Whisky barrel aged and/or peated beer

I've not had a peaty beer that I like (and was also not a fan of the St Peter's) but there are some great cask aged ones. Here's a couple of good'uns:

Orkney Dark Island Special Reserve (one of my favourite beers of all time - benefits from some time bottle ageing) BrewDog AB:10 (hard to find now, as it's mainly sold out, but it was matured in Malaga casks. It's rather good)

Most of the others I've tried have either been a bit rubbish or small batch/one offs that probably won't reappear. However, if you get the chance to try Devine Rebel Reserve from BrewDog, do so. It's amazing, although it might be getting towards the end of it's bottle life now (I need to drink the one I have left).

Another one to look out for is Innis & Gunn, matured in new casks and originally produced to season the casks before Grant's Ale Cask was matured in them. I'm not a fan (other than their limited edition Canadian Cask version), but I seem to be in the minority.

@cowfish Thanx, I´ll look out for those! I love the Brewdogs!
As far as for peated beer, the peated IRS, and especially the Caol Ila barrel aged IRS from Emelisse were wonderful, a refreshing zing, not too much peat and it marries with the dark malty flavours of the beer. There are new Emelisse White Label batches dripping on the market as we speak with Bowmore, Bunnahabhain and Wild Turkey barrel aging. Are these beers available in the UK?

@PeatyZealot They pop up in specialist beer shops, but are far from easy to get. The only Emelisse I've had was a donation from Sjoerd of maltfascination.com. It was rather good... (bbblog.org.uk/2012/10/…).

I think I might have tried a De Molen peated, but if it was the beer I think it was, my brain blocked the memory :)

Peated beer is a new concept to me. However, barrel aged beer can be great or horrible. There really seems to be no in between. The best barrel aged beer I've have to date is the Founder's KBS (Kentucky Barrel Aged Breakfast Stout). It is hands down the best beer I've had to date this year. Good luck finding it, I found a bar that had one of the few kegs that was released. They also make a CBS, Canadian whisky barrels used. I can't remember who's barrels Founders used for the KBS. An honorable mention goes to local NC brewers Foothill for their Barrel Aged People's Porter. They used Buffalo Trace barrels and their hard to find brew would have to be their Sexual Chocolate; barrel aged aged and chocolate added. However, I haven't had it in years. At $17 a 22oz. its too much for me. Check out the Beer Advocate for reviews of all these and more, the site is very much like Whisky Connosr. I'm a member their as well (aka Magnus Thunnus).

I've had some really fantastic barrel aged and peated beer, but pretty much all of it is local stuff, so unless you live in British Columbia it won't be much use for me to talk about it. Even if you do, it's annoyingly tricky to track down if you don't know where to go. I'm lucky enough to have a guy out here in the 'burbs that is always bringing in impossible-to-find gems, like Tree Brewing's Serendipity No. 7 (well, there's one name, anyway).

I will vouch for Innis and Gunn, though. It took me a while to really get into it, but now I'm a big fan. The regular stuff is good, but any kind of special releases they do tend to be excellent — they have a recent Irish cask bottling that I thought was pretty great. I also like the Rum cask, which isn't a special release.

HEAPS!

Let's start off with St Peter's. Honestly @Cowfish I personally think that St Peter's is a HORRIBLE brewery. We sadly import them into Australia, but almost all of my customers know to beware them. Their Suffolk Smokey is awful and their Whisky Beer isn't much better. Don't get me started on their Honey Porter. Shudders

Two peated beers that I've had and made the cut, but odds are you'll have to hunt for them are: New Zealands Yeastie Boy's Rex Attitude and Norway's Nogne's 100% Peated. Both of them are delicious, but I personally found the Nogne a little boring for me.

My review on the Rex Attitude can be found here:squidgyashwhiskyfiend.blogspot.com.au/2013/…

and my review on the Nogne Peated can be found here: squidgyashwhiskyfiend.blogspot.com.au/2013/…

Now to whisky barrel aged/related beers. De Molen does some brilliant little beers. His Hemel & Aarde is delicious and is done with Bruichladdich's peat. The only thing you need to be aware of regarding his beers is he likes to overcarbonate them too much. It's the reason we're no longer bringing him into the country. The nice thing is that you can age his beers for years and year.

Mikkeller has some brilliant whisky barrel aged beers. Specifically the Black Buffalo. Aged in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels this is a MASSIVE beer sitting at above 19%.
My review on it can be found here: squidgyashwhiskyfiend.blogspot.com.au/2012/…

Continuing on St Ambroise which is a Canadian brewery from Quebec does an Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels, but they don't inform you what distillery barrels they're using. However they are very delicious and usually more easily found. Done in specific vintages, i.e. 2011, 2012, 2013, etc. I haven't done a review on it yet, but I will soon.

Brewdog does some brilliant whisky barrel aged beers, I'm personally thinking of their Imperial Stout: Paradox Jura which is absolutely delicious! A review on that one will soon be posted onto my blog.

And then Struise which in my opinion is one of the top breweries in Belgium. With their Black Damnation 3 which is an Imperial Stout aged in Caol Ila barrels and their Imperial Stout Cuvee Delphine which is aged in Four Roses bourbon barrels both being so delicious that I grabbed every single bottle of them left in Perth (Again reviews to come if your interested) I was so impressed with Struise that I've got beer shops in Scotland holding onto some bottles of their Quad which is aged in Woodford Reserve barrels!

@SquidgyAsh With St Peters it very much depends on which beer you get - I'm a devoted fan of their Grapefruit beer, and generally find most of their output decent. That said, I am a short tube train ride from their London pub :)

@SquidgyAsh Thanx a bunch! Have you tried any La Trappe Oak Aged? Be careful which batch you choose, each batch has their own cask finish.

@cowfish Ah fair enough! I haven't tried their grapefruit beer yet. Most of their beers aren't too bad, but yeah the Honey Porter, Suffolk Smokey, and Whisky Beer make me a sad panda.

@PeatyZealot no worries buddy! I've never had any La Trappe Oak Aged range. However if your in Norway or anywhere near there keep an eye out for the Nøgne Ø / Bridge Road Aurora Borealis. A Belgium Quadruple that was shipped to Australia in whisky barrels. Big and awesome at 15%. Very rare and a pain to find though!

@SquidgyAsh I actually quite like the St Peters Honey Porter... I could see how it's not for everyone, though.