The Black Album
Level Crossing Brewing Company

 

 

Review: 2312
Name: The Black Album
Brewery: Level Crossing Brewing
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Style: Imperial Black Rye IPA
ABV: 9%
Canned: 2025
Date: 21 Jan 2025
I poked around my fridge and noticed I had not reviewed this beer; I loved it at the brewery. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at 46 degrees. The pour created a frothy, foamy, airy, two-fingered, light tan head with above-average retention. The slow dissipation left lots of lacing on the glass. The color of the beer is SRM 32 dark brown with vibrant ruby red hues; the clarity is primarily opaque. The beer's appearance is above average for this style; it is beautiful with a delicate, long-lasting head.
Nosing the glass, I smell chocolate, tobacco, leather, espresso, light char, a hint of Maillard, and roasty malty notes. Smelling the beer again, I detect malty sweetness, toasted bread crust, a skosh of Maillard, floral esters, fruity sweetness, bay leaves, earthy dirt, and a light caramel note.
Sipping the beer, I see big, dark-roasted malts with a healthy dose of hops. The roasted notes have a light char, molasses, caramel, toffee, dark chocolate, light bitterness, tobacco, leather, and toasted bread crust. The hops are citrus, floral esters, light herbal, and grassy. I noticed a bit of yeasty, which has light phenolic notes.
The mouthfeel is astringent and does finish dry. The body is medium and has medium carbonation.
Being a Wookey Jack fan, I was delighted to find this available in Utah. This beer is a close substitution for Wookey Jack; it is a little more yeasty and does not have nearly enough dark-roasted malts but has bitterness. The Black Album is a solid Black Rye IPA with spicy hop notes and a good malt profile. I would love to drink this again.

16oz can at taproom. Near black pour, thin layer of tight, beige foam. Roasty aroma, coffee, burnt toast. Taste is roasty, some sweetness before the bitterness kicks in. Full and creamy feel, light lingering bitterness. Luscious.

an imperial black rye ipa, and what appears to be yet another brewer who was influenced by the famous wookey jack and is taking a stab at it. i love how much that beer hit home for so many in its day, and its cool to see its influence in the style still. this is great stuff, lots of rye, nice and strong, nice creamy body and smoothness, overall a lovely specimen that i like enough to make it dangerous. i continue to be enthused about level crossing too, great beers across the board. this is obsidian black, not as viscous as expected for its size, frothy burlap colored head an inch high and lasting the entire drink, really polished look to this. the hops are well selected, some bitter pithy citrus lightening the dark roast in here to me a little bit, and a piney woodsy northwestern character that fits with all the grain complexity, high alpha and also very flavorful. roasted barley brings some additional bitterness, but all of that is late. earlier its fine tobacco, espresso crema, campfire smoke, black pepper character from the earthy dry rye malt, a light tannic thing, a touch of mid palate brown sugar sweetness, and cola as well, very nicely layered on the grain side, pretty rye forward which is what i was hoping for, but not exclusively so, exceptional and subtly complex. the hops weave in real well, notes of lemon zest, pink grapefruit, spruce, and green pinecone to me at various times, a little weedy dankness but there is killer balance here too, especially for it being as bitter as it is later on. long and smooth, roasty and intense but also sort of cozy and comforting. a little alcohol as it warms but not super exposed, and really high carbonation makes each sip feel lathered up and even uplifting. elite level interplay between all the grains and these hops, this is excellent beer. glad someone is keeping the flame alive, love the name too!

edit: had a can recently that had been in the beer fridge a couple months, but this has really fallen off, like maybe i rated it too favorably the first time around, but there was several inches of yeasty sediment in the bottom of it, there was some weird grainy sweetness, and the hops are now fading, which is on me, but the texture and quality seem way lower than what i reviewed above. i dont expect it to be magic this much later, but i also dont expect it to be undrinkable, and this was on the edge of that. i liked this a lot better the first time, scaling back a couple of scores to at least recognize that not every drink of this is at the same level, some serious settling here, maybe a bad can from the run, but it turned me off, i was so stoked to crack this after loving it the first time that maybe i saved it too long for the right occasion, but that does not explain this fully...

 

16 oz can from the brewery store. Pours dark reddish brown with almost no head. Aroma: caramel, sweet malt, black pepper, booze. Taste: rye, sweet malt, bitter hops, black pepper. Very good. The rye, sweet malt and just enough bitter hops come together to make a very well balanced black IPA.