Holy Bones
Boneyard Beer Company

I like CDAs and they are hard to find any more. This is a good one as all beer from Boneyard is. I see where they have brought the name back as a West Coast IPA.

66 IBUs

Clear yellow amber with long-lasting foam in the New Belgium snifter. From the 16 oz can purchased at Town & Country market in Shoreline. Lovely aroma of pineapple and juniper. Light body, some slight malty warmth, but a dry finish. Sharp even, but the undertones of fruity hops provide some promise. Light flavor of tangerine followed by lime peel. Quite bitter aftertaste. From the 16 oz can purchased at Town & Country market in Shoreline. Dated 09/06/24.

16oz can from Tavour. Dark, dark brown, small beige head. Sweet, roasty malty aroma with light smoky notes. Taste is mildly bitter, malty, roasty with hop bitterness coming in late.

Pours a rich mahogany... kind of like a dark maple syrup. Good manilla coloured head. Decent little lacing along the glass.

Nose is nicely roasted and kind of nutty. There's some lightly fruity hops hiding in there as well. The dark side of the CDA is more brown ale than like the black stout-iness that I usually think of with the style.

Flavour grows on me as it warms. It is on the warmer nuttier side of the dark spectrum, sticking to the theme laid out by the aroma. Nutty with some toffee and like spicy brown bread.
The hops are very present, but somewhat nondescript. Spicy, earthy, and a slight touch of fruitiness but that's pretty restrained.

Body is pretty thin, with sharp carbonation that augments the spicy hop elements really well. Dry finish that has a big swell of earthy hops and a lingering big bitter finish.

Overall a solidly enjoyable CDA, but honestly given the pedigree of the two breweries involved I had set my expectations higher than that. There are too few CDAs in general.

 

 

 

 

2022-09-23
16oz can served in a big snifter. Canned 08/02/22. I think I bought it at Hop and Hound last week.

Pours dark, not quite black, kind of translucent, small fine head. Smell is piney and roasty, a little bit of anise maybe, maybe also some citrus zest.

Taste is pretty similar, it has a slight plummy flavor to it as well. Somewhat roasty bitter, somewhat piney bitter.

Mouthfeel is super dry, very light. Overall...it's not bad, but it's not really integrating very well.

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a dark reddish brown with a two finger white head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of pale and toasted malt, piney and citrus hops, pine, lemon and mint. Flavor is pale and lightly toasted malt, piney and citrus hops, lemon and orange zest, pine and grapefruit. Piney, well hopped finish. Medium bodied with silky moderate creaminess. Life is good when I get two new Cascadian black IPAs within a short period of time. This was actually brewed a while ago, but the stock in Seattle evaporated instantly and I had a Doh! moment when I realized that the combination of Holy Mountain and Boneyard would be irresistible here even with a less popular style like this and I missed out. I lucked out and Tavour offered it a few weeks after it was gone here. Even though I would have preferred to get it fresh, super glad to have gotten one. A fine representative of the style, as expected, with excellent West Coast pine and citrus character. This iteration seems a little dialed back on the toasted malt, but it is satisfactory for the style and a nice malt base. The hop bill is great and the mouth feel is excellent. I'm hoping to see this one again. More Cascadian black IPAs!

16 oz can.

Pours a clear dark brown color with a 2 finger khaki head. Good head retention. Leaves some clingy lacing around the glass.

Aromas of citrus and pine, with plenty of caramel and dark roasted malts.

The flavor follows the nose. Lots of grapefruit and orange pith with a touch of lemon. There's plenty of caramel and dark malts with a piney finish.

The feel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Smooth and dry on the finish. Has a nice lingering bitterness.

Overall, this is a great black IPA. The hops definitely steal the show here. I suspect I'd think of this as a west coast IPA in a blind test, but the dark malts add a subtle but welcomed balance to the onslaught of hops.

Can from Uptown Market.

A dark brown with a dense brown head with good retention and lacing. The nose is classic, with lots of hops and roast, a blend of pine , mint, dark caramel and burnt toffee. The palate has pine, citrus peel, a nice roast, burnt grain, burnt sugar and a light cereal note. Bitter, roasty finish. Solid.