Black IPAs are dead? Why?

Black IPAs fall in a weird territory. For better or worse, a lot of people say "I hate IPAs" and others say "I hate dark beers". Regardless of how, usually, misguided both of these statements are, it means that Black IPAs fall into both categories and see a portion of their potential customers chased off before they even take a sip.

No science in this statement, just my opinion.

 

I wonder how many people could give a shit about fleeting pseudonymns for a style that barely exists. If you hop the shit out of a stout does that make it a Black IPA? If so, then call it moot in a bag of soft shit

 

Out of all the ones that I tried, I believe that Lagunitas Nighttime was the only one that I really liked. The rest didn't do much for me, with most of them being little more than hoppy porters or stouts.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/112938/

 

I like them but I don't think they sell well on the general population. Then they aren't very fresh, and discerning beer drinkers won't buy them for that reason.

With the existence of Bigfoot, or Storm King (among the many other hoppy BWs and Stouts out there) I think you can find beers in the same neighborhood, just marketed differently (although higher abv and gravity).

 

They were certainly around in 1880 so I think it unlikely that we will be able to give inventor credit for them.

 

It's like a peanut butter and mustard sandwich. The individual pieces are fine, but when combined they just taste wrong.

 

Wookus was great.

 

When IPAs used to be bitter and stouts used to be roasty, the Black IPA was a hybrid of that. Now that IPAs are sweet/juicy and stouts are sweet and chocolaty, peoples tastes (as a general craft beer pop.) don't quite mesh for what a Black IPA provides. I still like bitter IPAs, roasty stouts and black IPAs for a change of pace. With that said I prefer juicy IPAs and sweet/chocolate stouts.

 

Does this mean that the modern black IPA will have to be a blend of the popular IPA style and the popular stout style? I think IPAs with lactose, chocolate/candy/baked goods, fruit, coffee, vanilla, etc. fall into this category.

Maybe black IPA isn't dead after all. It has just evolved into something disgusting and unrecognizable.

 

I was a big fan of that one myself! Very roasty, almost charred flavor, bittersweet chocolate, big punch of piney hops.

IIRC otter creek or wolavers had a real strong offering in the style as well.

 

They may have been but they certainly weren’t using dehusked carafa malt and copious amounts of Amarillo hops.....cause those ingredients didn’t exist in 1880...or 1980 for that matter.

 

I agree, I dont find roasty malts generally work well with an IPA that supposed to be bright and fruity. Other than Stones Sublimely effort I can't think of one I thought was all that good.

 

Who says an IPA has to be bright and fruity? I want something dank or piney or floral. I like Black IPAs and I think the piney hops go nicely with the roasted malts.

 

Well have a go it's cool, but dank and piney and roasted malts are two different things.

 

I think we might see at least a minor comeback of black IPAs. They do have appeal. I know I like them.

 

Out here is CA, noticed one of my favorite brews, among my favorites a couple years ago, that is, featured in a variety pack of fifteen, the delicious Back in Black, from a worthy brewery, increasingly rare to come across (Brews with great label art!)

... guess get it while we can

Perhaps we should all agree DIPAs win, and lets take a time out, take a deep breathe, and have moment (s) of mercy upon our crafty options ...

 

New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger has a 10% version on tap at our local Old Chicago presently.

 

Add brown ales to that as well. I still stand by my statement that brown ales are the most underappreciated style. I drink boatloads of Bell's Best Brown Ale every fall.