Obsidian Jam
New Realm Brewing Company

Pour is dark brown to black with generous head that dissipates slowly. Nose is alcohol with maltiness. Taste is coffee alcohol followed by some chocolate. Mouthfeel starts smooth and then has some sharpness from the carbonation. All in all a good beer.

 

 

 

 

From the can, it pours a very dark brown color with a nice thick light brown head that lasts for a good long while leaving lacing. The nose gets a dose of citrus, primarily orange, reasonably pleasant. The mouth gets some citrus, but is primarily burnt malts, leaving a slightly burnt residue flavor in the mouth. Feel is ok, slightly slick but nothing really special.

There doesn't seem to be any date code on the can or the label. The label says that this is a "FRIENDSHIP COLLABORATION: STONE BREWING FIRESTONE WALKER BREWING COMPANY NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY"

Appearance: The body is a dark brown color. It has an over-sized khaki head which is dense and creamy. It has excellent head retention.Some lacing is present where the head barely recedes.

Aroma: Oddly it smells a bit like cocoa and burnt rubber, followed by this phenolic plastic scent. Each time the cocoa scent hits the nose it saves the aroma temporarily, but even cocoa seems misplaced in a Black IPA. What is going on here?

Taste: There is some orange followed by a sharp carbon flavor at the tip of the tongue. The middle is carbon and burning plastic. There is some spring onion towards the back of the mouth and some hay grass at the end. A strong carbon flavor on the finish as well. This tastes like an alien made a Black IPA after reading a loose description of the style. This odd green apple flavor keeps coming back to the palate as the beer is consumed. Even as it warms up, this green apple flavor starts to become even more apparent.

Mouthfeel: It has a lot of burnt and charred carbon bitterness without any kind of balance. The beer feels oddly slick and strange to drink. It has a medium body. Carbonation is very nice but it fights with the odd slickness in the body.

Overall: This was a very disappointing beer. The can stated that this was made by "NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY" and that it was a "FRIENDSHIP COLLABORATION:" which included "STONE BREWING " as well as "FIRESTONE BREWING COMPANY" and lastly "NEW REALM BREWING COMPANY." That is a lot of heavy hitters and respectable ones at that. It is indecipherable as to what went wrong with this beer...too many cooks in the kitchen? It is a terrible example of the style. Firestone Walker used to make Wookey Jack which was a fantastic beer and actually led the style category. This beer is loaded with off-flavors from green apple to plastic phenols and it seems to rely on the burnt carbon char to bury the mistakes. To say this is amateurish would be an insult; this is a phone-in. This was very disappointing and it strikes at the credibility of all those who made it. It is rare to see anyone attempt to tackle the Black IPA, and if anyone could lead the charge I would expect Firestone Walker. It is very disappointing. Perhaps someday this will be remade with a sincere effort.