Dark Between The Stars
Ruse Brewing

 

 

another awesome name on a ruse beer. this one is a black ipa, and a mighty tasty one, on the edge of hitting bitterness double jeopardy with the roast and the hops in combination, but its also super well refined, presents as balanced still, and never feels overdone to me, very nice brew. high shine from the tap, black as obsidian with similar luster, short stocky inch of curiously pale head, creamy almost nitro looking, visually akin to a dry irish stout on nitro of all things. the nose is piney up front, well roasty, with some earthiness, minerality, and cool fruit wrinkles from the hops, dried orange peel and pink grapefruit, unique with the middle malts in here and all the roast, i tend to get more pine and weed and that sort of thing in the black ipa space, so i appreciate the use of what must be less conventional varietals for the style. a bit of chocolate in the flavor, almost a chocolate orange thing, some neat oaty or wheaty (or both!) smoothness, and the use of some specialty dark grains is evident, really nice build for this even before the hops. definitely still some spruce character here, woodsy as well as fruity, and with some bitter oily texture too from the hops, makes this feel full in its own way, but its not over the top heavy at all, could easily be a pint beer for me, even at this abv. really complex flavor profile, and i credit the malt base this has. cool to see one of these so well refined, so jazzed up with sexy hops, and so drinkable for what it is. lovely stuff, this is the kind of thing i came to ruse for, and they delivered!

On-draught @ Beer O'clock:

B- / WORTHY