Black Madness
Beer Valley Brewing Co.

Catch up rating from notes (2016). Fresh hop season at the Taphouse. A Cascadian Dark version of Leafer Madness, fresh hops to boot. Pours out a thin black body with small off white head. Big dank aroma, coupled with some bitter roast grains, coffee, chocolate. Taste follows along, more of the hops bitterness, a small amount of fruity sweetness from somewhere. Very interesting.

 

A: Decent head. Good lacing. Muddy brown color. Kinda hazy.

S: Weird smell. The malts from the stout are doing all kinds of crazy things with the hops. Very different. Almost want to say dirty bitter socks but in kind of a good way.

T: Hop bitter. Malts do a nice job of balancing things out. Little caramel. Taste is pretty different along the lines of the smell.

M: Medium bodied. Little dry.

O: Haven't had either of the two beers that were mixed to make this one. This was definitely a strange beer. Need to bring your A game to review this. Ok beer. wouldn't go out of the way to buy again.

Please note... I REALLY wanted to like this, and was very excited to find it on tap near me.

A- it looked like someone let ice melt in some whiskey.

S- smelled like a weak amber with none of the awesomeness expected from combining these two incredible beers.

T- had a weak and watered down flavor of basically nothing. It had an astringent taste, but not as much of an alcohol kick as expected for how high the ABV is

M- horrid! I tried to let it sit, took a quick sip, and a regular drink. It just felt like a flat watered down soda feel

D- please bring a leafer of black flag by itself. I do not want any more of this muddled mess!

I respect Beer Valley, and I'm a HUGE fan of Leafer, especially on tap. It appears this is just a blend in bottling. If they brewed the beers together in a black IPA style, I bet they'd have a winner!!!

If you can get Leafer Madness or Black Flag, DO IT! Just that this blend is way off as is :-(

On-tap at Beachwood BBQ, a blend of Black Flag and Leafer Madness, I'm adding it as a Black and Tan as that is what it seems to be, a Beer Valley version of Heaven and Hell,

A: Pours a ruby brown with a soft white head, solid retention.

S: Hoptastic with a lot of roast and chocolate. I'm still getting used to smelling this much hop character in a dark beer.

T: Dark chocolate predominately with some coffee and roast. Hops are piney bitter, very woody. It's like drinking a super hoppy imperial stout, really like a mix of an RIS and an American barleywine. The flavours melded surprisingly well, I really liked it.

M: Resiny and chewy, full-bodied for sure, long aftertaste.

D: Quite a nice blend, more breweries should try something like this. It's very common in the wine world or the lambic world, why not more on the American craft beer scene.