I recently spotted this in a Safeway here in the SF Bay Area. FW is flooding the zone with this release. I hope sales are strong.
Confirmed alive and well at the styles birthplace of VT (or one of them anyway). James on tap at the BlackBack. Classic profile with hoppy citrus and roast malt flavors w/firm back end bitterness. Saw this on tap at a few places yesterday during my travels across the Northeast Kingdom.
I kept skipping responding, but Masthead rereleased their Midwest Midnight recently. Think we're lucky to ne seeing so many black IPAs out here. Seems like everyone has one in their back pocket. I see another small brewery that has one at the moment... perhaps it's the preponderance of regular IPAs that makes the jump easier.
Epitome is the only beer I still hunt for on the day it's released. Source also releases a Black IPA around Thanksgiving every year called Murdered Out. Not as hoppy (Epitome is crazy bitter), thinner and more of a coffee flavor to it. Great beer, but very different. Unfortunately I don't see much Source lately. Great to see so many fellow Black IPA fans, it's my favorite style and few friends agree with me. I was excited to see Wooky Jack was released last year, but I don't think much left California. Been searching for it in NJ and having my parents look Upstate NY, but no luck yet. FW's website beer tracker says my local shop has it, but when I asked they said they haven't carried FW for about a year. Hadn't noticed, but it seems like most stores don't carry FW anymore. I used to buy a lot of their barrel aged beers every year, but almost never see them anymore. Wonder why NJ stores gave up on FW? If anyone homebrews, Northern Brewer has a fantastic Black IPA recipe called Ace of Spades. Strongy roasty flavor from the hops, and big piney hops. I planned on making a batch last month, but they were sold out. Looks like they are back in stock now.
Darwin of Darwins Beer Reviews recently did a review of the Masthead Black IPA... apparently there was no indication on the package it was a "black" IPA (aside from the fact its called Midnight whatever) so he was like WTF for a while. THE WORLD NEEDS MOAR BLACK IPA!!!111!!!
I don’t know how I missed the Shorts double black IPA when it came out. I found a sixer in the wild… put it back on the shelf once I saw the bottled date from January. Maybe it’s a seasonal and I’ll find some fresh ones next month.
I actually just found a six pack left over in Florida. Snapped it right up even though it was 9 months old. It is still delicious. I have 2 left and hate to drink them. Also a local brewery has one on tap now, it too is really good. I love black IPAs.
Matte Black from Killsboro is in my local curated beer cafe-bottle shop on-tap and in cans. It is a fine example of the style. I started brewing fifteen years ago specifically because I could not find a Cascadia IPA or a saison reliably.
Yes, one of the beauties of homebrewing is that you can make beer styles which are difficult or impossible to purchase. Earlier today I bottled a batch of Sticke Altbier which I would have to travel to Dusseldorf, Germany to purchase. Cheers!
This thread has had me craving a black IPA, and finally found this local option. Few and far between at least in my part of Mass
I just had one at one of my local breweries. A bit of roastiness along with the hops. It's named appropriately, Black Squirrel. (We have squirrels of all normal colors here in town, plus black ones.)
