Stillwater Brontide

Brewed By: Stillwater Artisanal at Dog Brewing Co. in Westminster, MD  

Purchased: 12oz can from a 6-pack bought at Bottles & Cans in Chicago, IL; 2015

Style/ABV: Black Ale, 5.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

What, Stillwater is doing Black Ales now? About Stillwater Artisanal Ales: 

Stillwater Artisanal Ales are a Gypsy Brewery based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 2009-ish, the beer is brewed by Brian Strumke. You can find more info at the brewery's blog or their website. 

The Brontide is "a smooth black ale with mild roast and a soft Trappist yeast character." The beer pours into a dark brown, roooooby red body, kicking up a couple of fingers of lightly tan head. It looks like a Dry Stout or Porter...there's good lacing, appropriate carb, and all that good stuff.

Stillwater Brontide

This definitely has the Trappist yeast character...it's very mild...like a diluted Rochefort 10. I'm getting a lot of subtle coffee notes, hints of dark fruits and figs/grapes, some toasted sweetness ala a Brown Ale or sweet dark lager, and lots of earthy notes. This has some pretty nice earthy notes and deep roast, which is nice for the lower ABV. 

The taste basically follows through with the aroma. It's a nice, simple, dry, clean beer...the Trappist yeast is dialed down into the 5% format, but it tastes like a toned down Rochefort 10. I'm getting a lot of coffee, ash, deep roast, and some subtle dark fruit notes. It's high on the yeast character, followed by the dark roasty malts.

This is a solid beer for 5%. It has good palate depth and duration, and pulls off a medium-light mouthfeel. The finish is dry, the beer is well carbonated, and you want to keep sipping. It has okay complexity as well. Again, up front this is all about the roast and yeast, with some ashy notes and coffee; the mids roll into more coffee, toasty sweetness, more roast, fruity notes; the back end finishes dry with lingering goodness. Not bad, Stillwater, not bad.

Rating: Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. It pretty much does what it says it is going to do...gotta say, I would buy this again, if only because it comes in a 6-pack and seems to pair well with red meats and chocolaty foods. Not bad. 

Random Thought: The use of the Trappist yeast at the lower ABV is an interesting twist.

Three Floyds / Surly / Real Ale - Blakkr

Brewed By: 
Three Floyds Brewing Company in Munster, Indiana 
Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco, Texas

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Sheridan 'L' Longue in Chicago, IL; 2014

Style/ABV: Imperial Black Ale/IPA, 9.0%
Reported IBUs: 90

Tonight's beer is a collaboration between three breweries. I guess we can give props where props are due. About Three Floyds:

Today we go to Munster, Indiana, where Three Floyds has been brewing beer since 1996. The brewery was founded by brothers Nick and Simon, and their father Mike Floyd - hence, the name, Three Floyds. The first brewery was originally located in Hammond, Indiana. Eventually Three Floyds outgrew their original location, and moved to Munster, Indiana. After moving to Munster, and seeing an increased demand for their beer, Three Floyds began to bottle their beer. Since 2000, the brewery has continued to grow. And in 2005, the brewery opened its first brewpub. The brewery is probably most famous for their Dark Lord Stout. If you haven't heard of it, Google "Dark Lord Day." And then weep at the beer you probably will never be able to drink.

About Surly Brewing: 

The Surly Brewing company is a brewery based out of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. The brewery was founded in 2005 by long time homebrewer Omar Ansari with the help of Todd Haug (Minneapolis's Rock Bottom Brewery). For more info, check out the brewery's about page. 

About The Real Ale Brewing Company: 

The Real Ale Brewing Company is a brewery based out of Blanco, TX that was founded in 1996 by Philip & Diane Conner and their son, Charles. The family set up shop in a basement of an antiques store in the Blanco town square. They originally brewed three beers: a Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, Rio Blanco Pale Ale, and a Brewhouse Brown Ale. In 1998, the brewery was taken over by homebrewer and UT graduate Brad Farbstein. Construction for an expansion began in 2005, and went live in 2006. For more info, check out the brewery's website. 

