More Brown Than Black IPA – Stone, Ninkasi, and The Alchemist Collaboration

More Brown Than Black IPA

I have been putting off drinking this beer for sometime. But man, every time I open up my beer fridge, there it is, staring me in the face, begging for me to pop the top of it and enjoy it’s contents. I gave in. I did it. After a long workout with P90X2, I thought I deserved it. What the heck. This beer comes to you from a collaboration (craft beer trend anyone?) from Stone, Ninkasi, and The Alchemist and 100% of the profits from this nationally distributed beer will be going to The Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund.

Despite the name it’s a very, very, very dark brown, c’mon!  So it’s very dark brown, and the head is really nice, a toasty browned-white thing, like a marshmallow that just briefly meets the flame. Lasts for the duration and leaves a lot of thick lace on the glass.

Super-potent nose, although the strength of the hops is so bright and clean that it nearly snuffs out all that dark malt. It’s pretty much 100%, from what my nose can gather. Gives you the feeling that it’s cleaning your brain spotless. Seriously, it’s that bright.

Thankfully some grains come into the taste, even if they’re burnt-tasting, full of char, giving off some smoky notes and all that. But that’s the kind of beer this is supposed to be. And for all the herbal/citrus peel hops that are just about glowing here, they play nice and mingle well with the malt. With a little warming and opening up, a raisin/plum kind of flavor enters into the mix. Astringent hop greenness/bitterness remains longest in the slightly coating finish. Slighty resiny.

Texturally it’s smooth and slick, medium-bodied with a pleasant and gentle carbonation tingle/tickle.

I have never had a beer from The Alchemist, unfortunately, but knowing well the character of other brews by Ninkasi and Stone, I wouldn’t expect a black (okay, brown) IPA from them that would be anything less intense than this. I am not a big fan of the “Black IPA” “Cascadian Dark Ale” or “Very very very dark brown IPA”, but this one certainly stood out for me. If I wasn’t looking at the glass it would be an outstanding IPA for me.

Cheers,

BCB

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