Hinch Irish Red Rye Finish, 43% ABV.

From the new Hinch “Craft & Cask” range.

Our Irish Red Rye Finish uses casks which aged craft beers at the Kinnegar Brewery located in beautiful Co. Donegal and renowned for producing fabulous Rye craft beers. On the whiskeys nose their Irish Red Rye adds sweet toffee butter cocoa a hint of red apple and orange zest citrus. On the palate rich cocoa bitterness combined with fruit boiled sweets, light vanilla and an element of sweet oak spice. Our whiskey was aged in the craft beer casks for a minimum of 12 months. A modern and bold move for the whiskey lovers proudly made in County Down.

Hinch Distillery

This Whiskey was tasted as part of a Tweet Tasting on the 12th of May 2021

Appearance

White wine straw in colour, it has a lovely syrupy swirl line, and an all over the glass film with slow thick droplets.

Nose

Wow that’s ABV comes across higher than it actually is at first. The nose brings menthol and bacon initially, then cherry cough syrup, and it’s almost Smokey. Herbaceous notes with juniper come next, linseed oil again, and a touch of seared pineapple.

With more time in the glass i’m getting the faintest hint of strawberries too, really very nice.

Cheers 😉#hinchdistillery

— Dram it Mick! (@StillSurreal) May 12, 2021

Palate

The red berries are thankfully here, along with sweet red wine, and red liquorice, i absolutely adore these aromas in a whiskey. Then it slowly starts to warming up with tangy spices and darker fruits. Cinnamon, ginger, blackcurrants and grapefruit bring along the tangy spiciness, which i don’t usually get together, they’re delicious to be honest. A lovely touch of salinity comes through now, some cough syrup, cranberries and a little drying.

With more time I’m getting black coffee, quite a bit of oak, black liquorice, dandelion and burdock, and it’s long side of medium for me.

My thoughts

Yes a Rye beer cask finish whiskey from Hinch, and another i have thoroughly enjoyed too. Again like the Hinch Rye export stout finish, there are darker and slighlty bitter notes to be found here, they don’t dominate the experience, more finish the experience.

Would i buy a bottle?

It’s another yes from me as i’m a sucker for beer/stout finished whiskeys, and Hinch have crafted a lovely whiskey using craft beer casks from the Kinnegar brewery.

Thanks to – @hinchdistillery, @TheWhiskyWire, @TweetTastings, and @MaltMusings – all Twitter.