It's a Scottish beer, aged in whiskey barrels. It is extremely yummy. And currently on sale - and the sale price is "only" about twice the cost of my normal preferred beer (three times the cost of sex-in-a-canoe beer) per bottle.
(Oh, and the bottles of this are 330ml, where a normal bottle is 341. So it's EXPENSIVE beer, but extremely good.)
I never understood the attraction. I've tried a lot of beers (trust me, I was stationed in Germany, I've done beer) and it all tastes universally vile to me. With practice I could probably tell you the difference between, say, a Budweiser and a Guinness and an Innis & Gunn, but it would be like a taste test between asparagus piss and cat wee - doable, but why?
Not like liquor is much better, but at least there I have the same problem. A bottle of $6 vodka isn't any less shitty than a Stolichnaya to my tongue, and liquors I can mix into something that's drinkable which I can't say for beer or wine.
Eh, I've tried just about everything and it's all ick, including scotch. Some are just less ick than others. When I drink, I currently make a lazy-man's Long Island iced tea with equal parts vodka (for alcohol %), tequila (to fuck me up), and triple sec (for taste), then mixed with diet Pepsi (because I like it) on ice, no sour. Suits me just fine.
Beer is, while it has its many shades, beer. Some people don't like it. You're probably one of them. That's fine! Especially if you keep that drink you just described to yourself and leave the beer to the rest of us. It sounds perfectly ghastly.
From what you describe, it's pretty damned near the price of scotch. Well, some scotch. 30-year-old Macallan doesn't count.
I, like lafinjak am a total waste of effort when it comes to beer -- tried a bunch, can't stand any of them. Thus, I have no idea if Flying Dog Brewery's Imperial Gonzo is worth the price. The price being $4.95 a regular-sized bottle, last time I saw it on sale.
"cheap" good Scotch is $40/L. This stuff is ~$10/L
In terms of alcohol content per volume, this is more expensive than scotch, but, then, anything except hard liquor would be.
In more useful terms, which is to say "cost per drink", Innis+Gunn is about 30% cheaper than good Scotch. And, since I actually *prefer* my good Scotch flavour without the 40% alcohol burn, that makes it superior.
Enh. It's all a matter of what one likes or dislikes, in the end. But personally, I consume a far smaller volume of scotch at a time than I do something with the alcohol concentration of beer.
You would not need practice to tell the difference between Budweiser and Guinness, trust me. I am not well-versed in beerworld either, and besides I don't like anything hoppy, which limits me to weak girly wheat beers, and I could tell at first sip.
(Hint: One of them tastes like slightly bitter bread. The other, like slightly flavoured water.)
the sale price is "only" about twice the cost of my normal preferred beer (three times the cost of sex-in-a-canoe beer) per bottle.
Still sounds worth it. I'll happily pay double price for Newcastle Brown Ale or Boddingtons or whatever imported stuff I can get, rather than drink Norwegian pilsner which is already expensive enough. I'd gladly pay even more for the stuff you've got there.
Ha, ha. It is to laugh. You haven't experienced Norwegian alcohol tax.
For a half-litre can of Newkie Brown, I pay something like 28 kroner. That's just above 5 of your Canadian dollars. You want to know how much a 0.7 litre of Laphroaig costs me at the state monopoly? I think it's 485 kroner.
Let's not start on what it costs to drink when you're out on the town...
Norwegians are infamous for drinking heavily when abroad. When the alcohol is virtually free compared to what we're used to, can you really blame us?
Celiac Disease. I have to keep a gluten-free diet and most of the gluten-free beers aren't really worth the time. There's a couple that are okay...but *sigh* they all tend to be light american style beers. I prefer something else...with character. =) And no one's managed to pull that one off yet.
I'm a total beer snob. I was lucky enough to be At UC Davis in the early '90's when Sudwerks was the best brew pub in America. I got spoiled. The beer's not as good as it used to be. They ended up deporting the german brewmeister.
Someday they might come up with a decent gluten-free beer.
-- Steve has to go shopping tomorrow, and now he'll be sorely tempted to pick some of those up even with half a fridge of Sleemans and Guinness to go yet.
I've never even seen any of the others. A Londoner and a Cardiffian of my acquaintance turned me on to the stuff, but it's hard enough to get the original without getting anything special beyond that. Something about being a continent away from the source!
