BEER REVIEW: 324

BREWER: Innis & Gunn, Lothian, Scotland

STYLE: Imperial Stout

ABV: 11%

VESSEL: 500ml brown bottle

DATE OF POST: 23rd December 2023

 

JYMI SAY’S…

So you know in our last review I was going on about Foreign Export Stout not being BIG enough for an 8% beer… well it’s happened again!

VP04 as I hope you read above is an 11% Imperial Stout. This brew should be HUGE and it just… isn’t.

Once the lid is lifted and the drink is poured the nose coming from VP04 actually is massive to be fair. Really boozy with notes of coffee, Christmas spices and liquor. On sip things continue well. There is a great mouthfeel here and the beer slips down great with continuing tones and coffee, spices and bourbon. But it’s once swallowed things start to go down hill. The aftertaste and body is just so thin. You would expect it to be full on, cloying, intense and robust seeing what has gone before and it’s super heavyweight ABV. But it kinda just, pardon the actually now very deliberate pun, vanishes.

As said, Vanishing Point does actually taste great and is crazy smooth but I was expecting, and wanting, so so so much more.

Jymi’s Rating: 69%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

Vanishing Point is an 11% potential powerhouse of a stout.  Before drinking (and ignoring the substandard packaging), it promises so much festive hope and cheer…

The strong bourbon coffee nose gets us off to a great start.  And the drinking is full of vanilla , sweet coffee and chocolate. In fact, if you keep drinking you can pick out a whole plethora of great stout combos. Although VP is more on the sweet side, there’s enough bitterness to counteract it. 

Despite all the strengths of VP, I can’t help feeling a little short changed.  Yes, there’s a lot going on in the flavour, but it just doesn’t carry through. To put it bluntly, for an 11% beer, I’d expect all the popping flavour notes to carry through more. But they don’t. The flavour simply dissipates as quickly as the beer’s gone from the mouth. 

While VP might not live up to its powerhouse potential, it is a decent drop nonetheless and, if offered one again, I would not say no. It just won’t be on my to buy again list. 

Sammy’s Rating: 70%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 69.5%

MOB review next weekend: ALRIGHT TREACLE? by DISRUPTION IS BREWING

Sammy & Jymi – Musing on Booze weekly since 2017

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M O B 2023