Innis & Gunn Releases New Oak-Aged Seasonal Beer

Edinburgh, Scotland (August 27, 2015) – Innis & Gunn, the award-winning independent

Edinburgh brewer of oak-aged beers, is now releasing a new fall seasonal beer in the United

States.

Making its US debut, White Oak Wheat Beer is a hybrid creation that combines classic

European beers with a modern twist and Innis & Gunn’s wood-aging methods.

Inspired by Germany’s krystallweizen style, White Oak Wheat is a filtered wheat beer brewed

with ale and lager malts and a large amount of malted wheat. To take the beer to new places,

the Innis & Gunn team added dried peel from 3,000 bergamot oranges the staff purchased and

zested by hand at the Innis & Gunn headquarters in Edinburgh.

The orange zest was then dried and added to the beer to impart restrained citrus & spice notes

that call to mind Earl Grey tea, which is also made with dried bergamot peels. The beer was

fermented with Innis & Gunn’s house ale yeast to avoid the clove and spicy notes of some

European wheat beers and make room for the beer’s orange notes to shine. 

White Oak Wheat Beer (6.4% ABV) was then aged on American white oak in one of the

company’s Oakerator wood-aging devices before maturing for about 63 days before its release.

To emphasize and compliment the beer’s citrus notes, I&G brewers added a dose of blood

orange juice to the beer during its maturation stage.

The result is a novel and refreshing wheat beer with subtle aromas and flavors of wheat,

oranges and spice, paired with gentle notes of American white oak and a clean finish. The beer

is available in fourpacks of 11.2 ounce glass bottles, and in 15.5 gallon kegs.

The beer was created by I&G founder Dougal Sharp and I&G quality & sensory manager

Rachel Sutherland, who also oversaw the zesting process for the beer

Sharp says the beer fills a niche in his brewery’s beer list. “We’re fans of German and Belgian

wheat beers,” he says, “but we wanted to put our own stamp on the style. This beer combines

our favorite attributes of those two styles and adds a few style-advancing twists.”

“The bergamot and blood oranges,” Sharp says, “are an alternative to the lemon and bitter

orange notes typical in wheat beers. The oak aging is a very unique feature for a wheat beer,

and it adds understated structure and depth to the beer.”  

White Oak Wheat Beer is now appearing in stores and establishments in the 20+ US states

where I&G beers are sold. (Currently AL, CT, FL, GA, IL, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, NH, NJ,

NV, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, and VT.)

Dougal Sharp is a craft beer pioneer in his native Scotland and grew up in breweries there. At

14 he began doing grunt work in Edinburgh’s famed Caledonian Brewery, which was founded

by his father, Russell Sharp.

He eventually worked up to a brewer position while earning a chemistry degree in college.

Sharp soon revamped the brewery’s recipes and his efforts resulted in numerous UK medals

including top UK IPA for Caledonian’s Deuchars IPA.  Sharp also helped to rebuild the brewery

after two devastating fires.

In 2002 Sharp was asked by William Grant distillers to create a distinctive beer for seasoning

oak 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 Innis & Gunn

in 2003 to focus on oak-aged beers.

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 enjoyed 30% average annual growth over the past two years.

In July, Innis & Gunn’s three core beers — Original, Rum Aged and Toasted Oak IPA all won

medals in the 2015 U.S. Open Beer Championships. These beers are made with Innis &

Gunn’s house ale yeast, aged on various types of oak (including some infused with spirits), then

aged at cool lager-like temperatures for an especially smooth body and quaffable character.

Learn more about these three award-winning beers and Innis & Gunn’s other acclaimed beers

at www.innisandgunn.com . 

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