4 & 20 Black IPA
Culmination Brewing

Bottle from Broken Top Bottle Shop. Black pour, no light escapes from within, thick tan head, sticks around for a while. Streaky lacing.Nice dark, roast malts in the aroma, some spice, some floral. Taste is super smooth, roast grains up front with some fruity sweetness near the back, finished by a small hops bite. One of the gentler black IPAs I’ve had, but its ease of drinking makes it a winner in my book.

Look: Pours like oil into the glass and impenetrable to light, yielding a creamy tan head that holds well and slowly settles to a pillow, leaving awesome lacing behind
Aroma: Oranges, tangerines, lemon-lime, floral notes, light melon, wafts of diesel, chocolate, freshly baked bread, and gooseberries
Taste: Starts out with a quick punch of lemon-lime before a slew of rich, bready malt and baking cocoa push that aside and develop. Orange-led citrus follows and mixes into the chocolatiness as a little melon, dank, and ethanol appear as well. Closes with more citrus, chocolate, and a big bite
Mouthfeel: Full – almost viscous, medium-high carbonation, and very dry on the finish with some felt alcohol heat as well
Overall: This is good stuff and leaves no doubt that it’s a big beer. I love Black IPAs and this one has eluded me for years so glad I finally tried it as it’s tasty and well-made. Bold citrus and dark chocolate are the main components and the 9.5% is noticeable but not overwhelming. Add to that the bold but smooth feel and big-time bite and this is a great cold weather libation. Recommended

 

 

This is most likely my favorite black IPA I've discovered yet. An excellent balance of toasty, chocolatey malts and gentle citrus and berry hop notes. Great stuff, and too easy to drink for the strength.

Rich ebony beer, almost opaque, with just brushes of mahogany around the edges. A sturdy, off white, head of dense and persistent foam completes an image of stately grandeur in beer form.
Dark chocolate and dark roast coffee lead the nose with accents of blueberry and maybe fig lurking in the back.
Taste delivers on that promise from the nose with a flavor similar to an excellent cold brew coffee. Toasty bitterness softened by light berry and sweet citrus notes. Perfect balance.
Mouthfeel is smooth and deceptively light, like a good dry stout.

Nice ashy tan head that maintains a half finger of foam for an impressively long period of time. Body is the opacity of obsidian, but in a slightly more brown hue. Sticky lacing to the sides of the glass.

Nose is toasty grains up front. Grains for the second step, and just a light fresh grassy hop over the top.

Flavour is clean and bright notes of more of the dark and toasty grains and some indistinct lightly grassy/fruity hops. Just a touch of chocolate lurking around the edges. Culminates (no pun intended) in a citrus bitter finish that's bold and biting. Maybe a hint of acrid coffee too, but that's in support of the hops.

Smoothe body with enough carbonation to accent the bitter finish, but not enough so it feels fizzy or off.

I'd describe this more as a super hoppy porter than really a CDA, at least as I think of the styles, though I'll admit that that's mostly semantics and personal preference. It's enjoyable, riding the dark malts through until the big bitter finish where it finally kicks over into IPA territory. Too few of this style are brewed these days, and while this doesn't blow me away, it is tasty and I'm glad to see it out and about.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque black in the glass with a thin khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of mildly caramel and dark toasted malt, citrus and piney hops and a hint of coffee. Flavor is pale and dark toasted malt, citrus and piney hops, grapefruit, lemon, pine needles, light orange and a little rye tartness. Medium bodied with light creaminess. A nice example of this too rare style. The hop bill is quite West Coast IPA in profile, but the malt is a bit dialed back. The toasted malt component is about right, but this could use a little more malt depth do support the hoppy IPA bitterness. The rye notes are a good touch. Nice roasty and hoppy finish. I like this one.

 

This pours a coffee black with a creamy cafe cap that lasts for days.
There's a sharp grapefruit hop note with an intensely hoppy finish. I get a lot of roast atop an IPA body. Dank and sticky with lots of roast.

