Mechanic, Imperial Rose Garden Bubble Bath

Imperial Rose Garden Bubble Bath is a pretty extra name for a beer, but in fairness this is a pretty extra beer. Expect flavours of rosewater and white chocolate. This beer is suitable for vegans but contains gluten.

I’ve long been intrigued by the Mechanic Brewery. While I’ve lived in their neck of the woods for a couple of years now, I’ve never seen the brewery itself. There are clues in the neighbourhood, however. I’ll often run into the stickers advertising the brewery’s whereabouts when walking around Bethnal Green. Occasionally, if I’m lucky, one of their beers will be on tap at the Angel and Crown.

In this instance, I’ve been blessed to find one of their bottled beers to bring home for further study.

The name “Imperial Rose Garden Bubble Bath” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it doesn’t need to. A champagne pilsner with rose petals, rose water and white chocolate is unlikely to be an everyday beer. Is the pink label and bubble bath theme a little reductive and patronising on a beer supposedly created to celebrate International Women’s Day? It’s probably not my place to say.

Bubble Bath pours pale gold and fairly cloudy. Unlike most bubble baths I’ve encountered, there’s very little foam on this beer at all: it more closely resembles that same bath an hour or two after you’ve dried off and refilled your wine glass already.

The aroma brings us back to form though, with strong aromas of rose and white grape. There’s plenty more rosewater on the palate, softened a little with oats and wheat rounding off the mouthfeel. There’s a white chocolate smoothness to the beer too, a little sweetness, a little creaminess. That white chocolate is what hangs around on the finish.

This is certainly an interesting beer. The white chocolate balances the rosewater nicely, which keeps it from edging into “grandma’s perfume” territory. Sadly it’s not interesting enough, nor tasty enough, to have me craving a second bottle.