Wild Rose Brewery / Wild Life Distillery Barrel Aged High Harvest Gin Joint – Imperial / Double IPA at 8.4% ABV (C$11.56 at Collective, 650 ml, packaged on 1-Sep-2019, acquired 15-Oct-2019, reviewed 20-Oct-2019)
Appearance: slightly muddy deep gold with one fat finger of rocky white head, excellent retention and chunky lacing. (3/5) Aroma: juniper, oak, vanilla, caramel, hint of dank pine. (7/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (7/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, medium duration moderate bitter mildly warming finish. (4/5)
Well, I certainly like the booziness quotient in this one, that’s for sure. The dank sticky icky is pretty mild in this iteration, or perhaps it’s just completely overwhelmed by the emphatic gin barrel aspects, but either way it’s a completely different beast than its ancestor. I’m not sure why it ended up looking so muddy compared to the base version, but that’s really the only reason I’ve marked it down. Otherwise, the aroma and flavour variations are just that: variations, no better, no worse. (14/20)
7/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
