X-1 013
Bent Water Brewing Company
- From:
- Bent Water Brewing Company
- Massachusetts, United States
- Style:
- Black IPA
- ABV:
- 6%
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 4.04 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- Dec 31, 2016
- Added:
- Dec 31, 2016
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 1
NO SCORE
-
-
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by ichorNet from Massachusetts
4.04/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
4.04/5 rDev 0%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
I don't have much experience with this brewery's X-Series (basically one-off beers using a pilot system to test out new ideas, then canned and distributed as six packs), but Bent Water has been pretty solid to me so far, so I picked up a single of this to see what was up with it. I've been reviewing a decent amount of black IPAs lately, and, as usual and expected, some have been better than others, but I have solid hopes for this for whatever reason.
Pours a thick, robust deep brown that still bears some surprising mahogany tones even though it's very much unfiltered. The head builds up with several inches of highly-retentive foam with a kind of beige color, leaving behind surprisingly great lace as it fades to a few fingers in my glass. Pretty good pour, actually. Impressive.
Nose is definitely biased towards the roasty and grainy end of the spectrum, with a light kiss of acidic/piney/citrusy hops kind of foisted upon my senses, as if to say "hey, this isn't just a hoppy porter"... but, I'll be honest, it kind of comes off that way from my first impression. Definite roast, some light notes of tobacco and dry earth and deep cocoa-like tones really make this feel like a robust porter with some grassy contributing hop character. BW isn't really known for making hop-forward beers (unlike a lot of breweries who try their hands at black IPAs), so this fact doesn't really surprise me, but I found it pretty interesting.
On the tongue, it's pretty similar to what I expected... heavy roast and charred malts upfront with bold, piney hops, dusty cocoa powder and some leftover yeast character in suspension. There's a bright, fruity character that comes off sort of like orange peel, but also like apple and grape at times, as well, meaning it's likely a combination of factors ranging from yeast to hops. There's a bit of leafy and minty character to these hops as well, giving a unique character to the flavor... I'm not sure it's beneficial to the overall experience, but it's definitely out-of-the-ordinary. This is pretty solid, though, so far.
Feel and drinkability are pretty good on this, even though it drinks almost a full % stronger than it is (can lists 6% as the ABV), thanks to a modest carbonation and convincing finish that straddles the line between chocolatey and dry/hoppy. Good stuff, and it's good to see BW branching out a bit.
Dec 31, 2016Pours a thick, robust deep brown that still bears some surprising mahogany tones even though it's very much unfiltered. The head builds up with several inches of highly-retentive foam with a kind of beige color, leaving behind surprisingly great lace as it fades to a few fingers in my glass. Pretty good pour, actually. Impressive.
Nose is definitely biased towards the roasty and grainy end of the spectrum, with a light kiss of acidic/piney/citrusy hops kind of foisted upon my senses, as if to say "hey, this isn't just a hoppy porter"... but, I'll be honest, it kind of comes off that way from my first impression. Definite roast, some light notes of tobacco and dry earth and deep cocoa-like tones really make this feel like a robust porter with some grassy contributing hop character. BW isn't really known for making hop-forward beers (unlike a lot of breweries who try their hands at black IPAs), so this fact doesn't really surprise me, but I found it pretty interesting.
On the tongue, it's pretty similar to what I expected... heavy roast and charred malts upfront with bold, piney hops, dusty cocoa powder and some leftover yeast character in suspension. There's a bright, fruity character that comes off sort of like orange peel, but also like apple and grape at times, as well, meaning it's likely a combination of factors ranging from yeast to hops. There's a bit of leafy and minty character to these hops as well, giving a unique character to the flavor... I'm not sure it's beneficial to the overall experience, but it's definitely out-of-the-ordinary. This is pretty solid, though, so far.
Feel and drinkability are pretty good on this, even though it drinks almost a full % stronger than it is (can lists 6% as the ABV), thanks to a modest carbonation and convincing finish that straddles the line between chocolatey and dry/hoppy. Good stuff, and it's good to see BW branching out a bit.
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