Black IPA by what is arguably Romania’s foremost craft brewery; can from Gedeelde Vreugde shared with Steve. Thick and creamy, membrane-lacing, mocha-beige head over a jet black beer, not allowing any light to peep through. Aroma of salmiak, pine resin, toasted walnuts, grapefruit peel, burnt toast, bitter chocolate, cedar oil, dried porcini, patchouli, pipe tobacco, nutmeg, black pepper, espresso hint. Sweetish onset in a clean way, old raisins, dried fig, medium carb, very full and oily body, almost syrupy even (especially for anything under the “IPA” flag); a lightly beefy umami accent accompanies a rounded, layered bitter-chocolatey and pecan-nutty malt structure, sweetish but with a ‘heavy’ roasted-coffee bitter side flanked by equally strong, and in the end even more, aromatic, resinous, grapefruity, peppery hop bitterness. Nutmeg-, coffee grounds- and bitter tree leaf-like aspects eventually get highlighted by a gin-like alcohol glow but the hops certainly get the last word, tipping the balance to indeed ‘black IPA’ (or Cascadian dark ale) for me, rather than hoppy stout or porter (as BIPA often ends up being). I love a good black IPA – and ‘good’ for me means that the difficult balance between roasted and hop bitterness is found; that is definitely the case here, making this a surprisingly good example of the style in my book. Unexpectedly excellent!

Canned, 330 ml shared with Miro B and Max. Black with brownish head. Hoppy, pine, chocolate, smooth texture, nice quite strong roasty hoppy bitter finish. Medium+ bodied.

Very dark brown pour with a dark tan head (basically, a porter). Notes of roasted malt, huge resinous hops, citrus hops, salt, a bit of coffee, a bit of chocolate. I like!