spirit before ends.

Instead there is now a strange grape and juniper character that is slightly sour and slightly sweet in a mashed up fruit way, creating a fresh and odd character.

Then you get darker fruit, with Madeira and sherry soaked fruit, making a little dance through the thing. Not a heavy showing but just giving a richer character so the odd sour sweet grape notes don’t dominate and become unwelcome. Over a longer drink the fresher notes still can get a bit much, but they work for a single dram.

I’m not 100% sold on it yet, water opens it up but some cough syrup like unwelcome notes also come in. It has promise but is not a must have as is, just an interesting oddity so far.

Background: This is the first release from a new Distillery and, I don’t think I’m being unfair to say the really are trying to get the most out of their first release. As well as being a first release, they have split it up into eight different batches, each with different codes – I presume to get the real collectors hunting for HE00001 23 which would be the very first batch. Me I’m happy with batch 2, which is, as far as I am aware, the lowest batch released outside the distillery itself. Looking at the web site, it looks like each batch is made with identical ingredients, barrel ageing, etc, with the only difference being bottling dates and exact number of bottles in the batch size. Unless I missed something. At 5 years old it is held for a bit longer than a lot of new distilleries first release – which often come at the three year age that is the legal minimum. Still quite young. Ageing is mostly in Bourbon casks with 21% in Heaven Hill and 64% of Buffalo Trace, with a much less at 11% of Oloroso and 4% of Fino for the sherry. No chill filtering or colouring. This was grabbed from Independent Spirit before this batch quickly vanishes. Drunk while listening to Butcher Babies: ‘Til The World’s Blind. I found the band as a warm up for Fear Factory and very much enjoyed them – though they overloaded the mic wires and blew it out twice. Amusing for us, probably less so for them as they tried to fix it. The box for this looks super pretty but is very impractical – if you grab it wrong when picking it up the whole thing will fold open and ditch your precious whisky to the ground.

Tasting Notes: Wold Top: Marmalade Porter

Wold Top: Marmalade Porter (England: Porter: 5% ABV)

Visual: Opaque black. Some small bubbled carbonation. Cinder toffee hued inch of a head that leaves suds.

Nose: Cocoa dust. Marmalade. Jif lemon. Crushed nuts.

Body: Quite thick. Chunky marmalade. Sour dough. Lime jelly. Nettles. Lightly prickling. Toffee. Light charring.

Finish: Crushed bourbon biscuits. Lemon on pancakes. Marmalade on white bread. Lightly earthy bitterness and hop character. Vanilla toffee. Cocoa dust. Peppery.

Conclusion: This really does have a tangy citrus character, and all of it done by the hops from the look of it rather than by messing around with adding extra ingredients to the porter. I am impressed with it so far.

There is a mix of marmalade, lime and lemon all showing themselves over the dark and lightly charred body. Lots of cocoa dust shows itself top and tail, but mid body there is a just a dark charred character that gives weight behind the tarter citrus notes.

It makes for a very solid, weighty beer, but with a remarkably tangy character to it. It reminds me a bit of the brighter hop styled black IPAs that I have enjoyed over the years, though this leans more into the thick, porter side of things.

Around that base there is a grounding earthy hop character – this beer is never super sweet, with only some toffee notes doing the work on that side, and the chocolate character coming across more as bitter cocoa dust than anything sweet – but the bright tangy citrus definitely benefits from a moderate earthy bitterness to contrast and ground.

Overall a solid, quite thick porter with lovely fresh citrus for something unusual without abandoning the base beer. A very nice slow sipper.

Background: Gosh darn been just over a decade since I did notes on a Wold Top beer, and same as last time I was back with the family up north and they had got some beers in for me to enjoy while there, of which this was one. Many thanks. Last beer was pretty good as well, the Wold Top Gold. Was quite interested in this one, called a Marmalade Porter as it is, but with no added ingredients, so I presume everything done with the hops. I approve. I like extra ingredients as a treat, but I respect a brewery that tries to fun things with just the standard four as it shows a real level of skill and knowledge.