Fading Trend: Black IPA

I scooped up some New Glarus Black Top when I was in Wisconsin for Central Waters Anniversary party end of January because I miss that style so much and it's done so well. Agree on the two Twin Cities ones being best examples up there.

Toppling Goliath made a great one back in 2010-12 called Winter Solstice. Would love to see them bring that beer and Robusto(!) robust porter back out of retirement but at their scale could prove tough but I think they're really unique and compelling beers.

 

I thought the fading trend was people paying attention to MNBeer.com.

Black IPA is a doubly challenging style, with its dry/bitter/piney hoppiness and unmitigated roasted maltiness. Obviously it seems a poor fit in the-sweeter-and-more-accessible-the-better era of NEIPAs and pastry stouts. There are, nonetheless, several very good, current, local examples that I'd put right there with Steel Toe Douglas and Indeed Midnight Ryder, including Surly Furious Black (coming to cans later this year), Shakopee Chernabog, Unmapped Path Of Souls, Birch's Double Dry Hopped Black IPA, Town Hall Hopped Concession, 12welve Eyes Black IPA, and Bobtown In The Stars. I'm almost tempted to declare that the Black IPA is starting a comeback.

 

With the kind of in depth reporting that fills three paragraph articles how dare we stop paying attention to MNBeer.com.

 

What is the deal with Midnight Ryder? It is not listed on Indeed's 2018 brewing calendar and I have not seen it in ages.

 

Out of production now. Indeed is replacing it with a yet to be announced year round IPA.

 

I never warmed up to the style. I just don't find hoppy and roasty to be complimentary flavor profiles.

Black Top was solid, but that's about as far into them as I got.

 

It’s not really faded if no one gave a crap about it in the first place. It’s one of those beer styles that brewers make because bloggers say they are trending, but consumers at best find moderately pleasant.

 

I'd buy the crap out of Blakkr if it came back, but I haven't had another one that even came close to it for me.

 

I guess that one was pretty good too.

 

Cascadian Dark Ales were a pretty big deal for a while and pretty popular, causing other brewers to brew black ipas outside of that area. Somewhat akin to what is happening now with neipas and hazy ipas.

 

It's a style that historically received very high ratings. At the other site, the 50th highest-rated Black IPA gets a 3.8 (that translates to about a 4.3 here at BA). The styles with a 50th highest-rated beer that rate higher are limited to APA, American Strong Ale, Barley Wine, Belgian Strong Ale, Imperial Stout, Imperial/Double IPA, Imperial/Strong Porter, IPA, Lambic - Fruit, Lambic - Gueuze, Saison, Sour Red/Brown, and Sour/Wild Ale (i.e., the beer geek pantheon styles). It struck a chord with a substantial segment of pre-boom craft beer consumers around a decade ago (perhaps before your time). Now that the number of people who are doing beer ratings has increased by a couple of orders of magnitude (mainly via Untappd) and thus the net is cast much more widely, it's hard for such a boldly inaccessible style to appeal broadly to raters. It's a similar story to the decline in popularity of the WCIPA and, to a lesser extent, the unflavored imperial stout (and the flip side of the rise of the NEIPA, pastry stout, and fruited kettle sour).

 

It's too bad, because they're a heck of a lot better than nearly every hazy IPA I've had.

 

Who’s going to be the first one to do a Black NEIPA that looks like a glass of sewage?

 

Birch's on the Lake?

 

Same here, I had the Surly and Three Floyds release but could never track down the Real Brewery release

 

Hoppy and Roasty is not bad at all...I just always had a problem with calling such beers IPA.
( but it was always better than calling it "Cascadian Dark Ale" or some such nonsense)

 

Honestly one of the best beers of recent memory- I would love for Surly to re-visit that one. I wish it had been better supported, unfortunately I think the price tag kept some people away.

 

Here’s to hoping it will be a sweeter-and-more-accessible-the-better IPA.

 

I wont be missing them anytime soon......