Black IPAs are dead? Why?

I am waiting for the first brewery to craft "Midnight Sun" A Black IPA on top of a juicy IPA, a play on the Black and Tan fad with Guinness....
I bet it would sell lol.
Cheers

 

They switched to 4-packs of 16 oz cans for most of the beers now. It was added on to my bar tab so I don't remember. $10 or $12?

 

I predict sure Sam Adams will come out with one next year.

 

I'll add my agreement, and also Sublimely Self Righteous, especially the first batch that was the anniversary beer, was amazing too.

 

I still brew 'em I enjoy black IPA's, it's hard to find good ones so I just do what I want with my homebrews.

 

This is gonna sound crazy - and I know I'm late to the party (thread) - but I either want an IPA (hoppy, bitter, fruity/piney) or a stout (bittersweet, roasty, chocolaty/coffee-y) - and the notion that having all those aspects in play at once would be a winner was misplaced.

I, for one, was never a huge fan - I enjoyed Stone's Self-Righteous and a handful of other black IPAs, but never enough to displace my craving for a hoppy pale or a rich stout. I never craved a half-and-half.

 

I agree, the balance gets messed up quite a bit more often than not. 70% of the Black IPA's ya run into are either hoppy stouts or IPA's with a black color.

What I like to do is use basically any de-bittered black malts and carafe II/III (but never roasted barley, that's for stouts yo.) at about 10% of the grain bill, the rest pale malts; then bitter with warrior, flavor and double dry hop the snot out of it with amarillo/citra. Seems to work ok.

 

I thought it was an oxymoron too, but my understanding is that "Pale Ale" was the name given to brews made predominantly from Pale Malt. At the time, Porters were brewed using Brown Malt.
There were black IPAs brewed back in the 1880s.
"by referring to the black beer produced at Burton, which has been universally described as a mere black pale ale—i.e., though black in colour, its palate taste reminds one very strongly of the pale beers produced by Burton firms. It will be quite understood that I am not decrying this article; it may and does suit many palate tastes, and is thought a great deal of on the Continent, but at the same time it differs very widely from the accepted standard quality of a black beer as specified."
"The theory and practice of modern brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888, pages 259-260."

 

Yes! Was wondering if that one would get mentioned in this thread, that was a real favorite of mine what, five years ago?

 

When people ask me what style I really dislike I say American Barleywine. But now I remember it’s American Barleywine and Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale.

 

I got into craft after having a black IPA, Odell Mountain Standard, at a restaurant. It was great, but when I tracked some down in a store months later, it was terribly bitter. I figured out that the one I liked must have been 18mo or more out of date. This taught me about aging. I found all the local craft stores and this site while trying to find the beer. This led to me discovering that the "some dark beers" I liked included stouts and porters, but not black IPAs. I do like BA Mountain Standard.

 

I just never liked the combo of roasty and hoppy. It's just not a thing that enough people love, so it'll always have a limited reach.

 

I miss Wookey Jack.

 

Nice find. Thanks for sharing it!

 

Thanks but I stole it from Ron Pattinson's ( @patto1ro ) blog "Shut up about Barclay Perkins"

 

I really enjoy black IPA, but they are incredibly hard to find.

 

When done well, I think a Black IPA is a great addition to the craft beer world but I agree that it seems not have gained enough of a following. For me a Black IPA is hopped like a traditional west coast IPA but has a richer malt backbone and just a hint of roasted flavor. Founders Dark Penance was my favorite and I was very disappointed when they stopped brewing it after only two seasons. Ironically it seem a style still in vogue among home brewers. In fact I will be brewing a Dark Penance clone in a few weeks. I think one of the issues was people were reluctant to try the Black IPAs. In talkling with a brewert rep, she said whenever they brought DP to an event, like a tapping party for KBS, it was very well received. But apparently it didn't sell well enough and the actual 100 IBUs had to make it an expensive beer to brew

 

I'm gonna go ahead and stick with my initial assessment of, "It's because they suck."

 

I remember a time when Victory Yakima Glory was the most wonderful and exciting beer to me. That was more of a Brown IPA, but extremely hoppy.

Would love to try it again to see if I would still enjoy it.

 

I wonder how many people don't realize that Black IPA, American Black Ale and Cascadian Dark Ale are the same thing. There's also another term: India Black Ale (IBA), but that's hardly ever used.

@EvenMoreJesus, what about Founders Dark Penance? Didn't like that one either?