I know that beer geeks as a community are supposed to love, crave, and trade your favorite limb for the beers of Founders, but I have to break from the pack, and admit that I found one that left me cold.
Appearance: very dark. nearly black, lots of reddish highlights, round the edges, with a slim dark head.
Aroma: citrus-y, piney, and plenty malty. Here's the perfect nose of a black ale ( I just hate calling them 'black IPAs'.) high hops, raisins, grapes, …etcetera.
Taste: In the mouth, thick, rich malt, bright hoppiness, an interesting mix. Now, the booze rushes in, okay it's imperial now, is it? There's a blast of bitterness on the palate, a full body, a long, malty finish. …it is tasty, and it's good, but I'm not crazy about it.
Here's the thing: I've never had an Imperial Black IPA. Not sure how many of them there are, and I'm not sure if I'm in favor of them. I'm all for Imperial IPAs, stouts, porters, but why not this? The problem is that I'm tasting the booze in it more than anything else, more than the hops even. It seems as if the malt involved was merely an afterthought.
There's positively no gobbledygook on the label, so let's check the carrier for copy. "A heavy malt foundation includes crystal malt for sweetness and just enough midnight wheat malt to push the color to black. The bitterness is huge, but balanced by malt sweetness and alcohol burn. The hop flavors and aromas range from citrus to floral to pine, thanks to a delicious blend of hand-selected Chinook and Centennial hops."
Okay, I've never heard of "alcohol burn" being a source of balance. There's really no balance to speak of, the hop bitterness doesn't match the malt at all.
I like hoppy-as-hell IPAs, I can take higher alcohol brews, and I do like 'em dark. But, this is kind of mixed up and I'm left less than delighted. I'm going to have a big, brassy Belgian or maybe a rich, hearty Imperial Stout to lift my spirits.
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