Its been a while but I am back and sense nobody reads this nobody missed me. So thats cool, I didnt let anybody down. Any way, on to the beer. I like the Stone Enjoy by stuff, they get to make all sorts of one run goofy beers. Sometimes they are good sometimes they are terrible. This one is pretty good it reminds some of a Self Rightous which isnt shocking it being a black IPA and all. My only real complaint is the same on as always, way to much of the ABV’s. I like to have a beer every now and then, I dont like having to worry about waking up in a park naked. Drink a couple of these and that would be a distinct possibility. Ehhh. I like it.
First off I want to give a sincere thank you to my homie Bruce for bringing me a shit load of really good beer from Minnesota and Wisconsin. The next bunch of beers I review all came from him. If you ever need a kidney Bruce, I got you covered. Except that becaue of all the beer I drink my kidneys are probably as effective as Estelle Getty playing left wing for the Rangers, well actually she couldnt be much worse than those fucks… And shes dead! Get it? The Rangers SUCK! What ever, thanks Bruce and to who ever clued him in to these beers because they look great. This one for instance is fucking awesome. The last black ale I tried was horrible but this makes up for it. It has a really smooth coffee, or chocolate(?) taste to it. I dont know, I dont have the most sophisticated palate and I am kind of dumb. But I do know when I am drinking a good beer and I am. Like right now. It is fucking Tony the Tiger level GREAT!!
Its been a really long time since I have had an American Black Ale and after tasting this one I cant say that I am missing them. I know this isnt the spokesman for the style but it kind of sucks to the point that I am not really wanting another one. It is to ABV’y and there is a strong sweetness to it. This is supposed to be a black IPA but it tastes more like a grain alcohol glass of HFCS. Blah.
Lagunitas makes Day Time which is probably my number 1 go to beer for when I just want to have a beer. The thing that I like about Day Time is that it tastes like a normal awesome IPA with a decently low ABV. I am tired of super high ABV beers but I want a nice high IBU beer and it is perfect. So you can imagine that I was super happy to find Night Time, same concept but like a Black IPA? Sign me up! Even better, it tastes great, very similar to Day Time but with that Black IPA twist. And then I looked up the ABV, sad… It is a really good beer though. Its just that I can only drink like 2 of them until I start raving about old Friends episodes and taking off all of my clothes.
So this seems to be the new hotness in the beer world. So I also apparently also talk like a valley girl. Fuck. I dont really know what to say because this is a pretty good beer but I dont think it is SUPER AWESOME!!! BLARG!! It is good and I am enjoying it a lot, but I dont understand all of the love. I really think that the Self Righteous is better.
This is a black IPA that is called Sabbath. I might be 13 years old but that shit is METAL! Also the the beer is really good. Black IPA’s are the beer that reminds me that I am a fucking idiot. I love them so much and I never drink them. Every time I drink one I remember I love them and then I dont drink one for like another year. I am a fool. This is a dark dark yet hoppy as fuck beer that still has malts peeking around the corner. My mouth is like a hot coed who naively showers with the blinds wide open, the malts are that creepy dude who is wearing a raincoat.. and that is it. Also he is furiously pounding his pud. A lot. They are there and you dont really see (taste) them but you know they are there. OK I got a little side tracked, but this is a really good beer.
Well it is good but… It isnt very IPAish and with only 40 IBU’s I guess that makes sense. Honestly I have to say it tastes more like an English IPA than an American. That isnt a bad thing but there is a certain something you expect when the label says it is a Black IPA and this falls a little short of that. If you ignore all of that noise this is a pretty good beer that I am enjoying.
So thanks to Dustard for bringing back a super rare beer from London. It is good to have friends that travel. When he got it he told me it is on par with Pliney the Elder which I thought was unlikely, but holy shit was he right, this thing is unreal. It is very very smooth with a bitterness that while not being overpowering is still easily noticeable. Man this thing is good. I would go on about how good it is but it isnt like I will ever have another one.
As I just told M1, I am getting a little tired of Black IPA’s. I still like them a lot but they just dont make feel all sparkly any more. I am no longer being mouth sexed by Twilight vampires. I dont know this is good but it isnt so good that I am going to try and do a cartwheel. It is still pretty good for a Black IPA.
This making me pretty happy, it is a good beer that is totally good and makes me remember why I love Black IPA’s. So bitter… So dark… But in this case it is not very black, bormally that doesnt bother me but I kind of want a black IPA to be black. This is more of a really deep brown. Uhhh… I am being a bitch, this is a really good beer that makes my taste buds start fucking each other, but in a good way… I was going to make a taste bud rape metaphor… but as awesome as this tastes there is never a good way to make a rape reference! Rape is bad. Dont do it!
Yup, here we go. This is a really good true to the style, yes I know it barely exists, Black IPA. Bitter ass hops with a punch of malts that kind of help balance out the bitterness. Holy crap this is good. Damn yo…
I am confused. This is a really good beer but it isnt overly bitter of massively malted. I kind of expected one or the other but this is kind of… neutral? I dont mean it tastes like nothing, I think it is just really well balanced. Really well… I like it, I like it a lot. It just doesn’t taste like a Black IPA which in this case is OK.
Welp this smells like ass. For real ASS! Ummm I dont like it because while it smells like ass it tastes even worse. God damn it, I really have liked all of the DuClaw’s I have had… A lot. For real, they have been really good. But this is not good. I would go so far to say that it is bad. God damn it, it is real bad. Pour out bad.
Well it is totally more brown than black… As in it tastes more like a brown ale than a black IPA. It is good but I really dont like brown ales. Meh… Maybe I am just not in a good mood today. I tried this year Saison Du BUFF and I didnt like it either.
This isnt bad but it isnt really good either. It is pretty much blah. I am not mad that I bought it. It has a very slight malt taste that is off set by a very slight hop taste. Everything here is “very slight”. Kind of like a Hoppy Feet or a Self Righteous turned down to 3.
