Hinch Imperial Stout Finish - Craft & Casks review
Hello and welcome back to the 2nd review of this Irish Whiskey Month!☘️🇮🇪 How are we doing? I hope all is well. Today we are taking a look at a whiskey that was finished in beer casks, the Hinch Imperial Stout Finish from their Craft & Casks series. How interesting! I look forward to it very much.
March the 17th is Saint Patrick's Day (Lá Fhéile Pádraig) in Ireland. This day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and by extension, celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general. Many reviewers like me pays homage to Ireland and its people by reviewing Irish Whiskeys this month.
Before we go any further, please check out a few of my previous Irish Whiskey reviews.
About Hinch Distillery
Hinch Distillery, founded by Dr. Terry Cross, a businessman from Belfast. Cross sold his Delta Print and Packaging firm for around £50 million but rather than retiring, he decided to invest some of his wealth into a new whiskey distillery. Named after the nearby town of Ballynahinch, south of Belfast, the distillery is situated in the grounds of the Killaney Estate.
Construction began in 2019 with an initial launch date planned for April 2020. Of course, many such plans were interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and the project ground to a halt whilst the country went on lockdown. Work was able to resume in July but any possibility of a public opening remained on hold. Since then, the distillery commenced production and their shop was able to open for a few weeks in the run up to Christmas, giving locals a first peak at a visitor centre that will include a coffee shop, restaurant, pub and events space. For the occasion, a special 18 year old whiskey was released, sourced from another Irish distillery, that had been finished in wine casks from Dr. Cross' other passion project – the Chateau de la Ligne vineyard in Bordeaux.
They released a 3 yo peated single malt in 2024 as their first release. It can only be bought on-site at the distillery. However most of their other stuff is still sourced from other distilleries.
The most affordable of the current age stated offerings is the 5 year old "Double Wood" which is a combination of both malt and grain whiskies, matured initially in bourbon barrels before a 12 month finishing period in virgin oak casks. Bottled at 43% it retails for just 40 euros a bottle.
The core range
Their core range currently consist of 9 bottlings.
- Small Batch Bourbon Cask - 43%
- Peated Small Batch - 43 %
- Peated Single Malt - 43%
- 5 Year Old - Double Wood - 43%
- 10 Year Old Sherry Cask Finish - 43%
- 15 Year Old - Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish - Batch 1 - 46%
- Connoisseur Collection - 5 Year Old - Madeira Wine Cask Finish - 46%
- Craft & Casks Imperial Stout Cask Finish - 46.4%
- 19 Year Old Single Malt Château De La Ligne Finish - 48%
Their core range - images taken from hinchdistillery.com
Hinch Imperial Stout Finish - Craft & Casks - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 46.4%
Whitewater Brewery
Whitewater Brewery is a craft brewery in Castlewellan, County Down. It is the largest microbrewery in Northern Ireland. The brewery produces a number of cask beers, a key lager, and three bottled beers. The brewery was founded by Bernard Sloan with his wife Kerry in 1996 on the family farm.
Several beers are produced at Whitewater Brewery and the production changes over time.
What is Imperial Stout?
Stout is a type of dark beer that is generally warm fermented, such as dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout and imperial stout. Stout is a type of ale.
Imperial stout, also known as Russian imperial stout, is a stronger stout.
The style originated in 18th-century London, created by Thrale's Anchor Brewery for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia.
Imperial stouts have a high alcohol content, usually over 9% abv, and are among the darkest available beer styles.
I am quite interested in this whiskey, even tho I am not a big beer fan. As most of the time this Hinch whiskey is also a blended whiskey. Consisting of around 70% grain and 30% malt whiskies. Aged for 3 years in First-fill bourbon casks and then finished for 11 months in Imperial Stout casks. Let's see how this tastes.
Nose: Starts off with a hint of beer followed by maltiness and charred oak. Vanilla, toffee and honey. Quite sweet at first. However it takes a turn. Espresso and dark chocolate alongside hops. Green apples, pears and citrus fruits. Quite interesting. A faint hint of grains, biscuits and toast bread. Freshly cut grass and some soil. Lovely nose, right at the edge of sweetness and bitterness finding a a delicate balance between the two. I like it so far. I hope the taste can keep up with the nose.
Taste: The texture is very nice. Coats the inside of your mouth quite well and has a nice feel. The 46.4% is great for this whiskey. Oily. The stout shows it's impressive influence right away with hops, espresso, dark chocolate and liquorice. Roasted malt, toasted oak and vanilla comes forward. A hint of fruitiness in the form of green apples and pears with a distant note of apricots. Grass, hay and a hint of earthiness. Toffee and vanilla sweetness. Cereals and digestive biscuits. Again a lovely balance between sweetness & bitterness. I think that it is quite complex for its age.
Finish: Long finish that starts off very sweet with milk chocolate, malt, honey and orchard fruits. However it turns into a nice bittersweet experience with the addition of espresso, dark chocolate, oakiness and liquorice. How nice.
Overall I think this is a very nice whiskey. It feels more than 4 years old. The fresh bourbon cask brings this whiskey sweet vanilla, toffee and honey with fruitiness and the stout casks gives it a nice bitterness with espresso, dark chocolate and hops becoming a complex dram to enjoy. A very nice experiment and I hope that there is more to come from Hinch. I rate this whiskey 7.7/10. I think I liked it the most of the 3 I tasted so far. Buy it, try it. Drink responsibly.
Some pictures in this article are not owned by me, I tagged their owner and I attached a link of their site. All other pictures that have my logo on them are TAKEN AND OWNED BY ME.
Check out the points on all the whiskies I've rated and ranked head-to-head.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.
Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for more pictures and stories.
Subscribe to my newsletter to get notified of my new posts and new content as soon as possible.