The Blakkr is described as a huge, Double Black IPA. Real Ale Brewing describes this as having "subtle dark malt and toffee character," which "quickly yields to the citrus and tropical notes provided by a staggering amount of hops." 

Three Floyds / Surly / Real Ale - Blakkr

This one pours into an opaque black body; it's not quite as inky-thick as an Imperial Stout, but it's not a slouch either. The beer kicks up three fingers of tan/khaki head, and as the head drops off your are left with massive webs of lacing. Head retention is nice too. 

As soon as you crack this one open, you get blasted with intense hop kick. I was getting huge pineapple, guava, tropical fruits, and GIANT, DANK, resinous pine. It's like a stoned tropical fruit party, something that Three Floyds could be the creators of. Along with all the hops are huge layers of dark, rich malts. I'm getting big coffee, toffee, dark fruits, and some underlying roasty/chocolate.

This is fantastically bitter and hoppy, with huge underlying roast complexity. Up front is a wash of citrus, resinous pine, dank, guava, pineapple, and dark tropical fruits. The mids give way to crashes of pine against huge roast, and then the bitterness kicks in, with coffee and roast. The back end really dials up the coffee, with some lingering coffee/dark chocolate, resinous pine, and some toffee. Finishes sticky and dry.

This is full-bodied -- impressive stuff -- really. It kind of drinks like a Stout, despite being an Imperial Black IPA. Palate depth is outstanding, and the complexity is really good as well. At 9.0% or whatever this is, this is pretty drinkable. I'm digging this. Up front are huge hops, pine, guava, tropical fruit; the mids hit coffee, chocolate, roast, toffee, more hops; the back end is bitter with bitter coffee, dark chocolate, and a dry finish. This is a heavy hitter. Impressive.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. This is a heavy hitter, that's for sure. It's also a really solid Imperial Black IPA, with a nice balance of intense hops and big malty goodness. There's a lot of guava, tropical fruits, pine, dank hops, and big roasty/coffee/chocolate goodness to be had with this beer. You can pair this beer with big burgers, steaks, strong cheeses, chocolate cakes, or even something spicy...I don't know about wings, but maybe a nice mole sauce. Good stuff, would recommend, especially at around ~$10 a pop.

Random Thought: My only gripe about having four local sports games on during a Friday night is that the night flies by. Damn. 

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

Brewed By: Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in IL; 2014

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 5.3%

Reported IBUs: 43

Anyone that watches Iron Chef should know all about Masaharu Morimoto. The dude is a culinary badass, and one of the world's best chefs. It's also been hinted at for a long time now that Morimoto enjoys beer, so it's not surprising at all that Morimoto has designed his own line of beers with Rogue. I think it's a bit of an unfortunate pairing in some regards. Rogue doesn't have the best street credit among craft beer enthusiasts, and there are lots of creative breweries on the cutting edge that could develop awesome beer with an Iron Chef like Morimoto. But at the same time, Rogue's Pacman Yeast is kind of light and lager-y and plays well with the lighter styles of beer that Morimoto seems to be going for. About Rogue:

Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of their stuff. The brewery was founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser, and home brewer Jeff Schultz. Due to increasing space and distribution limitations, Jack Joyce went searching in Newport for a location for the new Rogue pub. It was at this time that he met Mohave Niem, founder of Mo's Clam Chowder. She offered Jack space to brew in her building, and in 1989 the Bay Front Brew Pub was built. Rogue's headquarters currently reside in Newport to this day. In May 1989, current head brewmaster, John Maier, joined Rogue after a brief sting brewing with Alask Brewing. John was a former Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co, and a graduate of the Seibel Institute. To learn more about Rogue, check out their website HERE.

The Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale is a Specialty Grain/American Black Ale that is probably similar to a Schwarzbier/Dark American Lager IF I HAD TO GUESS. This is described as a "richer version of our Soba Ale with the addition of specialty malts and a special blend of hops to give it a fuller, nutty flavor while retaining a clean, crisp finish." This one is malted with Roasted Soba, 2-Row, C-15, C-60, Carafa Special No. 2, Rogue Farms Dare & Risk, and Munich malts; this beer uses Rogue Farms Rebel, Liberty, & Independent Hope hops; and the beer is brewed with Rogue's Pacman Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water. Soba translates to buckwheat in Japanese, and is synonymous with a thin noodle made from buckwheat flour that is often served chilled with a dipping sauce, or in a hot broth. The more you know.

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale

The beer pours about how I expected it to. This one pours into a Dry Stout/Brown Ale/Dark Lager type body that is somewhere between red and brown and black, not completely opaque, and will be betrayed by a bright light in a minute. The beer kicks up a really nice three fingers of bready, tan head. Head retention looks good, and it really does remind me of a Brown Ale or Dry Stout. In bright light the beer is a hazy brownish-amber color, with moderate streams of mid-sized bubbles keeping the head sustained. It looks okay. There's some tight lacing on this.

The aroma on the nose is really clean, with big nutty aromas, toast, some sea salt and salt, soy sauce, umami, and serious Schwarzbier vibes. You get some Munich malts and caramel/kettle malts in this, with some hints of Marzen-like sweetness. The two big aromas -- nuttiness and soy sauce -- sort of blunt any hop character, but the aroma isn't all malts. There are hops in the mix. They're just super nondescript.

And...it tastes kind of exactly like how I predicted it would. Love it or hate it, the Pacman yeast is subtle, light, and airy. It's clean too. It's maybe as close to a Lager as you can get with an Ale yeast, but I don't homebrew so I wouldn't know. This beer flirts with the whole Dark Lager category (Dark American Lager/Munich Dunkel/Schwarzbier), and I'd throw in Marzens and Brown Ales for good measure. I'm getting a lot of nutty notes, toast, Munich malts and sweetness, earthy/bitter/clean Noble hops towards the back, and some spice. There are hints towards coffee and chocolate, but it's very subtle. There are also some hints towards salt and umami, but I'm not getting any actual soy sauce. It's a hinting beer. It's actually a really nicely executed beer when you compare it to other Brown Ales and Dark Lagers.

Sometimes it's nice to kick back and enjoy a lighter style beer. This beer blurs the line between Ales and Lagers, but it has tons of complexity, good palate depth and duration for the style, and and easy going light to medium-bodied mouthfeel. There's plenty of carbonation, and you don't get any alcohol. There's some nice trailing hop bitterness, good malt flavors, and a clean Lager-like finish that works. Up front: malt sweetness, hints of fruits and berries, toasted malts, toast, Munich malts, hints of coffee and chocolate; mid palate hits toast, kettle/caramel malts, more Munich malts, some complimentary hop bitterness, earthy hop spice and Noble hops; the back end is trailing Noble hop bitterness, lingering toast and Munich malts. There's a layer of salt/umami that never quite comes to fruition.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average here. If this is the new standard to pair with Japanese food, then color me impressed (and throw out your Tsingtao). I could see myself drinking this beer with sushi, Japanese cuisine, and even with some Oktoberfest German foods. This beer won't hold up to the myriad of super hoppy and super malty beers out there, but it's a really good Dark Lager-style Ale. I admit, I think the Pacman yeast sucks when Rogue uses it in some of their beers, but for this beer it works. Also, this one is selling for a very reasonable price...I paid 6 or 7 dollars for my bomber. Maybe Rogue is taking a hint?  

Random Thought: Remember folks, you should never compare apples to oranges.

