This Spring saw Jura add another new expression to their expanding seasonal ‘Cask Edition’ series. Joining the Winter Edition, Red Wine Cask Edition (see our tasting notes here), and the Rum Cask Edition, the Diurachs have now released a Pale Ale Cask Edition.
The events of the pandemic led to the Jura team reaching out to local brewers to source and exchange casks to experiment with… the brewers would get a whisky-aged beer and the distillery would get a beer-aged whisky. Simple. Collaborative. Mutually beneficial.
Jura Cask Editions celebrate the connection between the land and spirit, bringing together distinctive flavour profiles. Our Pale Ale Cask is born out of our whisky makers’ love of craft beer.
With this expression, we worked with specially selected breweries in a flavour led, creative and productive way.
We provided these breweries with whisky casks to create a signature pale ale. After a set seasoning period the casks are returned to us and ready to be used to finish our Jura Pale Ale Cask
Jura Pale Ale Cask
The resulting whisky (now available across the majority of UK supermarkets – and currently already discounted, seemingly ahead of Father’s Day) has been bottled at 40% ABV at retails around £35 GBP.
Nose
There’s an instant fresh blast of sea air, followed by fresh citrus fruits, tropical fruits, cereals, malty biscuits, barley sugars, and vanilla pods. With a bit of time the fruit flavours keep coming with pineapple chunks, cut apples, and a final little grapefruit bittersweet note.
Taste
Really soft and oily approach. Butterscotch flavours complement that texture well and are followed by vanilla and a whole wave of fruits: apple, melon, mango, lychee, peach, and a little something of cooking apple tartness. The fruity waves then dry out as the oak spices gently build along with an actual oak note too.
Finish
Along with the final oaky spice, there’s a gentle bittersweetness to the finish which just smacks of hops – or is that just the power of suggestion?
Verdict
A very easy and more-ish sipper. The Pale Ale cask influence seems to have complemented and added to the classic Jura ex-bourbon base to make a really fresh and fruity dram fit for a summer’s evening.
The classic Jura cereal and apple notes are there with an undeniable influence of hops and cask adding a whole medley of tropical fruits, along with a bittersweet tartness and a drying oak spice.
What is missing from the promotional materials, and what I would like to see, is who the breweries are. Maybe that’s just the completist in me. That said, Jura have been known to put together some pretty great gift packages in the past, so it would seem natural that a collaboration pack with some of the Jura cask aged beers would be in the offing. On that point, my review of their Journey expression (see notes here) was from a Jura gift set including their cool indented glass and a bottle of Fyne Ale’s Jarl celebrating the hauf and hauf Presumably/hopefully Fyne Ales are one of those collaborating breweries as they do make a fantastic selection of beers.
Overall, a delicious sipper, offering a little something different to the market at an attainable price. Maybe even one to get a beer lover into whisky or vice versa.
M
Sample disclosure: This sample was received as part of a promotional Tweet Tasting event for Whyte & Mackay using #BeachsideDistillery on Twitter. All notes here are not intended as promotion but as an honest, fair and independent review of the whisky itself. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
whisky unplugged 