Baladin Xyauyù Fumé: A Beer for Peated Whisky Drinkers

This one is for a specific kind of drinker, so let me put the warning first: if you want something crisp and cold, order almost anything else on our list. If you like smoke and you like to sit with a drink, keep reading.

Why We Brought It In

Before Juraku I was deep into peated whisky. Laphroaig especially. That heavy, smoky, faintly medicinal thing is not for everyone, but if it is for you, nothing else scratches it.

Xyauyù Fumé scratches it, and it arrives in a beer glass, which is the joke of the whole thing.

What It Actually Is

Baladin is an Italian brewery founded by Teo Musso in 1996, and it has spent that entire time ignoring what beer is supposed to be. Xyauyù is their oxidative series: beer aged deliberately in contact with air, the way a fortified wine is, rather than protected from it.

The Fumé is that process run through barrels that previously held peated whisky.

Two things follow from that, and they are the things people are not expecting.

It is flat. No carbonation at all. It pours dark ruby and still, with no head on it. If a bubble arrives, something has gone wrong.

It is a sipping drink. Oxidative aging builds the same kind of depth you find in sherry or tawny port. Served cold and fast it just tastes strange. Given room temperature and time, it opens up.

What It Tastes Like

Smoke, toasted malt and dark sugar on the nose. The palate is rich and slightly sweet, with the smoke layered through rather than sitting on top. The finish is long and warm and stays smoky well after you have swallowed.

It is bold, but it is controlled. The peat is doing structural work, not shouting.

How to Drink It

Small pours. Lightly chilled or cellar temperature, never fridge cold. Then leave it alone for a few minutes and let it open in the glass.

Rushing this one is the only real way to get it wrong.

What to Eat With It

Smoke on smoke works. Skirt steak yakitori, anything off the grill with char on it, rich savoury dishes. It also holds up next to aged cheese if that is where you are going.

Who It Is For

Peated whisky drinkers, mostly. People who order the smoky thing on principle. Anyone who wants a drink that does not behave like its category.

If you like Laphroaig, ask for it and give it ten minutes.