Black Bird
Lakefront Brewery

 

Look: It's very Porter like... It's dark and nearly opaque just a little bit of red hue a khaki colored head.. lacing on the glass everything looks good

Smell: The smell prior to tasting out of the can had IPA style hops in the aroma... Now that I'm drinking it that aroma seems to be gone... I think it's hidden by the taste on the palate.

Taste: this is really delicious... I mean for a guy that likes porters... And grew-up with West Coast bitter IPAs... This hits nicely. I mean during hop harvest time, I was putting hop flowers in my mouth back in the day...

Mouth feel: feels fantastic, Nice body nice roasted malt, excellent hopping excellent body not too high an alcohol

Overall: this is a nice combination It's creative and fun... I'm going to research this style and see how many have done it before and when it start with all started. This is a new style for me kind of trendy... But maybe I'm just missed the trend and it's decades old





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Okay I need to comment on this one....

Okay I'm putting it against all day West Coast IPA Founders Blackbird Black IPA Look all day West Coast is very foamy..
I did the double blind experiment and I do taste the dark chocolate malts in the end... Classic West Coast malting and then hops and then the dark malt is in the lingering aftertaste after a West Coast hop close.

What would you taste if you didn't see it...? Immediately I taste the piney resin of what I would call cap cascade hop character definitely West Coast... The9 mouth feel is leaning towards a double... If I couldn't see it I'm not sure if I would pick up on the differentiation of a roasted toasted.... Okay Albert we need a thought experiment... 4 West Coast IPA's similar in ABV similar in hops blind testing...

What would you smell if you didn't see it... You smell that citrus aroma and you smell some malt The malt is muted by the citrus but when I first opened the can it was very present...

I'm reading this style higher because it's thought-provoking and brilliant... I asked myself is it a style let me answer that. It is now...

I love it

So clearly I'm infatuated 4.75...
I challenge you to the double blind fold study let me know if you've got candidate beers to line up.... Sit me down in the chair blindfolded....

Same temperature same glass same experience... Rotate through them... Let your pallet and nose decide

I'm keeping the score elevated until I can find the truth....

And I can say with over a hundred beer reviews I've never scored a five

 

Poured from a can into a pint glass. Pours pitch black with a small light brown head. Smells of sweet citrus and some coffee. Tastes of sweet citrus and piney hops with nice chocolate notes. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking, good carbonation. Overall, a very good beer.

Part of a 6 pack of cans, on to the beer:

Black Bird’s color is black as you would think; more obsidian black with a reflection. An inch of creamy tanned head sits above. Doses of pine mixed well with grapefruit notes and a touch of roasted malt.

A roasty beer with a kick of IPA and easy drinkability. It’s lighter in mouthfeel, but easy to quaff despite the 6.8% ABV. It’s a bit like its IPA paler cousin, but more interesting with that shade of added darkness.

 

 

From a 12oz can best before April 17, 2025

When pouring it into the glass it somewhat looks like cola. In the glass this beer is a dark brown color, but, when held up to the light, I get some amber hues in the beer. There's a 2 finger tan head to this beer that is quite long lasting. There's some good sticky looking lacing on the glass.
The aroma is somewhat mild. I do get some licorice notes in here. I do get a slight pine and citrus hop aroma in here on the nose. I am also getting a faint biscuit aroma in here.
Taste - I do get some licorice in the flavor of this beer. I do get a nice pine flavor from the hops, though it isn't too strong. There's some citrus notes cutting the pine a bit. There's a bit of a grainy/biscuit flavor going on in the beer.
The body is ok. It does have some depth. There's a slight feeling of the bitterness and the hops do linger in my throat for a while.
Overall this isn't a bad beer, but, it is also nothing special. The flavors just don't seem to hit as hard as other black IPAs do.

Had this “test batch” on tap at the brewery before a brewery tour. Near black body. Roasty and grainy malt with plenty of hops providing a bitter citrusy and piney finish.