Giniper
Lagunitas Brewing Company

one of the more gin forward beers i can remember ever having, really cool profile on this, highly botanical but also really woody, and a fun base beer too, stronger than aunt sally but sort of similar in terms of it being clean bacterial sourness and a little wheaty, tidy and not overly acidic, and then jazzed up with citrus and angelica root and juniper berries, neat herbal complex that goes super well with the character of the gin thats all infused through this, honestly one of the more ambitious and strange lagunitas beers of all time for my money. tarnished brassy to light copper toned with a couple of inches of thick white foam from the tap and just a little frosted look to it, no real viscosity for its strength. the aroma is wild, clean lactic souring up front with tangerine, lemon, and grapefruit obvious, a bit of alcohol coming through too, pale malt, and a ton of oak. the gin aspect is great, lightly astringent and medicinal from the berries, its herbal enough to seem dry hopped, which wouldnt surprise me, but i get things like lime leaf, lemongrass, minerals like good soda water, trace vanilla, sagebrush, rosemary, dried blueberry, tonic, and white pepper, wow, almost a belgian ester to this, soft funk too with the tang. the flavor is just as complex, wood is soaked all the way through it, the light bite of the alcohol from the gin is there too, and the wood still seems new, tannic, even white winey to me for a flash. definite bitterness from the botanicals, tea-like, herbal, but also some grapefruit pith sort of bitterness too, and only a little honey pop from the malt there for balance. the freshness of this is crazy for something barrel aged, the citrus and the juniper make it seems springy and new. amazing how much flavor is packed into this, how well it all goes together, how unique this spice complex is with the angelica root, i like the bitter, the citrus works, and the gin barrels add so much. sparkling texture, medium bodied, rightly alcoholic for what it is, this thing really sings!

A gin an tonic in the form of beer! No ridiculous gin punch to the taste buds, but muted and balanced with a mellow tart citrus. Very drinkable, and well worth a try.