Imperial Shade Black IPA
2SP Brewing Company

16 oz can poured into pint glass

A- A dark brown, almost black, with a three finger mocha head.

S- Roasted malts, citrus, piney, touch of chocolate, some grapefruit.

T- Roasted malts, citrus, some tropical fruits, dank, some chocolate, some char, piney.

M- Smooth, light to medium body.

O- The mosaic hops shine on this and work really with the dark malts, super easy to drink.

Cola brown with two fingers of tan head. Great retention and solid lacing. Tons of floaters.

Dark mix of caramel, coffee, weed, pine tar and ash in the nose.

Even darker tasting. Sticky pine tar and char are the most dominant flavors. There’s also some chocolate, pine needles, strong grapefruit and some light stone fruit (cherry, plum).

Full bodied with a milky feel and modest carbonation.

Intense, dark flavors in this. The grapefruit, pine and char go very well together. Great change of pace.

Pours black, with some leakage to mahogany on the edges, and a dense tan head. Lovely beer. The can describes this as an imperial black IPA with Mosaic hops, and that is readily apparent on the nose, which has the char notes you’d expect with the style, and dank citrus notes, which are not expected but welcomed, because this is a new twist on the style for me (citrus notes in a black IPA).

The taste has the requisite char notes, and there’s some milk chocolate as well, but the citrus flavors are blowing my socks off - they brighten and augment this big (8.5% ABV) beer, and create a memorable flavor experience. I wish I had a keg of this.

 

 

Pours jet black with decent head. Smells of burnt malts, coffee, and grapefruit. Taste is similar, but ends with a marked vegetal quality. Mouthfeel is pretty standard but thick, with a hint of velvetiness at the end. Not bad, but the dark malts and grapefruit notes make for rather strange bedfellows and the resulting vegetal flavor quickly becomes cloying and overbearing.

Edit: either I reviewed the wrong beer, or they completely revamped the recipe for this one. Smells of dank hops and dark malts. Taste is same, with some additional smoothness from the dark malts. Feel is crisp and refreshing, only slightly dry. Not thin enough to fee lacking at all, but easy drinking enough to taste sessionable, which is a sign of good quality at 8.5%. I regret only getting a half pour. Very good.