Black IPA: Chinook, Centennial, Cascade
Partizan Brewery

 

Purchased from the brewery recently, coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, bottle-conditioned; bottled on 30/10/2013, BB 30/01/2014, served lightly-chilled in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: nearly black in colour, coming with a thick light khaki head which retreats slowly to a 1cm layer of tight froth to last, while the carbonation seems to be mild.
S: nicely fruity with all the usual elements one can associate with the hop varieties here, that it is lemony, grapefruity, faintly mango-ish, and light guava-ish, with an important tinge of acidity and extra touch of exotic cedar, or pine, wood; given a good swirl, gristy and toasty dark malts, faint notes of nuts come to mind, but always checked with the slightly acute and refreshing acidic citric fruitiness. Very very nice.
T: softly effervescent, the flavour comes initially mild, mixed and a bit yeasty, but on the swallow the deeper flavour of dark malts emerges to carry forward the focused & refreshingly acidic-sweet hop flavour, full of grapefruit/citric, flowery and cedar-wood-ish notes, then in a harmony the pronounced tannic hop bitterness and lightly roasty bitterness converge to deliver a chewy, long, lightly spicy and aromatically toasty finish, with only a tiny bit of alc. warmth lingering down the throat.
M&O: very soft on the palate with a nice level of microscopic fizz to keep the palate refreshed throughout the drink, the body is medium+ and never too full, just like what an American Black Ale (or “Black IPA”) means to deliver. All in all, I think this beer is the second best offering from Partizan amongst the dozen I’ve had so far. Well worth being made a regular if the brewery thinks they like it, too!