HYDE No. 8 Heritage Cask Stout Cask Finish

Average irish whisky. Not bad, but not great either

A complex, Irish Whiskey by Hibernia Distillers in Country Cork, Ireland. It is a triple-distilled blend of 75% grain & 25% malt Whiskey; the grain one was matured in ex-Bourbon casks for four years, while the malt spent the same amount of time in former Oloroso Sherry butt. The blend was then moved for another 6 months to a cask infused with Stout that came from the Cotton Ball micro-brewery. Only 5000 bottles exist. It has an aromatic birth with notes of coffee, caramel, spices & fruits; while a rich & complex life adds hints of malt, milk chocolate & caramel; that leads to a bold & creamy death with notes of honey & stewed fruits. July 2020 / September 2022

Hyde number five in what fees like a bit of a slog. Tonights dram, Hyde No. 8 Heritage Cask Stout Cask Finish Irish Whisky. A curious mix of 75% grain whiskey from first-fill ex-Bourbon casks and 25% single malt from first-fill Oloroso sherry casks, married in a stout barrel from Cotton Ball Brewing Co. for a further six months. To be honest, sounds like a good way to mask inferior spirit with bold cask flavour. Let’s find out. N: Light and with a little raw spirit. Malty with a soft vanilla cream soda and mild coffee cake presence. Given enough time there is a red berry to be found. P: Rounded and full body. Surprisingly juicy there is custard cream biscuit, nutmeg and clove spice, plump raisin, and chocolatey coffee. F: Short. Toasty butterscotch, stewed fruit, dark chocolate bitterness. Colour me surprised. This is surprisingly tasty with a good range of feinty, cereal, sweet, and woody flavours. The grain heavy component is not as noticeable as I was expecting, the sherry cask and stout seem to integrate and balance pretty well. Everything would benefit from something a little bright and citrusy perhaps to lift the overall deep dark profile, but this is eminently enjoyable and for the price point is hard to argue with. The obvious comparison to draw is with Jameson Cask Mates Stout addition which I scored as 2.75/5 (distiller whisky taste #80). This Hyde stout delivers a little more oomph than the Jameson and a slightly darker character that I think does set it apart. Distiller whisky taste #172 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, this one is from the world renowned Greenbushes mine in the southwest of Western Australia. Glassy coarsely crystalline quartz is here hosting blue apatite and dark black-green elbaite tourmaline. This pegmatite was formed over three subsequent mineralisation periods at 2.53 Ga, 2.43 Ga, and 1.1 Ga. The pegmatite is huge at up to 2.5 km long and up to 250 m wide and hosts half the worlds known Tantalum resource] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish: 1.75/5 No. 6 Presidents Reserve: 2.75/5 No. 7 Sherry Matured 1893: 3/5 No. 8 Heritage Stout Cask Finish: 3.5/5