The Moon Is A Dead World
Tattered Flag Brewery & Still Works

I spent a CANsiderable amount of time yesterday taking & resizing pictures of (especially) CANs since one of the basic tenets of The CANQuest (tm) is NO drinking, reviewing & rating of beers until an approved pic is in place. This CAN CANtribute to the backlog, but I just CANnot bring myself to Crack! open a CAN when there is no pic for posterity. It especially galls me when a brewery claims themselves on here & then does not do due diligence.

From the CAN: "Neapolitan Black Milkshake IPA"; "In collaboration with Hunger-n-Thirst & Chrononaut Brewing Co., Lancaster, PA"; "Ale brewed with Strawberries, Vanilla Beans, & Cacao Nibs"; "Abra-Collabra Series".

I had this on-tap at H-n-T's recent anniversary celebration, but I was ecstatic to find it in the bottle shop before I left that day. I already knew what I was getting into when I Crack!ed open the vent so I allowed it to flow freely in a C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. It created a pseudo-cascade before settling in to become just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-brown head with excellent retention. Color was solidly Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose was an interesting mélange, led by the roasty smokiness of dark chocolate, underlain by sweet strawberry & vanilla. Wow! Mouthfeel was medium, reminding me that it was an American (Cascadian) Black Ale & NOT a Stout. The flavors really seemed to erupt & blossom in my mouth. Chocolate led the way, natch, but the strawberry & vanilla were no slouches here. When I was a kid, it was my 'rents who really dug chocolate while I gravitated towards strawberry & so a half-gallon of Neapolitan ice cream di not last long. Since then, I have developed a mild lactose intolerance so ice cream is usually an afterthought, but I CAN still CANjure up those childhood memories. It was actually impressive how they had managed to keep the roasty bitterness in check in this one. That is, was & has been my bugaboo with the style - the roastiness of the malts gets in the the way of the all-important hops! In this case, it was less about hops and more about the other adjunct flavors, which the pulled off nicely. Finish was in that twilight zone between semi-sweet & semi-dry. It was one of those insCANces where it was tough to pin down. YMMV.