Latest Pipeworks Releases and Updates (2018)

Mandarin Dragonet is incredible.

 

Well...I've made it to Wednesday...but my buddy just told me how good the new fish beer is.

Hope I can keep it together until Friday!

 

Hopefully I can land one in my hands. I would like to know how others rank the Mandarin Dragonet rank against all the beers in the fish series?

 

My guess is it wasn't selling well enough branded as a Hoppy Stout and they are hoping a Black IPA rebranding will generate more sales. It's a great beer, but in a world of great beer...

 

I'm clearly an outlier here, but "black IPA" might as well say "pass" as far as I'm concerned. A great black IPA is still pretty low on my list of things to drink, whereas I've had some hoppy stouts that I'd put towards the top of my priority list.

 

Mandarin was my favorite of all the fish series beers I had.

 

initially branded as a hoppy double stout


EDIT: ABV has come down a bit.

 

close encounter is coming back, we are just waiting on the new cans, there are plenty of names for what that beer can be, cascadian dark ale, black IPA, hopped stout etc. its kinda all the same really, black IPA is generally more understandable I think. the other cans are just made in a different frequency compared to the 3 "year rounds" thats all, they still get made throughout the year. and yes, abv adjustment changes the terminology

 

Y'all are making me thirsty.

 

It probably really depends on the beer. I liked Closer Encounter, so if it became a "Black DIPA" I'd be fine with it. Most of the black IPAs I've had have just tasted like IPAs where the hops fell off (the exception being Blakkr, which is pretty good, although still not 100% in my wheelhouse). Hoppy stouts, on the other hand...Darkness (my favorite), the Defender (from Haymarket), etc...those I like.

Either way, I'd imagine Close Encounter will still be tasty.

 

I never realized that black IPAs are so close to stouts. No wonder I like them!

 

A lot of black ipa's are the second runnings of the mash from a big stout with a hop schedule like an ipa.

 

looks like with the black ipa label they're dropping the abv from 7 to 6%. Only had 1 four pack of Close Encounter 7% & thought it was tasty. If the 1% drop in abv makes it more crushable like lizard king I'm all for it

 

We have cans of the new Close Encounter in our bottle shops here in Copenhagen. Had it a few weeks back, very nice!

 

Why stop there with Close Encounters, let's make it a NE Style Black IPA.

 

Are you calling me a pretzel?

 

So not only got a Mandarin yesterday but more KBS is in the suburbs..........