Enemy Within
Black Market Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

06/09/2016

22oz bottle - an IPA made with dragon fruit? Sounds grand to me!

This beer pours a murky, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and shiny off-white head, which leaves some stringy and sudsy lace around the glass as it slowly but surely sinks away.

It smells of dank pine resin, plump dark exotic fruit, more pedestrian muddled citrus rind notes, clover field honey, bready caramel malt, and further leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a twinge of biscuity toffee, various citrus fruity esters, musty tropical fruit, a touch of wayward son yeastiness, and more plain leafy, earthy, and musty hoppiness.

The bubbles are fairly benign in their hard to really get a bead on frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, just a minor clamminess arising from unknown quarters. It finishes well off-dry, the citrus and, ok, dragon fruit character lording it over any lingering verdant hops.

Overall, a pleasant enough fruity IPA, the strangeness of the guest ingredient keeping one's senses on their toes, as it were. Maybe a tad disjointed, as the fruit and forest floor essences kind of push out the efforts of the base malt, but, in the end, 'tis no big dealio. Easy to drink, and with no sign of the 14-proof booze. Solid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured into an IPA glass. Light copper/ red look. Bits of sedement, mild hops taste you can really taste the dragon fruit but it isn't big on the fruit. Decent IPA.

The beer smells great but does not deliver on flavor. Slightly bitter and bit ambiguous on taste.