Blackened CDA
Carter's Brewing

a really top notch and old school black ipa to me, a great example of the style, built full and robust, with hop bitterness and roasted barley bite creating a sort of intensity double jeopardy, but the body is so round and smooth and almost creamy, and the balance high, that this is oddly drinkable for its boldness, a really well refined brew too, carters remains underrated in my opinion. this looks like a dark porter, midnight black, moderate viscosity, and a full inch of frothed almost nitro looking tan head on it with expert retention and high capacity for a beer foam mustache. the aroma and flavor show some earthy pine and almost medicinal bitterness from the hops, green and fresh, slightly stemmy and woody and weedy, wintery a little bit maybe too. the grain has dark chocolate and burnt coffee essence to it, but still tastes like barley first, and works so well with these hops. i have to wonder if there are oats or torrified wheat in here fluffing this up, its so soft and pillowy, odd for how dark and bitter it is, but the texture is awesome. some light oiliness lingers on the swallow, a little sweet to mellow the bitter, chocolate character too, but its all real cohesive and drinkable. gorgeous execution of a dying style. if they all tasted this good, they would still be popular. so glad this exists!