-
Stop lurking! Log in to search, post in our forums, review beers, see fewer ads, and more. — Todd, Founder of BeerAdvocate
Black Christmas
Parallel 49 Brewing Company
- From:
- Parallel 49 Brewing Company
- British Columbia, Canada
- Style:
- Black IPA
- ABV:
- 6.5%
- Score:
- 86
- Avg:
- 3.81 | pDev: 9.97%
- Reviews:
- 11
- Ratings:
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Jun 28, 2019
- Added:
- Nov 15, 2012
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 4
This beer does away with Vanilla and spices common in Christmas ales and delivers hops and bitterness. A new style of beer developed in the Pacific Northwest, this CDA is hopped like an IPA but is dark in colour. 100-mile local hops were used to build the hop flavour and aroma.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by souvenirs:
More User Ratings:
Reviewed by Lone_Freighter from Vermont
4/5 rDev +5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4/5 rDev +5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Thanks Mark.
Poured into a becher pint glass.
The appearance was a dark brown close to black color with a small finger's worth of an off-white foamy head. Slow dissipation leaves some glossy messy lace.
The aroma had some strong bittersweet piney and woody hops pushing against a roasty dark toast, dark leather and some coffee grounds.
The flavor meshes in some of the coffee grounds and dark toast with the pine and adds a brisk citrus sweet side. Mild aftertaste of the citrus, light pine, dark toast and coffee.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a good sipping quality about it. Mild carbonation hits appropriately and touches my tongue with the right amount of hop harshness for the style. Mild lingering roasty to piney/woody hoppy notes in the finish.
Overall, nicely done CDA in which I would welcome again if I could get it again.
Jun 28, 2019Poured into a becher pint glass.
The appearance was a dark brown close to black color with a small finger's worth of an off-white foamy head. Slow dissipation leaves some glossy messy lace.
The aroma had some strong bittersweet piney and woody hops pushing against a roasty dark toast, dark leather and some coffee grounds.
The flavor meshes in some of the coffee grounds and dark toast with the pine and adds a brisk citrus sweet side. Mild aftertaste of the citrus, light pine, dark toast and coffee.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a good sipping quality about it. Mild carbonation hits appropriately and touches my tongue with the right amount of hop harshness for the style. Mild lingering roasty to piney/woody hoppy notes in the finish.
Overall, nicely done CDA in which I would welcome again if I could get it again.
Reviewed by LampertLand from Canada (BC)
3.77/5 rDev -1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
3.77/5 rDev -1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Parallel 49 'Black Christmas CDA' @ 6.5% , served from a 341 ml bottle Day 13 Seasons Greetings
A-pour is a deep dark brown that turns black as a medium size tan head clings to the pint glass leaving some spotty lacing
S-lots of hops , citrus , pine needles
T-cascadian dark ale in taste , bit hoppy , bitter citrus bite in the finish
MF-medium carbonation , medium body
Ov-the grinning scrooge beside CDA on the label says it all ,
Christmas Dark Ale -or-Cascadian Dark Ale , clever Parallel 49 ,
very clever marketing , now please make better beers
prost LampertLand
Dec 25, 2016A-pour is a deep dark brown that turns black as a medium size tan head clings to the pint glass leaving some spotty lacing
S-lots of hops , citrus , pine needles
T-cascadian dark ale in taste , bit hoppy , bitter citrus bite in the finish
MF-medium carbonation , medium body
Ov-the grinning scrooge beside CDA on the label says it all ,
Christmas Dark Ale -or-Cascadian Dark Ale , clever Parallel 49 ,
very clever marketing , now please make better beers
prost LampertLand
Reviewed by CalgaryFMC from Canada (AB)
3.92/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3.92/5 rDev +2.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
341 ml bottle poured into a tulip. An opaque dark black (looks brown at the very bottom) with a solid three fingers of thick frothy tan head that recalls sponge toffee. Great look. Also on board with a black IPA as a Christmas offering, as I am more than a little spiced out right now, at least when it comes to beer.
Aroma is rich with coffee, molasses, and dry chocolate chips deftly seasoned with grapefruit, mango, pine needles, oregano, and dried cherries. Kind of a dried leather fruity sweetness. Sublime. The taste does not quite reach such lofty heights but still delivers some robust dark coffee, dried fruit snack, menthol cough drop, flat cola, and honeyed caramel flavors that co-exist relatively peaceful-like. May not hang together as well as some other CDAs I've sampled but still vibrant, roasty, and darkly sweet with plenty of potent hop resins. Orange juice and crisp spicy leaf become noticeable late. Thick texture, rather creamy, with gentle carbonation. A distinct whiff of ash emerges in the dry finish.
This gets top tier scores across the board expect where it counts most. Still, a solid addition to the Parallel 49 canon and something I'd buy outside of the holiday context.
