Worthy Brewing Company recently revamped its draft system, expanding the number of taps in its main bar from 12 to 24, and released several new beers to fill them. Among them are various IPAs, Belgian and farmhouse ales, kölsch, ciders, a selection of barrel-aged specialties, and more.

One in particular caught my eye, Cucumber Gin Fizz, which the brewery calls an experimental ale, brewed as part of Worthy’s Heart & Soul limited series. It’s a bit of an unusual flavor combination that sounds as if it’s meant to evoke a gin cocktail.

Gin is not typically associated with beer in the same sense that whiskey and bourbon are. The latter are distilled from malt in a beer-like mash and aged in barrels to develop character that is fairly complementary to beer. Gin is a clear spirit distilled from various sources, flavored with botanicals, predominantly juniper berries; it features distinctly non-beer-like flavors and aromatics.

Traditional juniper beers

That’s not to say there’s no overlap. Juniper has long been used in beer brewing, particularly in the Nordic European countries, and the berries can be used as a spice element in a wide range of styles.

For instance, sahti, one of the world’s oldest continually brewed beer styles, hails from Finland and is historically brewed with juniper instead of hops. This farmhouse style of ale filters the mash through fresh juniper boughs, imparting the spicy character into the finished beer. Paul Arney of The Ale Apothecary adapted this process when he created Sahati, a similar style using spruce instead of juniper.

When it comes to incorporating elements of gin into beer, brewers typically opt for aging in used gin barrels, which impart the essence of the spirit without needing to add more ingredients. Deschutes Brewery, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Sunriver Brewing Company, and Three Creeks Brewing Company have all released beers aged in this manner.

Read more: Smooth, German-style Kölsch for summer weather

‘Ginspiration’

Worthy opted to infuse its gin-spired ale with muddled juniper berries rather than aging in gin barrels, and added cucumber in a riff on a cucumber gin fizz cocktail. I reached out to the brewery to find out more.

“The initial inspiration was a juniper-based beer,” said brewmaster Brian Chapman via email. “The first recipe I wrote for Worthy was a juniper pale with Calypso, way back when I was just an intern from OSU. It had some unique pear/general stone fruit notes that I thought really paired well with the subtle juniper.”

“This was a different experiment though. We went heavy on the juniper out of the gate and felt like it was very one note,” he said.

“The team and I had a little brainstorming session to determine what it was lacking, or what would aid this beer in being more approachable.”

The team decided on cucumber as a secondary addition, and they tried several amounts until “we felt like we had something unique, approachable, and ultimately tasty.”

They added 500 grams (about 1.1 pounds) of juniper berries to the conditioning beer, similar to a dry hopping process. Cucumber was peeled and blended and added afterward.

Evokes a gin cocktail

Cucumber Gin Fizz is 5.4% alcohol by volume with 30 IBUs. I stopped by the brewery to try a pint in the beer garden shortly after the new draft system was unveiled.

It’s a golden-colored ale with aromatics driven primarily by notes of freshly sliced cucumber with a bit of green herbs, though I detect little if any scent of juniper; it reminds me of cucumber spa water.

The flavor is where I get the juniper berries, combined with cucumber peel for a slightly tannic, slightly astringent bitterness. I would call it botanical, and I think it’s reminiscent of a dry, earthy gin. The cucumber flesh is present, giving an earthy freshness, and there’s an herbal component with a touch of resin.

Overall, I find that it does evoke a gin cocktail, and finishes with a lingering, earthy herbal character. It’s unusual with a refreshing quality.

This and other new beers are pouring at Worthy now, and the brewery recently announced that all summer, all pints are only five dollars, making it a great time to try something new.

Read more: Deschutes Brewery’s non-alcoholic Fresh Squeezed IPA