 

Treated as an imperial black IPA, it was poured into a tulip. The appearance was a dark brown close to black color with a finger’s worth of white to off white foamy head that dissipated fairly quick. Sticky foamy lacing forms a film roaming around the glass. The aroma had a beautiful blend of roasty coffee beans to sprucy bitter hops. Sticky resin. And then the rye malts show a nice sweetness but also the spiciness. The flavor takes on a fabulous balance between the sweet and spicy rye malts to the sprucy bitter hops. Roasty coffee beans accompany very nicely. Quick semi-roasty aftertaste and finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a great sipping smooth body. Carbonation felt fine. Overall, very nice imperialized Black IPA that I would have again.

Black-brown with big, creamy crown. 4
Lime rind and flowers with some sweet malt. 3.75
Black bread and molasses, then orange rind, pine, grass and floral notes. 4
Candy floss comeback.
Oily, round, medium. 4

Simcoe, Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial.

Sweet! Balanced almost to a fault. Is that hops faded or that sugary Oregon malt thing? Rye missing, too, though. I’ve seen this done better. 3.75

22 oz bottle

A somewhat awkward pour yields a huge three finger, light brown head into my willi glass. I mean, I wasn’t super aggressive with this pour, kinda surprised by the size of this head. No biggie I guess. The head is partially creamy, but overall more soapy, kinda surprising there. Head retention is good so far. The body is pitch black, even when held up to the light. So far it looks a little weird, but fine.

The nose is quite nice, dank, tangy hops are present. Bitter malts as well. A little astringent/sour, though in retrospect, it does a fantastic job of hiding the booze. Not getting as much sweet malt as I initially got from popping the cap, but there does seem to be a little bit. A tiny shade of coffee in here somewhere as well. As I sniff this more, it’s getting softer, kinda turning into more of the “black” in the black IPA style. It’s a nice nose, the aromas aren’t huge, but there is a decent amount going on from what I can pull out. I really just wish the aromas were more pronounced, I’m currently just not being wowed.

Hmm, yeah, similar to the aromas, the flavors just aren’t all quite there. It’s a very moderate flavor profile. A little bitter, a little malty, finishes with a pretty noticeable booze flavor, though not much heat. I will let this warm, but for now, there really isn’t a whole lot to say here, not bad, but nothing special.

The mouthfeel is fine, medium-low carbonation is accompanied by a standard sized body, not too thin, though perhaps a bit thin for being 9.5%. Relatively dry and bitter in the finish. While that part is a little rough, it adds character. Overall, not bad.

The drinkability is ok I guess. It finishes rough on the mouthfeel, and it’s a pretty average tasting beer. With that being said, it is by no means bad, and while I can taste some booze, I don’t really get any heat.

As this warmed, it flowed a little bitter, it was more balanced (not that it was terribly unbalanced before). The hops and mats blended better. Still, there really wasn’t much to write home about. Overall, there isn’t anything wrong with it, it’s fine, but it’s nothing amazing.

The head retention and the overall appearance of the head was hard to judge, it hung around for a decent amount of time, but it was super lumpy, and eventually dissipated completely. The lacing was nice and thick, all the way down the glass. Overall, it’s somewhat odd, but it’s a good looking beer.

 

Bomber into a tulip glass. Pours jet black with two fingers of medium density tan head with moderate retention and left ringed and spotted lacing. Nose is rye forward with floral attributes in tow to start. As it warms more floral and grassy dominate, with roastiness as the undercard. Taste is competing spiciness from the rye with earthiness and pine from the hops, more molasses sweetness as it warms. Finishes with a tiny bit of lingering bitterness, and perhaps just the slightest burn from the ABV. Mouthfeel is light bodied for the ABV, though hides the alcohol well, and the carbonation is on the low-medium side. A very interesting CDA that really had some surprising attributes given the grain and hop bill. I'd definitely grab again if fresh, one of the more unique CDAs that I've sampled.

 

Dark brown with a foamy, tan head. Lots of lacing. Aroma is toasted malt, with hints of vanilla, coffee, & fruit. Flavor is herbal and earthy, with pine and citrus notes. Resinous mouthfeel with a bitter aftertaste from the hops. Light caramel malt smooths it a bit. Dry finish. A good beer overall.