Double Black Rye PA
Sun Up Brewing Co.

Have had this in its regular form, on cask, and barrel-aged. Each have their own to recommend them. Generally speaking, the brewers do really well here to balance the roasted malt with piney hops. It's the backbone of the style and is so complementary. My most recent experience with this was on cask, and it really shined, sprucey pine marrying with roasted malt, smoothed out by a finely conditioned cask. Not a ton of rye character, per se, or perhaps it got lost in the smoothness of the cask preparation, but that's a minor quibble -- really solid beer.

Comes in dark brown, tan head 1/3". Aroma wasn't big on the rye or hops, roastiness came through more.

Taste had some c hops, a little sweetness. Rye seemingly conspicuously absent. Enjoyable, but everything about its name didn't really come through for me other than the bitterness and alcohol for the most part.

 

Sampled March 2011 at the Brewpub
Sampled on tap at Sun Up Brewing; March 2011
The beer arrives with a really burnt amber color (definitely not black) that is topped by a lightly browned, tan colored head. The nose has a big roast and whole grain spiciness to it with notes of toasted brown bread in it. The hops kick in after a short hiatus and become the dominant aromatic note. The dark grain makes the hops seem a bit roasty in character somehow, but the hop character smells of tangelo, candied citrus zest and lychee, but all with a roasted edge.

The beer feel smooth and creamy textured up front until the hops kick in and then this has an herbal edge that really spices thing up towards the finish and dries / lightens up the finish compared to the start. A roast, burnt character spices up the beer too and contributes quite a bit to this beer despite it being clearly hop dominated. The hops contribute flavors of tangelo, lots of citrus and touché of tropical fruit as well as herbal notes and pine an hemp oil like notes. There is a nice, toasted grain character here that serves as a counter-point to the hop character. The body has a medium’ish texture to it that helps make this beer quite balanced and quaffable. The malt contributes a soft sweetness that is really not noticeable in and of itself, but really provides more of a balance to the dominant hop and roast character. I really do like how spicy the grain character in this beer is.

Dark brown appearance, slight ring of tan head, good lace retention. Aroma doesn't reveal any notes of rye to it.

Taste is hoppy, tiny residual sweetness. This is a keeper, still can't pick out any discernable rye to it, maybe it's % is only 10% or somethin, or maybe the double refers to something other than the rye. Worth checkin out though.