Dark Thoughts
Baerlic Beer Company

 

Black IPAs are a must try for me.
Enjoyed a pint of this recently.

This pours as I want it to, dark cola with a lingering roasty, pine sap and grapefruit pith character.
I need more of these in my life.

Look: Pours a deep ruby-red/brown and looks black in the glass with a khaki head that settles to a lid and leaves great lacing behind

Aroma: Crushed pine needles, ruby-red grapefruit, navel orange, fir needles, light roast, dark chocolate, mixed berry notes, toasted crust, and lime

Taste: Starts off with a barrage of citrus fruits that hit individually before becoming part of an ever-growing collective. The roasted malt creeps in next, alongside some raspberry and blueberry notes, with roast and chocolate being the prominent flavors. Closes with the return of citrus, resinous conifer, and ends with a light bite

Mouthfeel: Full, smooth, clean, medium-high carbonation, and lightly dry on the finish

Overall: This is some tasty stuff. I love Black IPAs/CDAs and have been a sucker for them since brewers first created the style back in the mid-2000’s but have never gotten my hands on this one until now. The wait was rewarded as this is a really well-made and delicious example and one where the roasted barley and hops pair seamlessly and compliment each other very well. Top notch in my book and highly recommended

16oz can from the brewery. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sudsy lacing on the glass. It smelled of roasted malt, toffee, coffee and pine. Great roasted malt taste with citrus and a piney bitterness.

 

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a very dark mahogany brown with little light transmission in the glass and a half finger light khaki head with good retention and light lacing. Aroma of mild dark toasted malt, citrus and piney hops, grapefruit, pine, mild mixed tropical fruit and a touch of coffee. Flavor is dark toasted malt, citrus and piney hops, grapefruit, lemon, pine, light mixed fruit and light cocoa and coffee. Nice piney and citrus bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Always looking for Cascadian IPAs, and this has the classic NW hop bill dominated by citrus and pine and a somewhat restrained dark toasted malt body. The hops are up to speed, but the malt is not as toasty and intense as many of these. A satisfactory black IPA, but could use a bit more char depth. With a little dialing in, this could be stellar.

 

 

2019-11-12
16oz can served in a big snifter. Canned on 9/30/2019.

Pours black with a medium sized, pale head. Medium carbonation. Smell is tropical and plums (dunno why). Somehow, also fresh smelling.

Taste a pretty good IPA (tropical juice and a little pine) with some roasty bitter characteristics.

Mouthfeel is fairly crisp. Overall, not the most successful black IPA I've ever had, but a pretty good one.

 

 

Canned 10/15/18, Reviewed 11/4/18

Look- Pours cola brown, but appears almost black in the glass. Foamy tan head that settles to a thin coating that leaves spotty lacing

Smell- Predominantly juicy citrus and tropical fruits with subtle roasted coffee in the background

Taste- follows the nose with a lot of juicy citrus and tropical fruit, along with roasted coffee beans and bakers chocolate with a nice bitterness. The malt notes are more prevalent in the flavor than they were in the nose.

Feel- medium-bodied w/moderate carbonation; finish is moderately bitter, and the bitterness lingers for a while.

Overall- I really liked this a lot. It’s basically a “juicy” black IPA, and the contrast between the juicy hop notes and roasty malt notes are working well for me. It’s kind of weird, because I don’t like to drink coffee and OJ together, and this is the beer equivalent of that. I think the key is that the malt flavors stay in the background. If they were more pronounced, I’m not sure I’d like it as much.

 

 

 

 

 

It is very dark, but not quite 'black'. More like an extremely deep walnut, Dark Thoughts looks clean, and is capped by a fine bubbled and foamy light tan head. It spackles the glass nicely.

Very interesting aromas creep up from the surface. Obviously, new house varietals we're used as tropical notes of mango and melon take lead. Underneath, toasted bread, licorice, and even a mild rubber band aromas cone through. I'm surprised to get very little pine and no earthy presence at all.

Aside from a mild roasted grain character and a hint of damp earth, this is unlike any Black IPA I've had. The fruity bursts mixed with the burnt rubber (a trait I commonly associate with Chinook hops) dominate over the former, which would easily fool me of this beers appearance.

Its body is smooth yet crisp enough to return for sip after sip. It is definitely bitter, but not face puckering as it would indicate on it's label. The bitterness seems to be equally contributed by the hops and the roasted grains.

I really enjoyed Dark Thoughts. It is a unique and perhaps modern twist on the style, but not as intense as I'd like. I want CDA/Black IPA's to be cheek stripping with bitterness and dominated by roasted flavors. This comes a bit short in both of those areas, yet is still a great beer that I will gladly revisit. Cheers.

Bottle of unknown age into a tulip glass. Pours thin black, almost dark brown, with 2+ fingers of white variable density head that had moderate head retention and left ringed and scattered lacing. Nose is by far the most tropical I've ever smelled on a CDA, no malt character on the nose whatsoever. Taste mostly follows the nose, but with some smokiness. It's find of a strange mix of flavors for what I'm use to having on a CDA. Finishes fairly clean, a bit of lingering bitterness. Mouthfeel is thin, more like a brown ale, and carbonation medium. Strange take on a style I normally like, won't repeat.