Barrel-Aged Black IPA
Zipline Brewing Co

 

definitely have to disagree with the other reviewer of this one, although to be fair i had it on tap and not from the bottle, so there may be some variance there. its a cool beer, not without its flaws, but a style i think that does appreciate a rum barrel, and this is a fine example of why. inky black and quite viscous from the tap, with a little head on it, but pretty still looking overall. it smells like rum for sure, spiced dark rum, sweet vanilla, barrel char, a little oak tannic thing going on, and some bitterness like too much dark roasted barley in the base beer, but its attractive nevertheless. the hops arent as robust as they might be in something called an ipa, but thats okay here. the flavor is similar, a little harsh on the edges, oddly acidic or sharp somehow, but the hops show some pine even if they are a little faint, and the dark malt provides a really deep roasted bottom end that works great with the rum. it tastes like cheap rum to me, a little too sweet, maybe a little exposed on the fusel alcohol and that adds to that sharp nature of this, but i like it being a little lighter on the bubbles, its warming and vanilla forward and slow. havent had much beer from these guys, but this one is certainly encouraging. fun idea with better than decent execution despite a few necessary tweaks for the next round.

 

 

 

Zipline's Black IPA is fine. The barrel aged experiment here went wrong.

The Rum flavor in the bottle I tried, was so over the top that I might as well as poured a shot of Rum into my beer; it just wasn't good. Really hot and boozy, it overwhelmed anything else going on here. Since I've had the base beer, I figured this would be fantastic. Nope.

Since the bottle was going for $16-18, it's pretty outrageous they even released this.