Beer shouldn't be taken too seriously. As a bit of fun I decided to take a Brewdog beer back to where it began part of its life. Apologies for the Beer-Nut-esque pun!
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| Sat on the Diurach's table at Jura Distillery |
Jura is an island with a population of ~200 people off the west-coast of Scotland. The distillery was resurrected to preserve jobs on the island and now produces four regular expressions. Paradox Jura is an Imperial Stout brewed by the (Marmite) brewer Brewdog as part of their barrel-ageing experiments. This iteration is aged in, you guessed it, Jura Distillery barrels.
Fortuitously I happened to have already been planning a visit to Jura when Brewdog released the beer and after receiving the beer in the trade (cheers Dan!) a plan was hatched.
After an all-too-brief tour around the distillery the beer was released from where I had secreted it (Thanks Daisy!) and offered around any interested parties. As you would expect, it met with mixed reactions, the distillery staff perhaps thinking it sacrilege to put something as weak as 10% in a whisky cask.
And me? I loved it! I've had mixed experiences with Paradox in the past. I was lucky enough to try a few cask versions I have enjoyed but the Laphroaig version was nigh-on undrinkable, being like a gloopy TCP.
This one poured a dark brown-black, with a lusciously thick texture and tan-tinged
head that soon disappeared. The booze is immediately apparent on the
nose but there's also roast coffee, plain chocolate and molasses. It coats
the tongue and full of the same flavours in the nose, but magnified,
with the sweetness and caramel of the Jura amplifying the chocolate in
particular. Lovely finish, full on dessert beer.
This beer certainly falls into the positive camp of The Great Barrel Aging Debate and comes highly reccomended from me. As for my thoughts on barrel-aging overall?That, dear reader, is another post for another day...
I've another few Paradoxes to sample sometime, perhaps I'll try the same trick...
