 Indra (2036), Prairie Village, Kansas, USA
| 3.4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 3/5 | 13/20 |
Jan 19, 2008 22oz. bottle, courtesy of hellbilly. Fairly mild and unusual aroma, featuring notes of dark toffee and roasty, sweet malts, even some faint cocoa, along with juicy, fresh pineapple, orange, raspberry and doughy black bread. Deep, dark brown in color with mahogany highlights and a fine, thin, subsiding head. Flavor profile reflects a far greater amount of hops than indicated by the nose, with a lasting, pronounced bitterness and citric character, combining with the darkly toasted, sugary malts, finishing with a light amount of raisin and chocolate to go along with the persistent, earthy hop presence and slight peppery alcohol that creeps in late. Semi-dry, prickly and well-carbonated on the palate with a full body. Certainly good, if not entirely avoiding the sort of "trainwreck" nature one might imagine a Black Double IPA to have.
garretjax (103), Colorado, USA
| 3.8 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 6/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 |
Jan 19, 2008 Blacker than black ale. Thin off-white head. Floral hop aroma and a slight hint of roast. Full bodied and great mouth feel. Not a thick as it looks, but don’t be decieved by that. It’s rich also. Nice and unique!
1/18/08: opened and enjoyed.
Glouglouburp (2867), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| 4.6 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 9/10 | 5/5 | 9/10 | 5/5 | 18/20 |
Jan 17, 2008 In short: One of the best (if not THE best) India Dark Ale.
How: 22oz bomber, 3 months old. Thanks to dmac621. A HUGE MEGA thanks for this one.
The look: Dark burgundy body with a rather big tan head
In long: Superb nose of citrus, dark fruits, pine-tree and roastiness. This is a tasty beer. As roasted as it is fruity. Dates, blueberries, dark grapes and sweet jam on top of a chocolate cake with everything swimming in citrus juice and a lot of molasses. Then comes the complex hops profile that is grapefruit, citrus, pine-tree, floral and grassy. Round and flavourful bitterness of medium intensity. Tasty but never aggressive. More roastiness develops as the beer warms up. Creamy body and smooth carbonation. Perfectly balanced. Very light alcohol presence. I’m very much into that new India Dark Ale trend and this one is my favourite so far. The traditional world of IPA used to be dominated by paler ales so this beer appears like the Tiger Woods in the mostly-white PGA. And judging by its quality its only a matter of time before the IPA world goes all NFL on us.
heylrule (46), Maryland, USA
| 3.9 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 |
Jan 17, 2008 solid beer. poured very dark aalmost black. Great smell of hops and pine. very smooth medium carbination. Tsted of hopes, pine and choc and coffee.
Pigfoot (2226), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| 3.9 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 |
Jan 15, 2008 Stone 11th Anniversary, in the dark with this IPA, pitch dark, so they say...what’s that mean? Let’s open and find out...
Hey, that is dark...and hoppy...big aromas, leaping out at ya...just about black, this one, with a smallish dark brown head.
Aroma: bright hops, mixed with rich, dark malt...ripe fruit melds with cocoa and coffee tones...interesting, to say the least...and I like it!
In the taste, big hop smack, taking a dark turn, feeling hot, roasted, and full. Tangy, twangy, tingly hops, meet roasted malt...overloaded with character and confidence. Some trickles of molasses and a hint of spice linger in as well...hops are everywhere, this is in IPA territory, definitely, but those dark malts take somewhere else entirely...and I like that!
first bitter fruit feel, then dark roast burning the palate...again, I like!
8.7%? I’m hardly feeling it...or, am...I?
A bit of bright orange and grapefruit pith, then a round of chocolate and coffee grounds..I’m enjoying that!
fredandboboflo (1417), East Setauket, New York, USA
| 3.9 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 |
Jan 14, 2008 Updated: Jul 7, 2008Bottle. Dark, translucent body with rapidly accumulating tan head. Aroma pretty much just piney hops, not much else going on, and even the pine sort of took a back seat to mere bitterness. Flavor was also one-dimensional for the most part, but at least it was a stronger, more pleasing one dimension than the nose. As it warmed, some malt poked through, but by that time the nice hops were less of a factor and it still didn’t really come together. For a clearly IPA-based beer, I actually thought the palate was the only saving grace here, really filling the mouth with as much of that hop presence as it could, strong but not out-of-place carbonation, no thinness at all. Aside from that though, not much going on. Wasn’t bad to drink, but I wouldn’t go for it again. 5-4-6-5-12 Rerate 7/5/08 So I did go for it again, and the age has really smoothed things out. In the nose, some piney and citrus hops work beautifully with roasted malt light on the roast, heavy on sweet fruitiness that blends with the hops. Flavor just brings out further intriguing complexities of the dark IPA with fairly sweet chocolate, a tart fruity coffee finish joining the rest. Easy drinking, at times creamy on the way down. Very nice.
jgb9348 (2513), Arlington (Pentagon City), Virginia, USA
| 2.7 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 6/10 | 3/5 | 5/10 | 2/5 | 11/20 |
Jan 13, 2008 Deep dark brown coloured body with a super dense tan head. Neat looking, almost 100% opaque - but that didn’t look like it would be when I was pouring it. Aroma of super strong hops, potent citrus & piney hops with a bit of alcohol, malt, yeast, spruce and even a slight touch of roasted coffee. Medium-bodied; Very mild taste of hops up front with hardly anything else. Some nuts and coffee show near the end, but not much else. Aftertaste shows more hops than anything else - a bit of underbalanced malt and some light bitter tastes, but that’s about it. Overall, way overrated and probably not even worth sampling. This doesn’t fit a style aside from ASA - it’s overly hopped (almost all stone beers are), under malted and under flavoured. Pass on this one, if you can bring yourself to do it. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Whole Foods (4th Ave) in San Francisco, California on 13-January-2008.
malachi (62), Seattle, Washington, USA
| 3.9 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 16/20 |
Jan 12, 2008 Highest of the night. Really enjoyed the body. Had a great hop finish, much better nose than anything else this evening. Thanks to Brigadier for a good night out.
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