If you love Australian gin, you probably know about Stone Pine Distillery already. But did you know they do a hopped gin too? This is Sympatico – an IPA’d gin and a ginned IPA.
Owner-distiller Ian Glen has always shown his creative spark in his spirits. From his powerful, earthy Black Truffle Gin and happy floral Orange Blossom Gin to the sumptuous revelry of his Black Spiced Rum and ‘liquid Christmas’ Cabernet brandy liqueur.
Ian has collaborated with Aussie craft brewery Badlands in Orange, NSW to create something quite different. Sharing each other’s ingredients, the two craft producers have made a beer and a gin with shared details yet that are completely different.
Call it what you like – a diptych, a cognate, yin and yang, sipping cousins – the result is an IPA with gin botanicals and a gin with a hoppy head. It’s the perfect Venn diagram of drinks. The two are… well, simpatico.
Get your Sympatico Double Hopped IPA Gin here.
Sympatico Double Hopped IPA Gin by Stone Pine Distillery
Hops have an interesting impact on gin. As a rule, they’re quite bitter, floral and earthy, and can dull the brightness of the spirit, but the hops in Badlands Brewery’s Sympatico don’t do that.
Lemondrop and Matueka hops are both quite citrus-forward, which works well with Stone Pine’s style of gin. But the earthy, grassy notes and peppery heat from the Lemondrop hops also develop the coriander flavours Ian layers into his gin too.
The tropical fruit flavours from the Matueka hops finish the gin off into a long, dry, fresh finish.
As for the beer, including the same botanicals that are in the gin – coriander, lemon myrtle, angelica and juniper – bring out the intensity of those hops and create a new level for IPA to aspire to.
The drinks and the way they’ve come about is a credit to both creators of this project, this cyclops with double vision.
Read an even better review of Sympatico here.
Double-hopped gin fizz with Sympatico Gin
There are a lot of different ways this gin would work in cocktails. A straight gin martini would be excellent and a G&T would work well too of course, but something that’s more citrus-forward would be even better.
Here’s how to make a classic gin fizz with this delicious gin:
Here’s what you need:
– 60ml/2oz Sympatico Gin
– 30ml/1oz simple syrup
– 30ml/1oz lemon juice – strained for pulp
– 1 egg white
– top up with soda water
– lemon peel to garnish
Here’s what you do:
1. Pour gin, syrup, lemon juice and egg white over ice on a shaker and shake vigorously for as long as possible – about a minute should do it.
2. Strain into an ice-filled collins glass and top up with soda water.
3. garnish with a lemon peel twist or half a slice.
If you don’t want or can’t have the egg white – it’s raw egg after all – you don’t have to add it.
It does give the drink a silkiness and an everlasting foam to the top, which is a bit of fun. A measure of aquafaber – tinned chickpea water – can give a similar effect.
If you enjoyed this cocktail recipe, check out our cocktail book here!