Solemn Oath Combat Marshmallow

Brewed By: Solemn Oath Brewing in Naperville, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Pellys Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013 

Style/ABV: Black IPA/American Double Stout, 8.0%

Reported IBUs: 76

Tonight's review is going to be super lazy because I am le tired. About Solemn Oath:

Solemn Oath is a brewery based out of Naperville, IL, and was founded in 2012 by brothers John and Joe Barley, and former Rock Bottom employee Tim Marshall. Marshall's experience was with Belgian-style beers and barrel aging. After John and Tim scouted out the location, they began to install the brewery and on-site taproom. The first brew day was on April 21, 2012. Prior to that, the brewery signed a distribution deal with the Windy City Distribution, and launched three beers during the Chicago Craft Beer Week in 2012. The brewery already has expanded, adding additional barrels (up to 3,200 barrels) in January 2013. The brewery recently started bottling their beers in late 2013, and they have an on-site taproom where you can get a beer, grab some food from one of the many food trucks that stops by, and watch them brew their beer on site. For more information, definitely check out the brewery's ABOUT page or main website.

The Combat Marshmallow is part of Solemn Oath's limited release of bottled beers. This big, roasty, malty beer, features notes of dark chocolate and coffee balanced by resinous, piney hops. Punching in at 8.0% ABV and 76 IBUs, this one is available on tap and in limited release bottles.

Solemn Oath Combat Marshmallow

This beer pours into an inky black body...I'm a little surprised, but the beer doesn't have the viscosity of an Impy Stout. The beer kicks up three-plus fingers of dark brown/mocha/coffee-colored head. Things look much the same in bright light...the beer remains opaque, and the head retention is nice. There's some sticky lacing, and the head looks like that of a Black IPA. Onward!

The aroma leans towards the Stout side of a Black IPA, with intense leather, chocolate, cocoa, roast, ash/dirt/campfire, coffee, and some roasty campfire marshmallow. I'm getting some dusty cacao and some meaty roast as well. Beneath all the roast and intense chocolate streaks is some serious resin, pine, and citrus sap. There are definitely hops in this beer. There are some bready kisses as well, biscuit? Yum.

Okay so wow. I was expecting this to taste a lot more hoppy based on some of the reviews I saw on Untappd, but this beer is much more on the Stout side of things. I'm almost tempted to say this is more Stout than Black IPA, ergo just a Stout. You get a lot of leather, coffee, chocolate, dusty cocoa and cacao, earth, ash, and campfire marshmallow up front. I see where the beer's name came from. There's also a milky, sugary, lactose aspect that I can't quite place. Beneath all the Stout goodness is tons of resinous pine, pine sap, and sticky hop oil. The whole thing is rounded out with some bready biscuit and citrus hops, and the finish is a mix of dry and sticky citrus hops, and roasted malts. It's a big, bold beer.

This is a thick, oily, full-bodied beer. It drinks like a hop milkshake, but the carbonation and sugars help round things out. The duration on this beer is fantastic, and there's a lot of stuff going on. However, the big bold flavors seem straightforward enough, and I can't in good faith say this is overly complex? I don't know. I'm not complaining. This actually drinks a bit bigger than its 8.0% shoes, and definitely falls into that "sipper" category. It really is the perfect winter beer. When in Rome...

You get rich chocolate, cocoa, dusty cacao, earthy roast, coffee, ash/dirt, and campfire marshmallow up front; that rolls into roast and growing dirt/coffee bitterness, and then the pine sap and resin kicks in. The back end is all about the pine, pine sap, lingering roast and ash, and the beer finishes roasty and dry with lingering hops. The beer is rounded out by biscuit/bread and citrus hops, and features a nice depth of malt. It's like: Milk Stout, Imperial Stout, Black IPA, IPA, Black IPA...in that order.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I'm really enjoying this...this beer has a ton of big flavors, and you get lots of chocolate, ash/campfire, and hoppy goodness. The beer is complex and has great palate depth. This is a Winter football sipper, and would pair well with dark chocolate, strong cheeses, a burger with mushrooms, steak with mushrooms, and salisbury steak. I recommend picking this up if you find a bottle, or hitting it up on tap.

Random Thought: This is a very good beer, and I'm a bit surprised with some of the reviews on Untappd. I understand that Black IPAs are a challenging style, but this is a well executed beer. I hope Solemn Oath brews this again, because yeah. Good stuff. 

