It wasn't but a month ago that my friend Kevin -- a more knowledgeable and dedicated brew fan than myself -- and I took a day off and gallivanted around San Francisco for it's annual Beer Week. Our first stop was City Beer Store, which was holding an event to promote a few beers by the Midnight Sun Brewing Company. Being the amateur beer fan that I am, I was unfamiliar with the brewery, though I was excited at the selections CBS had on tap for me to try. An interesting twist was that two of their beers had both normal and nitro taps -- something I had never seen before. My first and favorite beer selection was the XXX Black Double IPA on nitro, and it was thoroughly enjoyable - but this review is for the standard bottled version which I picked up a few weeks later in preparation for a Tahoe trip.
My first reaction to the bottled variety was that this DIPA skates dangerously close to the domain of a porter - it has a deep, bitter taste that reminds me of coffee and dark chocolate, and the sweetness of the malt is masked by these flavors. While the nitro pour at CBS made the beer smoother and helped to highlight the malt more to my liking, the standard version seemed to be a much more potent experience. I found myself enjoying the beginning of the beer far less than the middle and the end, as my taste buds seemed to take a while to adjust to the beer's flavor and feel.
My review of this beer is conflicted mainly because of it's similarity to a porter. Porters are arguably one of my least favorite beer varieties, so that quality of the XXX Black DIPA is my main gripe with the brew. With that said, I have a knowledgeable enough palette to know something special - and this beer is definitely that. It's strong, complex, a little hot to the tongue for its 8.5% ABV, and drinks like a porter. Unfortunately while I think I would reach for this beer as a pint of nitro coming off a tap, I don't think I'll be purchasing the bottled version for casual enjoyment again anytime soon.
3 comments:
Hof's back. Maxwell's back. Double review all the way!
WHAT DOES IT MEAAAN??!??!
Yes, the Black IPA style or "American Black Ale" as Beeradvocate calls it, is basically just a heavily hopped porter if you look at a recipe.
In addition to your palate acclimating to the beer, the beer likely also warmed as you drank it, which typically enables the subtleties in the malt flavors to come to the forefront a bit more. The Nitro version at City Beer was likely served a good deal warmer than fridge temperature as well.
With most beers I find myself leaving them out of the fridge for 10-15 minutes before I even open them nowadays, and typically I end up with a better experience. Some beer styles I do drink fridge cold though, like pale ales, most IPAs, and Pilsners.
Really enjoying reading the reviews.
-Kevin
Post a Comment