Feb 20, 2015Aroma is rich with coffee, molasses, and dry chocolate chips deftly seasoned with grapefruit, mango, pine needles, oregano, and dried cherries. Kind of a dried leather fruity sweetness. Sublime. The taste does not quite reach such lofty heights but still delivers some robust dark coffee, dried fruit snack, menthol cough drop, flat cola, and honeyed caramel flavors that co-exist relatively peaceful-like. May not hang together as well as some other CDAs I've sampled but still vibrant, roasty, and darkly sweet with plenty of potent hop resins. Orange juice and crisp spicy leaf become noticeable late. Thick texture, rather creamy, with gentle carbonation. A distinct whiff of ash emerges in the dry finish.
This gets top tier scores across the board expect where it counts most. Still, a solid addition to the Parallel 49 canon and something I'd buy outside of the holiday context.
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)
3.71/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
3.71/5 rDev -2.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
341ml bottle, day 13 of the Parallel 49/Central City Mystery Gift Holiday Countdown.
This beer pours a clear (I think), very dark brown colour, with prominent basal cola highlights, and three fingers of puffy, rocky, and bubbly beige head, which leaves some stellar webbed jungle tree profile lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.
It smells of meaty caramel malt, dank pine and leafy forest floor detritus, toasted wheat bread, grainy caramel malt, cherry menthol drops, a touch of earthy yeast, soft wet char, and further weedy, floral, and kind of perfumed hops. The taste is roasted caramel malt, muddled pine needles, spruce tips, dead leaves, a still isolated ashy char essence, a bit of flat cola sweetness, and indistinct musty, somewhat phenolic esters.
The carbonation is fairly understated in its generic frothiness and opportunistic fizziness, the body a sturdy medium weight, and full of a tattered sort of smoothness, the roast and hops not known for playing nice in that arena. It finishes off-dry, the blend of styles as apparent as ever.
While this may eschew the typical seasonal beer trappings, it does at least get it all right with the name - the blackened malt, the (Christmas) tree-borne bitterness, I'm fine with letting that all go. But, as usual, as a normal, drinkable brew - I just can't get on board with the two dueling forces here, and what they do to my various flavour receptors.
Dec 14, 2014This beer pours a clear (I think), very dark brown colour, with prominent basal cola highlights, and three fingers of puffy, rocky, and bubbly beige head, which leaves some stellar webbed jungle tree profile lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.
It smells of meaty caramel malt, dank pine and leafy forest floor detritus, toasted wheat bread, grainy caramel malt, cherry menthol drops, a touch of earthy yeast, soft wet char, and further weedy, floral, and kind of perfumed hops. The taste is roasted caramel malt, muddled pine needles, spruce tips, dead leaves, a still isolated ashy char essence, a bit of flat cola sweetness, and indistinct musty, somewhat phenolic esters.
The carbonation is fairly understated in its generic frothiness and opportunistic fizziness, the body a sturdy medium weight, and full of a tattered sort of smoothness, the roast and hops not known for playing nice in that arena. It finishes off-dry, the blend of styles as apparent as ever.
While this may eschew the typical seasonal beer trappings, it does at least get it all right with the name - the blackened malt, the (Christmas) tree-borne bitterness, I'm fine with letting that all go. But, as usual, as a normal, drinkable brew - I just can't get on board with the two dueling forces here, and what they do to my various flavour receptors.
Reviewed by wordemupg from Canada (AB)
3.97/5 rDev +4.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3.97/5 rDev +4.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
330ml bottle poured into tulip 28/11/14
A dark cola liquid, dense of fingers of mocha foam has great retention and cakes the side of the glass with lace
S spruce, pine, melon, coco powder, a little smoke, some citrus, not overly intense but hits the right noes
T more of the same but a little more of i, the roast is darker but the hops shine through a little stronger at the same time, faint coffee and char come out as it warms
M smooth entry and creams up nicely, has a bitter bite and a little grit, citrus and char linger
O well rounded CDA, lots of hops, lots of dark roast, easy to drink, no major complaints
I wouldn't grab another advent calendar to drink one but I wouldn't mind seeing this in 6ers or bombers in my neck of the woods
Nov 28, 2014A dark cola liquid, dense of fingers of mocha foam has great retention and cakes the side of the glass with lace
S spruce, pine, melon, coco powder, a little smoke, some citrus, not overly intense but hits the right noes
T more of the same but a little more of i, the roast is darker but the hops shine through a little stronger at the same time, faint coffee and char come out as it warms
M smooth entry and creams up nicely, has a bitter bite and a little grit, citrus and char linger
O well rounded CDA, lots of hops, lots of dark roast, easy to drink, no major complaints
I wouldn't grab another advent calendar to drink one but I wouldn't mind seeing this in 6ers or bombers in my neck of the woods
Black Christmas from Parallel 49 Brewing Company
Beer rating:
86 out of
100 with
34 ratings
We love reviews (150 characters or more)! Check out: How to Review a Beer. You don't need to get fancy. Drop some thoughts on the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) plus your overall impression. Something that backs up your rating and helps others. Thanks!