Black Is Beautiful: Appreciation Thread

I've only ever seen one on the shelves and that is from Ology. My distributor has 4-5 different ones but unless you truck chase your aren't going to be able to pick these up.

On a side note a "local" brewery just put out a beer called "Say Her Name" in honor of Breonna Taylor.

https://untappd.com/b/schoolhouse-brewing-say-her-name/3994997

I don't have enough positive things to say about Schoolhouse. The people there are great and they are very socially conscious.

 

This is absolutely magnificent, IMHO. My favorite BIB thus far. Russian River is the shizzle dizzle.





4.48/5 rDev +3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

A jet black pour with a creamy tan head that actually provides a really nice amount of lacing (a surprise for me with a relatively high ABV imperial stout), this has loads of dark chocolate, char, burnt brown sugar, and stone fruit aromas. Wow.

Big roasty char and burnt brown sugar flavors, ample dark chocolate, but the star for me is the stone fruit flavors that I’d guess come from whatever hop assortment Russian River utilized brewing this beer. Absolutely delicious.

The mouthfeel is substantial and approaches creamy. This is my favorite thus far in the BIB series.

 

Odd13 was incredibly tasty.. they evidently did a blend with some BBA stout and I’m assuming the provided recipe... it was awesome- nice barrel, vanilla, caramel notes that were well integrated with the base stout.

highly recommended!

 

I'm really enjoying the 4-pack I picked up from Parish Brewing Co. in Broussard, LA, which is near Lafayette. It was sweeter than I was expecting, but pleasantly so, and then I noticed that it said "salted caramel imperial stout" on the can. The Parish website says it's made with Ugandan vanilla beans, French Artisan caramel syrup and flaked sea salt. I'd recommend it, but then again I like everything Parish puts out, and I haven't tried any other Black is Beautiful beers in comparison. I saw online that six or so breweries in New Orleans, plus Gnarly Barley in Hammond, LA, also released versions of Black is Beautiful but haven't had a chance to try any of those yet. I'm savoring this one in the meantime.

 

I think it's a generational thing.

I had to convince myself that I was following a different culture when I had the Municher Breakfast at Schneider.

 

I just tapped my Homebrew version of this this morning, just to check for carbonation in a taster glass and this recipe is definitely a keeper! I don't know if my attenuation issue was due to yeast or mash temp. I mashed at 156, aiming for a FG of 1.017. I started with a strike temp of 168, which is my normal procedure to hit my mash temp. Mashed at 156 for the hour and the rest of the brew day was uneventful. I did miss my pre-boil gravity by 5 points so I adjusted that with some table sugar. I attributed that to a bigger grain bill and that almost half of it was speciality grains. One packet of US-05, and 12 days later, the FG was at 1.030 for 7%abv. in 12 years of brewing, besides using expired yeast, I've never had a stuck fermentation. I threw another packet of US05 at it to see if anything would happen. After 3 days, there was no change in appearance or gravity. I'm going to re-brew, do a 90 minute mash and use Imperial's Darkness or Pub yeast and see what changes are. The taste is great however I think the 1.9% of ABV would have aided in a bit more flavor, and warmth. I'll have my first full pint of it tonight and report back.

 

I've had 4 versions of the BiB stout, but only one was brewed with the straight recipe without any flavoring ingredients. That was the version that I liked best. It's a great recipe.

 

I finally got a 4-pack of this beer, brewed as a collaboration between Suburban BC, Blueprint BC, Seven Sirens BC, The Ways Restaurant & Brewery, and Homestead Coffee Roasters.

Whew... that's a lot of collaborating. It was canned by Blueprint. Imperial stout with coffee, 9.3% abv.

I'm not generally fond of the taste of coffee, but this one is really good. The coffee is just subtle enough, the roasted bitterness offset by the alcohol. Just a great, heavy, creamy stout. I have a tall pint glass and the head was about 2", although it dissipated quickly.

I'm not gonna be in a hurry to drink these; they'll be wonderful to savor as the weather cools and the days shorten.

 

I’m on my 4th Pint (not all today) and I can’t get over how amazing the base recipe is. It’s chocolatey, roasty, with beautiful coffee like overtones. The flavor stays after the finish and it’s very welcomed. I definitely recommend brewing it as I’m sure it’ll be your favorite. I’ll definitely brew it again before winters end.

 

Thank you sir, I was just thinking the same thing ! I've had several now and gotta say Pontoons version is the best so far, I call it a mocha stout, bittsweet chocolate up front followed by coffee with vanilla and smoke in the finish

 

I had Finback and KCBC's takes on it here in NYC and both were fantastic! I should've sat on more cans for these colder months.

KCBC did something really cool by donating profits from it's sale to The Center for Racial Justice in Education, a nonprofit here in the city that provides more tools to be antiracist educators.

 

Bottle Logic's take on BIB:
Appearance: Black with a generous-sized foamy dark beige head that slowly faded. A very good looking Imperial Stout.

Smell: Strong chocolate malt notes, roasted malts, and mild bready notes. A pretty good nose on this one.

Taste: The taste profile follows the nose featuring prominent chocolate notes, moderate roasted malt notes, mild brown sugar notes and though not an added adjunct I get hints of a mild vanilla presence. The beer is fairly sweet but dries out somewhat a bit in the finish which features some lingering roast malts notes. The beer has a subdued alcohol presence for it's listed 11.4% ABV.

Mouth-feel: On the heavier side of medium bodied with a fairly generous level of carbonation. Nice body fitting for the beer.

Overall: A good non-bal-aged stout. This beer is totally different from the other Black is Beautiful beers I've had and so far I like all of them I've had, Bottle Logic did well with their take on the concept.

 

I finally made it over to New Orleans the day before Thanksgiving and had originally planned to go around to pick up a few varieties of Black is Beautiful (the Black is Beautiful website lists eight participating New Orleans breweries), but of those that were open on a Wednesday afternoon for beer-to-go in the pouring rain, only Brieux Carré near Frenchman Street was still selling Black is Beautiful on their website (I didn't see it featured on the websites for NOLA, Urban South or Zony Mash). The Brieux Carré version is described on their website as a "10.3% ABV Imperial Stout with notes of dark chocolate and toasted marshmallow", and with a portion of proceeds going to the Innocence Project New Orleans to help bring justice to those wrongfully convicted. I don't think it followed the original recipe from what I can tell, but it didn't have any of the sweetness of the Parish version I had tried--it was just dark and smooth and went down really pleasantly. So it seems I missed out on most of what had been available, and I'm not sure how much longer Brieux Carré will be selling it, but I'd definitely recommend theirs--it was worth the trip and driving through the flooded streets of the French Quarter to get it.

 

Update: a month and a half in the keg and the initial bitterness upon tapping has now completely faded to this beautiful smooth and roasty, dark chocolate and Sumatra like coffee notes. I’m planning on making another batch in January. I can this one aging beautifully. Base recipe is killer and definitely will impress your stout loving friends.

 

Other than a handful of locals, we haven't seen any other BiB. Kind of disappointed, to be honest. Was looking forward to trying different versions.

 

If you want to become a trader and find a bunch of locals who also trade, I think you can probably find a fairly good selection still available at breweries. Bell's still lists theirs (imperial oatmeal stout) and I'm pretty sure that Founders still has their version in their store (peanut butter stout). Anyone who can trade with someone in Grand Rapids can have them check out if City Built Brewing has any of their BiB Blackberry Sweet Stout available. It's fantastic.

Anybody know of any others that are still available at breweries or in the store? (I've not seen any in a store, so I don't know if any BiBs went into distro.)