New Glarus Black Top

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Black IPA, 6.9% 

Reported IBUs: ?

In Wisconsin the cows go "mooo." I'm pretty sure this is the last of the 12oz bottles, which is kind of sad for me. BUT, there are some fun fruit beers around the corner, so yay. About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Black Top is a seriously tasty brew. I'm not going to lie, this beer is totally bangable. This Black IPA features notes of molasses and chocolate malt undertones, with a rush of clean citrus and pine notes. Or so says New Glarus. I get a lot more from this beer, so stick around.

New Glarus Black Top

In low light the beer starts by pouring into a dark red/brown body, but quickly turns into a mostly opaque, black body. This one kicks up a finger of sandy, gray/khaki head. The head departs with some lacing, and a nice cauldron effect forms atop the beer. If you shine a bright light through this beer, you can see right through it. It's ruby red with some popping carbonation. 

The aroma on here is super aggressive, as per the style. I'm getting blasted with a ton of super resinous, super woody, super dank citrus: namely grapefruit and orange, with some guava and apricot. I had this beer on tap in the New Glarus tasting room, and it's so aromatic and bright on tap...same story in the bottle. I'm also picking up some huge resinous pine and resinous pine sap on the aroma, along with some hints of chocolate, bitter dark chocolate, roast, and black molasses.

Wow...just wow on the taste. Straight away you get blasted with a mix of resinous pine and citrus, and then you get hit with some dusty dark chocolate, roast, coffee, and molasses. Once those flavors quickly subside, you get more super resinous pine, resinous citrus and guava, and intense hops. There's a rich peppery note in this, and I would suggest the perfect food pairing for this beer would be peppered steak. I'm wondering if they use some Nelson Sauvin hops in here, because I'm picking up some resinous passion fruit in the mix. This is just...the tits.

This beer is perfect. The palate depth and complexity are both off the charts for the style. The mouthfeel strikes a perfect balance: it's medium-bodied with good carbonation, impressive bitterness, tons of hop flavor, and some roast and dark malt character to boot. What I really like about this beer is that the balance is shifted towards the hops/fruity character. This beer never feels like a Stout or an IPA being bombarded with roast/black malts. That's a good thing, because many Black IPAs fall into that trap. And did I mention this beer is ridiculously drinkable for the fairly high ABV? This is probably my favorite Black IPA. You get blasted with resinous pine, citrus, tropical fruits, and hop explosion up front; that rolls into bitter pine, roast, bitter chocolate, subtle malt complexity; the back end trails off with lingering bitterness and complex dark malts, and finishes with resinous hops. The finish is dry and attenuated, with lingering sticky fruits. Delicious.

Rating: Divine Brew (5.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is just one of the best Black IPAs in the world. There, I said it. This beer has taken home medals, it's drinkable, it's complex, it's big and bold....it's just really, really fucking good. If you are in Wisconsin and you like beer, you have an obligation to buy some of this beer. This is some of New Glarus' best stuff, and yes, it's not a fruit beer. Food pairings for this beer: steak. Preferably something salty or peppery. Peppered steak or Salisbury steak sound just about right. New Glarus also suggests pairing this beer with Mexican food, and I agree! Some steak tacos or a steak burrito? Shiiiiit. Seriously, I'm going to drive across the border in a few weeks to get more of this. I cannot recommend this beer enough.

Random Thought: Seriously, this beer is the tits. I envy Wisconsin, because as far as I know, Illinois has nothing like this readily available. 

Pipeworks Close Encounter

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #57) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013

Style/ABV: Stout/Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale, 8.5%
Reported IBUs: ?

How bout dem apples. Just like I predicted last night, today's commute was a clusterfuck, with streams turned into rivers, streets turned into streams, and underpasses turned into mini lakes. Like a champ and/or idiot, I made the trek to work...only to get sent home per company policy. Hooray! On the bright side, today was a half day. Oh, and it's unofficial official Pipeworks Thursday...about Pipeworks:

Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. At one point - and maybe still - the goal was the release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.

