Southern Tier Iniquity

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Lakewood, New York USA

On tap at Beer Temple. Deep dark brown to black colour, dense light beige head. Aroma of hops, pine, sweet malts, burnt sugar, fruits. Flavour is sweet, malty, light roasted malts, a bit of coffee, caramel, some dark fruits, good hoppy citrus bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied.

Bottle. Moderate to heavy malt aromas of toasted and molasses, heavy pine tar for the hops, light earth for the yeast, with background notes of licorice, raisin, vanilla and alcohol. Head is small, frothy, off-white with spotty lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is dark cola brown. Flavor starts moderately sweet and lightly acidic, then finish is lightly sweet and slight acidic and bitter. Palate is medium, oily with a soft to lively carbonation, and a lightly dry finish. Dark, rich and bold this is an excellent American Strong Ale.

Bottle. Pours a black color with a longlasting off-white head. Has a fruity malty hoppy aroma. Fruity malty hoppy bitter grapefruit flavor. Has a fruity slightly sweetish malty hoppy bitter finish with hints of grapefruit in the aftertaste.

Deliciously inviting aroma of licorice and grapefruit peel, with a much larger portion of the former. Clear dark brown, almost black, thin tan lacing head. The flavor is the closest I have yet found to licorice beer. It finishes with a wisp of smoke and charcoal, but there is little complexity beyond that. It is licorice beer. I’m amazed that there are no additives; what a feat! Tasty and unique, but a bit of a novelty act. A little too sweet too. If I ever decide to learn to brew, though, I want to intern at ST.

THOUGHTS: Nice. I’ve had better, but still don’t think I’ve had a bad, dark IPA, yet. It was fairly mellow and easy to drink at first, but became overly dry in the finish was time moved on. Make sure to drink this one fairly warm, because the cold masks almost everything good about this one. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured an extremely dark red that looked nearly black in the glass with a small to average, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was moderate to heavy, caramel, chocolate and chocolate milk; moderate to heavy resinous hops and a little less piney hops; slight soy sauce, a bit rubbery, but I think that’s really the resinous hops. The initial flavor was lightly sweet, bitter and slightly acidic; while the finish was sweet, very bitter and slightly acidic with a long duration. There was caramel and roasted malt, a little chocolate, slight coffee, resinous hops, some pine and a little dark fruit. The full body was a bit syrupy and sticky on the lips and then a little dry with very fizzy carbonation and a metallic, very dry and lightly astringent finish.

Quite nice indeed, though rather doubt it was worth the $7 for a bomber. (I’m not sure any but a very select few beers are worth $7 a bomber given my marginal utility scake). Basically it’s an Imperial Black IPA, which means you expect something like Stone Sublime with a more sticky, sweet and thick quality. Here it wasn’t so much sticky as it was silky, and not all that thick. A pretty tasty semi-sweet treat. This black-IPA thing is really a nice recent style innovation.

ON draught at the Alchemy: Two REALLY nice imp ipas in one night. they both had their pluses and minuses. This one was just a bit sweeter in taste so I probably liked the conductor a little more. A dark semi murky reddish amber colour wit a full beige head. Nose as some soft fruits, a bit of spice and fresh hops floating through. Flavours are generous of hops as one would expect them to be. Plenty of prune, caramel and raisin notes underlying the taste. Noticeable spice and bready malt come through also. Awesome beer from Southern Tier.

Bottle shared with Angeloregon... Poured near black with amber highlights and a thing, light tan head. Floral, yeasty, malty aroma with a touch of hops. This was more sweet and malty than hoppy. It had a lot of baked bread like tones and sweet, boozy notes. Very solid and complex, with just a touch of hops for accent rather than bitterness.