Review: Beehive Distilling Jack Rabbit Gin
Utah-based Beehive Distilling makes gin and only gin. Production involves some traditional technique melded with a few newfangled flavoring agents. Beehive explains:
Jack Rabbit is produced on a small (300-liter) hybrid column still in Salt Lake City. Beehive’s lead distiller macerates crushed Albanian juniper, orris root, grain of paradise and coriander in grain neutral spirits for 24 hours before redistilling the spirit. During distillation, fresh sage, rose petals and lemon zest are added to the gin basket for vapor infusing; the resulting distillate is proofed to 45%. The finishing water comes from the Wasatch Mountains, and is further ROI filtered for purity. Heads and tails cuts are made on each run, with only the mids—or hearts—being used for the final product. Three runs off of the still are combined for each batch, yielding roughly 65 cases. Prior to bottling, the combined runs are rested for one week in our holding tank, allowing the flavors to bind. After resting, the gin is filtered one last time before being hand-bottled, labeled and batch-numbered.
(There is also a barrel-aged expression, which we aren’t reviewing here.)
This is a racy gin, almost bruising at times. The nose is lightly floral but dusted with cereal notes, some dried herbs, and just a hint of sweetness. Hitting the palate it is fiery with red pepper, menthol, and juniper berries (which are more earthy than that more aromatic, piney, needle-like character that’s more traditional in gin). It doesn’t take long from there for the spirit to develop its true, pungent body. The sage influence is profound and lasting, a deep vegetal character studded with white pepper, licorice, and petrol exhaust. The finish is dense with underbrush notes, almost peaty at times.
A true curiosity more than an everyday sipper.
90 proof.
B- / $30 / beehivedistilling.com
Beehive Distilling Jack Rabbit Gin
$30