There are a couple of variations on the original (a dark-looking one which i've forgotten the precise nature of, and one aged in rum casks which is really yummy) available, albeit only in specialist shops or very good off-licences, over here. I'd offer to post you a few but I doubt they'd make it over safely :(
I got myself a box of those from Superstore a while back. They're so damn tasty that at least 2/3 of them were stolen from my by my father who suddenly had eighteen million reasons to come visit. *Sigh*
"Oh, this is rich. Haven't seen you since I left university, but now you love me for my beer?"
[blink]
What's your point?
"(It's been, like, years, Sean! Are you still at Carleton in one role or another? Still trying to fix the unfixably broken CUSA?)"
On and off. Currently on. Actually won the Special Student seat on CUSA Council in an actual election. It's more for entertainment at this point, since no one seems particularly interested in my opinions anyway.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 10:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 10:58 pm (UTC)It's a Scottish beer, aged in whiskey barrels. It is extremely yummy. And currently on sale - and the sale price is "only" about twice the cost of my normal preferred beer (three times the cost of sex-in-a-canoe beer) per bottle.
(Oh, and the bottles of this are 330ml, where a normal bottle is 341. So it's EXPENSIVE beer, but extremely good.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 11:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 01:47 am (UTC)Not like liquor is much better, but at least there I have the same problem. A bottle of $6 vodka isn't any less shitty than a Stolichnaya to my tongue, and liquors I can mix into something that's drinkable which I can't say for beer or wine.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 02:53 am (UTC)Long version: 90% of everything is crap. This includes alcohol. The trick is finding stuff you like.
And Innis&Gunn is like scotch (awesome!) without the incredibly concentrated burn of scotch or the price of scotch. So it's good!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 04:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 05:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 05:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 06:11 am (UTC)I, like
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:27 pm (UTC)In terms of alcohol content per volume, this is more expensive than scotch, but, then, anything except hard liquor would be.
In more useful terms, which is to say "cost per drink", Innis+Gunn is about 30% cheaper than good Scotch. And, since I actually *prefer* my good Scotch flavour without the 40% alcohol burn, that makes it superior.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-26 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-27 04:41 pm (UTC)(Hint: One of them tastes like slightly bitter bread. The other, like slightly flavoured water.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 01:48 am (UTC)Still sounds worth it. I'll happily pay double price for Newcastle Brown Ale or Boddingtons or whatever imported stuff I can get, rather than drink Norwegian pilsner which is already expensive enough. I'd gladly pay even more for the stuff you've got there.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:43 pm (UTC)For a half-litre can of Newkie Brown, I pay something like 28 kroner. That's just above 5 of your Canadian dollars. You want to know how much a 0.7 litre of Laphroaig costs me at the state monopoly? I think it's 485 kroner.
Let's not start on what it costs to drink when you're out on the town...
Norwegians are infamous for drinking heavily when abroad. When the alcohol is virtually free compared to what we're used to, can you really blame us?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 11:08 pm (UTC)Plan B: Drive 20 minutes to the next country over, buy there, drive back.
(May not be feasible in all areas)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 11:40 pm (UTC)I'm almost as close to Scotland as to Sweden, as the crow flies.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 11:05 pm (UTC)Gods I miss beer.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 01:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 02:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 03:33 am (UTC)All the sympathies in the world.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 07:04 pm (UTC)snobafficianado.(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 08:24 pm (UTC)Someday they might come up with a decent gluten-free beer.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 11:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 12:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 07:17 pm (UTC)Now if it will just stop raining...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-24 11:56 pm (UTC)-- Steve has to go shopping tomorrow, and now he'll be sorely tempted to pick some of those up even with half a fridge of Sleemans and Guinness to go yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 12:31 am (UTC)-- Steve probably should cut himself off instead of buying new, shiny beer if such absent-mindedness is the result.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 12:01 am (UTC)Hmmm... LCBO in Lansdowne, Syracuse to Lansdowne is less than 2 hours one way. Might have to day trip it. Mmm.... beer
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 01:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-27 04:46 pm (UTC)"No," said Vimes, [...] "I was a drunk. You have to be richer than I was to be an alcoholic."
Since this beer is by definition The Good Stuff That Costs...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 01:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 02:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 09:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 06:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 09:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:37 pm (UTC)Heh.
(It's been, like, years, Sean! Are you still at Carleton in one role or another? Still trying to fix the unfixably broken CUSA?)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-25 10:58 pm (UTC)[blink]
What's your point?
"(It's been, like, years, Sean! Are you still at Carleton in one role or another? Still trying to fix the unfixably broken CUSA?)"
On and off. Currently on. Actually won the Special Student seat on CUSA Council in an actual election. It's more for entertainment at this point, since no one seems particularly interested in my opinions anyway.