The back of the Close Encounter (Hoppy Double Stout) bottle states:

"Close Encounter is a bold venture into depths unknown. The best of both worlds co-exist between a rich roasted malt character and an aggressive hop presence that will probe your taste buds like nothing you have experienced before. Don't fear the unknown, embrace it! You never know who or what you may encounter..."

Pipeworks Close Encounter

Clocking in at 8.5%...this is a big beer. So let's glass it up.

This one pours a dark black color in low light, and kicks up two finger's worth of super dark brown/coffee head. The head is bready and thick, and is sustaining nicely. When you swirl the beer around in the glass, the head coats the beer with thick brown lacing and residuals. This one pretty much looks the same in bright light, only you can pick up some dark brown/ruby tones in the body. The head on this is killer.

Wow, the aroma on this beer is incredible. I'm getting big pine, resin, woody hops, orange, tobacco, chocolate, and coffee. The chocolate and coffee profiles in this are both intense and huge. There is a pine-wood-chocolate connection on the nose driving this beer.

In the taste: tons of bitter, pissed off, woody citrus, and lots and lots of roast. You can feel this beer aggressively coating your tongue like it coats the side of your glass, despite the fact that this is more like medium-full thanks to the dryness, this is still super chewy and roasty. I'm picking up intensely roasted malts, dirt, coffee, tobacco, and lots of piney/citrus hop kick, especially as this dries out and lingers on the palate. There's a rich chocolate component at work as well, with some super bitter dark chocolate showing up.

As I suggested, this is medium-full in terms of mouthfeel, thanks to the dry finish. It does bounce between a tad watery and a tad dense, but this is mostly just chewy, roasty, and resinous. Some powdery dark chocolate/cacao is abound. Palate depth is great, particularly with the way this just coats your tongue. Complexity is probably average for the style...and I think they could have maybe dialed up the bitterness here. Up front is roast, cacao, coffee; this rolls into more roast, hops, cacao; the back end hits the piney/citrus hops, and fades to a woody dryness.

Rating: Above-Average (4/5 Untappd)

This is a Decent Above-Average for the style. I do like Cascadian Dark beers....such a fun style, and a nice mesh of the Stout richness, roast, and chocolate, with the huge hop character I enjoy. This is a good beer, and would pair well with a burger, dry chocolate cake, and any dish that benefits from chocolate, roast, and hops. Really nice stuff, especially at around 10 dollars a bomber.

Random Thought: I don't mind the rain, but now we are back into the 40s and 50s. Maybe if I stop drinking Stouts winter will go away.

Beer Here Dark Hops

Brewed By: Beer Here in De Proef, Lochristi, Belgium (De Proefbrouwerij)
Purchased: 1 Pint, .9oz (16.9oz) bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: Black IPA, 8.5%

Reported IBUs: 80
"Hops were harmed in the production of this beer." 

I wish I spoke Danish or German, because it would make my life a hell of a lot easier. Today, I'm looking at a beer brewed by "the guy," at Beer Here. Beer Here is (or was?) a Danish brewery, based out of Køge, Denmark. The brewery was founded and is run by Christian Andersen Skovdal, the previous brewer at the Ølfabrikken (The Beer Factory) microbrewery. According to THIS ARTICLE, Christian left Ølfabrikken to start Beer Here in 2008. Beer Here contract brews their beer, while Christian masterminds the brews. Hence why I said the brewery may have been based out of Køge.

Tonight's beer, the Dark Hops, is contract brewed at De Proefbrouwerij. You can get the breakdown on the Dark Hops HERE. The Dark Hops is described as a "stout as hoppy as an IPA." This beer is brewed with Maris Otter malt, smoked malt, British specialty malts, and sugar cane. The beer is hopped with Zeus and Czech Saaz hops. Clocking in at 8.5%, this is a big beer. There's a PDF on the beer, which can be found HERE. The PDF outlines slightly different ingredients, stating that this is brewed with Maris Otter malts, malted rye, roasted barley, brown malt; and then hopped with American Columbus hops. Either way, this beer still clocks in at 8.5%, and packs 80 IBUs. This beer is unpasteurized, unfiltered, and bottle-conditioned. You can age this for 3-5 years.

