Beer Nut: Caskmates a nice marriage between beer and whiskey - MassLive.com

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This weekly column is called “Beer Nut” and indeed, beer is my favorite adult beverage.

However, I must confess that it often runs neck and neck with whiskey. I appreciate both finer whiskeys as well as standard ones. (I’m not a scotch drinker, although I do enjoy some of them. I’m just not big on the abundance of peat in many single malts.)

As readers might guess if they have read this column for any length of time, I’m a big Irish whiskey fan. I’ve had all sorts, from super-cheap to fairly expensive. When you get into the pricier stuff, I’m a big fan of Midleton Green Spot. If you ever get a chance, try it. Of course my go-to is Jameson. I’ve had several types of Jamo, and my favorite is called Jameson Crested. (It used to be called Crested 10, and you can’t get it in this country, but it’s probably Jameson’s best effort.)

But why am I going on and on about whiskey and a beer column? Good question. The reason is because Jameson issued some whiskeys a while back that were aged in beer barrels, and I finally got around sampling them. So I thought it would be fun to share my impressions about how the beer barrels/casks affected the whiskey flavor. The series is called Caskmates, and I was able to try the whiskeys that were aged in IPA barrels and stout barrels, respectively.

The casks came from the Franciscan Well brewery in County Cork. a fine establishment that I’ve visited several times. Technically, brewery used old Jameson barrels to finish their beers, then sent the casks back to Jameson for reuse in aging the whiskey.

Let’s go alphabetically and start with the IPA version. To my nose, the IPA cask softened the usual slight whiskey sting that often hits my nose with regular Jameson. The floral aspect also seemed more prominent, with maybe a hint of grassiness.

The flavor follows this trend, and the casks definitely softened the initial bite that Jamo often has on first sip. The hoppiness of an IPA isn’t really present – or if it is, it’s hidden by a soft, slight spiciness. By the time you breathe it in, the finish is classic Jameson and the IPA aspect is no longer a factor. I’d recommend this to those who find standard Jamo a bit harsh.

The stout version is a whole different ball game, however – as different as baseball is from the ancient Irish sport of hurling (which is my favorite sport on the planet, by the way).

Unlike the IPA version, the initial bite that Jameson often chomps you with is still present. But the overall nose and taste seems more complex than either standard Jamo or the IPA version. There is an element of cocoa, which is to be expected with a stout, but also a hint of woodiness. It’s a bit sweeter and fruitier, but the vanilla character of a normal Jameson seems dialed back, maybe due to the dark malts of the stout cutting the vanilla prominence.

It finishes nicely with the chocolate aspect lingering a bit, and doing a little Irish step dance with the whiskey malts. It’s not the same as sipping a Guinness (or a Franciscan Well Shandon Stout) with a Jamo, but it’s a nice alternative if you’re short on time.

So, although I enjoyed both of them just fine, I’m more of a traditionalist and will probably stick to buying regular Jameson along with any beer I want to drink alongside it.

September 06, 2020 at 06:29PM
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Beer Nut: Caskmates a nice marriage between beer and whiskey - MassLive.com

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