Taste test - Stone Pine’s Sympatico Double IPA Hopped Gin Review

We put the fascinating Double IPA Hopped Sympatico Gin from Stone Pine Distillery to the Taste Test. This hopped gin is a collaborative effort between the distillery and a nearby craft brewery.

About Stone Pine Distillery

Stone Pine Distillery, in the regional New South Wales town of Bathurst, has been crafting beautiful gin, rum and a host of liqueurs (not to mention an excellent grappa) since 2006.

Distiller/owner Ian Glen was the first to bring out a black spiced rum in Australia - Dead Man’s Drop - and his gins have a characteristic nuance of a brilliantly balanced flavour profile.

Ian has always used native Australian botanicals in his gins, including hand-picked petals for his Seasonal Orange Blossom gin and local black truffles for his sultry, unctuous Black Truffle gin.

You can read more about Ian Glen and his distilling journey here.

About the bottle

In a clever collab, Stone Pine Distillery has got together with Badlands Brewery in nearby Orange, NSW to share ingredients.

From Ian’s botanicals store, the brewery has used lemon myrtle, coriander, juniper and angelica in their beer, while Ian has infused the brewery’s Lemondrop and Motueka hops in his gin.

The result: a double IPA beer with its hop flavours amped up by herbs usually used in gin-making and a singular gin with clear influences from a herbaceous, robust beer.

Key botanicals

On top of lemon myrtle, coriander, angelica and of course juniper, Sympatico Double IPA Hopped Gin features two types of hop: Lemondrop hops, known for their floral, earthy, lemon and pepper notes, and Motueka hops, which give an extra citrus push and also that tropical fruit flavour you associate with an IPA.

Tasting notes

Subdued but still present juniper, herbaceous pepperiness and citrus sharpness from the Lemondrop and Motueka hops, and firm coriander flavours come through in the middle. Angelica brings in plenty of body.

The finish has a little spice, a little tropical fruit sweetness and a long dryness - much like you’d get in an actual double IPA.

Serving suggestions

This gin would work very well as a dry martini with a lemon peel garnish, but in a citrus-forward cocktail - a Gimlet or a Gin Fizz - would be excellent too.

But why not have the two brothers together in a gin boilermaker? A sip of the gin and a swig of the IPA - what could be better.

Shop Sympatico Double IPA Hopped Gin by Stone Pine Distillery here.