I sometimes laugh at the dumb hop puns that breweries use for their beer names, but I think "Dark Hops" is pretty fucking clever. Especially considering that the Black IPA is still somewhat elusive, and was even more so when Dark Hops first arrived on the market. So props to Beer Here for that one. Let's glass this up and see what we got.

Beer Here Dark Hops

This one pours a swampy brown-purple color, with a super hazy/swampy body. I kicked up 5-fingers of creamy, thick, foamy head. The head is tan, with a bready color. In bright light, the body of this beer is juicy/swampy/murky as fuck. It's like scooping out a cup of muddy swamp water. It's like a purple-brown Bloody Mary. You can see carbonation in the form of tiny, tiny bubbles. The head is quite creamy, and sustaining nicely. It has a cream soda/root beer color. There's lacing, duh. I'm a big fan of these murky, unfiltered beers. It's like an adventure in a glass...crickey.

The aroma on this is dank hemp, resinous hops, roast, hints of coffee, a bready backbone, and TONS of sugar. I'm getting a lot of candi sugar, molasses, and some sugary rye. There's a floral thing going on with the hops as well, with hints of mint, pine, and citrus.

It seems both fitting, and ironic, to serve this in an Arrogant Bastard glass. This is a very palatable and balanced Black IPA, with a creamy and smooth mouthfeel. I'm getting a lot of pine, citrus, and grapefruit on the back end of this. You get some of the resinous and dank hops up front, with hints of hemp and tobacco. The middle rolls into roast, and there's a coffee-roast thing throughout. As the bitterness grows, I pick up some more hop resin, bitter dark chocolate, and the beer really coats the palate well. There's an underlying alcohol complexity going on here, with hints of raisins and figs, and a boozy abyss. At 8.5%, this is a big beer.

This is lighter than I was expecting at 8.5%...less hoppy and resinous than I was expecting (especially for 80 IBUs!)...fairly smooth and drinkable; supported by lots of carbonation..and yet, there is a growing and underlying complexity that drives this beer. There's a lot going on here. First off, palate depth is great. This is medium-full to full-bodied, but retains drinkability (so be careful...8.5% and all). But the complexity is outstanding. Up front is roast, chocolate, coffee...and then you get kissed by hemp, tobacco, resinous/piney hops, a hint of mint; the hops hang out in the middle, with bitter citrus, grapefruit, coffee; the back end is lingering bitter, and then opens back up with roast, chocolate, coffee. The finish is woody and dry as hell. As all of the above is going on, there is an underlying boozy complexity driving this beer, with dashes of figs and raisins and spice. There's also a bit of grain and bread as the backbone.

Rating: Above-Average

Is that what you want?

I gotta go with a Lite Above-Average on this. I was leaning towards Average, but this really won me over with all the stuff going on. I wish the hops were a little more prominent and resinous, but the tradeoff is that this beer features a really nice hops vs. malt balance, has tons of complexity, and makes the alcohol work in its favor. Oh, and this shit is super drinkable. This is a dangerous beer at 8.5%. Food pairings? You know, this is basically an IPA with the added dimensions of roast, chocolate, and coffee. You could pair this with anything, really. This beer is bitter enough to stand up to strong foods and big spices, so I could see this working with spicy chicken and rice, Mexican food, pizza, really hot and spicy wings, ribs, etc. The cost of this was reasonable at around 7 or 8 bucks a bottle.

Random Thought: I actually bought this beer twice. I picked up a bottle of this, and during the trip between my upstairs and downstairs, I dropped the bottle...only to watch it shatter into 20 pieces and spill delicious beer everywhere. The loss of beer is a tragedy, but the real suck-ass is cleaning up spilled beer. I can't imagine spilling thousands of gallons of beer at a brewery (which happens frequently enough). Because that's how you get ants.