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Institution Ales Fall Seasonal is back with a Black IPA. It is “brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops. Deceptively dark in appearance, this beer drinks similarly to a piney, citrusy West Coast IPA with only small hints of toasty and chocolate malts.”
If you saw the John Oliver – Last Week Tonight commentary on dollar stores and how terrible they are, you will understand why the name of the new beer from Paperback Brewing is so scary and fitting for the Spooky Season…
…it is good to see that Black IPA has found a bit of a seasonal niche for Halloween.
Paperback also has a good beer name going with the Beer Snob IPA but they really should have gone for a different IPA sub-style like Brut instead of…
If you are going to collaborate with Moonlight Brewing, ya’ just gotta choose a style that will incorporate dark malts. And if you are going to collaborate with Societe Brewing, you better hop it up.
So, obviously…
Going east from SoCal we find colder snowier winters and possibly Frostbite, as in the Black IPA from Foothills Brewing.
“The official beer of Jack Frost. Skillfully blended barley and roasted wheat malts team up with a big blast of flavor and aroma from Pacific Northwest hops. The result? A Black IPA as refreshingly bracing as a cold winter day.”
New month, new One Batch Dispatch from Stone Brewing . 9 Minutes to Midnight is a double dry-hopped imperial black IPA blended with a bit of whiskey barrel-aged Stone 25th Anniversary Triple IPA.
My love / hate relationship with Black IPA’s continues with the 2021 Fall Seasonal from Institution Ales.
It pours a dark brown, near black with a light tan head. It has a spiced coffee latte aroma. Not PSL but nice. The balance is tilted more to the malt side. Quite bready and filling. The bitterness is more of a counterpoint. I like the re-emerging trend back to this style but I just wish the hops would be more assertive.
Today is Black IPA day here at BSP. I am quite glad that this style has re-emerged and is being connected to fall seasonal / Halloween.
Here is another version from Lucky Luke Brewing re-released for 2021….
I need recent days, two fan favorite beers returned to distribution. First….
Stone Brewing stuck SS-R in its 12 Days of IPA’s box and then this year decidedly to re-release it all on its own. That was followed by…
…the label re-designed Wookey Jack from the SoCal Firestone.
How many more Black IPA’s do you think will cone back this year?
Certain IPA sub-styles have not lasted. Brut IPA, I really liked. Not to be found anymore. White IPA lasted less time. Session IPA had a moment but that momentum faded. But the king of busted IPA dreams was the Cascadian or Black IPA. Rare was the one that balanced dark malt with bitterness just right.
And maybe, Common Space has unlocked it with their new Citra hop version.
Last year brought Double Two Hearted, which was really good and now 2020 brings a throwback to the Cascadian Dark Ale times with a Two Hearts Valentine’s Day brand extension from Bell’s with Broken Hearted. How the honey and extreme hops work with darker malts is to be seen.
