St-Ambroise Black IPA
McAuslan Brewing

Pours black, like a stout, with a tan coloured head. Smokey and bitter on the nose. I detect some smokiness on the malty backbone, with slight hints of chocolate and molasses on the taste. The hoppiness known in an IPA is present. Smooth mouthfeel
Nov 18 2021

 

 

 

473 mL can from the LCBO, one of four brews in their Dark Series sampler. Best before Feb 19 2022 and served slightly chilled.

Pours inky black, crowned with nearly an inch of lumpy, foamy, beige-coloured head that wilts over the course of the next five minutes or so. Gobs of beautiful lacing are left in its wake, along with a soapy, frothy collar and filmy cap - looks fantastic. The nose is intensely hoppy - pine forest (needles, sap, all that good stuff), as well as grapefruit, flowers, coffee and dark chocolate, with just a touch of caramelized sweetness.

It's not bad. Hints of cocoa and caramelized sugar sweetness underneath, with the roasted malts and C-hop flavours sharing the limelight fairly equally. Faint grapefruit, with piney, earthy hops; both floral and roasted coffee bitterness rounds off the back end, with dissipates into a mixture of resin, cocoa, and just a twinge of boozy sweetness. Nearing full-bodied, with middling carbonation that adds a decent bite to this brew's otherwise smooth, pleasingly soft mouthfeel. Fair drinkability - I know black IPAs aren't everyone's cup of tea, but this one goes down the hatch as well as any.

Final Grade: 3.69, a B grade. For the record, I love McAuslan's flagship pale ale, and have enjoyed virtually all of their other products as well. But I just can't seem to get behind their IPAs: the session IPA, the double IPA, the regular IPA - I've had 'em all, apparently, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about any of them without looking at my old reviews, because they're just that forgettable. Their black IPA is not much different - it's a recognizable take on the style, and I do like the mouthfeel, so it's worth a tick for sure, but nothing truly stands out for me. A decent mixed pack inclusion, but if it were sold as a single I doubt I'd pick it up more than once in a while.

473ml can served cold into a chalice. Beer Store purchase for around $3.50 CDN. Best before June 2021.

Appearance - Midnight black, with big tan head. Some sticky lacing clings to the edges of the glass.

Smell - Tons of roastiness, pine needles and subtle bits of chocolate. Blurs the line between IPA and Stout.

Taste - Plenty of bitterness, roastiness again, some bits of coffee and chocolate followed up with piney qualities and some citrus at the end.

Mouthfeel - Medium full bodied, astringent on the tongue and well carbonated.

Overall - Very solid Black IPA for a style that doesn't get much love.

 

Opaque dark brown. Almost no head. No lacing. Can't see any bubbles rising.

Very light hoppy fragrance with a touch of malt. Swirling the glass kicked up a hint of barnyard that quickly went away.

Dark roasted malt flavor with medium bitters. The hops add a slight vegetable/floral overtone. The aftertaste is faint cereal malt with a light bitter.

Turns into a light froth with fewer bubbles than liquid. Medium heavy body.

The hops give this a bit more character than their other dark beers. It isn't quite as one-note as the others.

 

 

 

 

A-Very nice espresso black in color with a moka head that lingers a while. Decent lacing
S-Aroma is malt forward with toasted Smokey notes.
M-low to medium mouthfeel, somewhat watery, carbonation is medium.
T-Subtle sweet coffee flavour at the forefront with an aggressive bitterness that follows and lingers.
O-Not sure what they think makes this an IPA, sure it is dark, maybe they put in hops, but I cannot detect them besides a hint in the aroma. Not a bad beer, but not a good rendition of the style...

 

 

8oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG Oliver Square - haven't had anything new from this operation in a long while.

This beer appears a clear, dark ruby highlighted brown colour, with one skinny finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly beige head, which leaves some decent melting ice shelf lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of roasted bready and grainy caramel malt, a lesser wet ashiness, muddled domestic citrus rind, and some weak earthy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a candied cherry and citrus fruitiness, bittersweet chocolate, some free-range wet char, and more understated earthy, weedy, and gently perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-pinging frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, but for some of that char mucking about here. It finishes trending dry, the malt bottoming out, while the smoke and hops carry on carryin' on.

Overall - this is an agreeable enough version of this hybrid style, if it must indeed exist. Roasted, but not overly so, and equally malty and hoppy. I would hardly care for another one, however I can say that this is all right, especially if you might be a fan of such things.

 

 

Black opaque color. Creamy bubbly brown 3 finger head, lasting around 10 minutes, with good legs and swirl reaction. Flavors of walnuts, coffee, cocoa, dark grains, liquorice, prunes, and herbal hops. Silky and creamy medium body with a moderate crisp. Strong strength, light dark fruity feel, chalky with moderate spiciness and leafy hops, while deeply roasted like biting coffee beans. The hops are more herbal and less tropical, makes a less interesting mix that is quite bold for the ABV but still remains decently fresh. Overall very good quality craft.

Dark black with a moderate head. Fruit & citrus hop nose. Chocolate malt and crisp hops to taste.