La Maison - Gin Barrel-Aged
Taxman Brewing Co.

A thanks to the incredible woodychandler for this beer. Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a hazy orange color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell Is mild, some gin. Taste is of gin, malts, light spices, alcohol is present throughout. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is an interesting take on the style.

This is my last remaining Taxman, if you CAN believe it! 8=( I have been really impressed by everything that I have reviewed from them & I was saving this one for last. I have openly copped to my aversion to liquor not because I don't like it, but because I like it far too much! As a young imbiber, some of my worst adventures were due to drinking (especially) bourbon. I still do not have a taste for it as I do for Rye Whisky, but my second fave came as a result of my first Med Cruise in 1985. Yeah, we hit on better beer, like aged Chimay (Red/Rouge), but Heineken was still highly prevalent & upon meeting some English birds in Rome, I got on to (not simply) G&Ts but Tanqueray & tonic! I used to drink gin with mixers like it was going out of style until craft beer came along & I simply got immersed in beer. This will be both a throwback & a melding of two eras in my life. This was another pre-parting of the ways CAN from Tavour.

From the CAN: " THE VAULT Barrel Series"; "Belgian Inspired American Crafted"; "American Farmhouse Ale brewed with honey & aged in gin barrels."; "Unlock the Vault, our barrel series committed to the careful, prolonged conditioning and blending of barrel-aged ales. This sparkling saison features clover honey blended with earthy undertones and fragrant American hop notes of citrus, grapefruit and pine, accentuated by careful aging in London dry gin barrels. Enjoy immediately or store under lock and key."; "Declare yourself"; "IBU 25".

I was very excited to do a Crack! & Glug on this CAN for the reasons outlined above. Even better was the fact that its base was a Saison, so haziness/cloudiness is both allowed & expected, paving the way for an inverted Glug! I saw that it was a brimful craft CAN, which was a double-plus bonus. The inverted Glug caused both a pseudo-cascade and the formation of just under three fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, French Vanilla-colored head with great retention, leaving nice lacing in its wake. Color was a deeply-hazy/lightly-cloudy Amber (SRM = > 7, < 9). Nose was more funky than Gin oriented, but I still perceived Gin, although not as strongly as I would have liked. Mouthfeel was medium, about on par for the style. The taste had a farmhouse funkiness and a wood-aged quality, but it was unspecific, not really evocative of Gin. 8=( It was a very nice Saison & I liked that the funkiness was controlled by its barrel aging. That said, when Gin gets top billing, then I expect to taste Gin, which I did, but only barely. 8=( I wonder a) how long it aged in the barrel & b) whether it would have benefitted from some additional aging time. Finish was semi-dry, but I felt like it had a much greater potential, especially with Gin being a dry liquor. YMMV.