From tap at Het Refter, Zwolle. Aroma is roasty with fruity and piney hop, citrus, some grapefruit. Some dark malts, hint of chocolate. Medium bitter flavour. Body is medium. On the fruity side of BIPA, some roast and cocoa. Fine.

Fles 33cl thuis. Fruitig, roasted malts, licht plakkerig, caramel, hoppig, citrus, licht pine. (1-1-2023).

Black IPA by this Bird brewery of ornithologists, brewing at Jopen in Haarlem; thanks Craftmember for sharing. Thick and frothy, pale off-beige, irregularly edged, opening head, very dark bronze robe with copper-red hue – not entirely ‘black’ though. Aroma of old walnuts, hard caramel, unsugared black chocolate, dandelion and other bitter (dried) weeds, old pine needles from a dry forest floor, very old pipe tobacco, dusty cardboard, tree leaves. Clean onset, vague dried fig and apple peel sweetishness and sourishness, softish carb, oily body; walnutty, old-toasty ‘black’ maltiness, dry and clearly more bitter than sweet in spite of a subtle caramelly core. A firm, leafy, hayish hop bitterness takes over in the end, perhaps a tad late for a BIPA, but long-stretched and earthy; caramelly malt sweetishness and toasty malt bitterness, however, remain equally strong. Qualifies, in a ‘dusty’, leafy way – typical present-day Euro BIPA, because in order to really convey the Cascadian feel, many of those and this one included would benefit from a stronger and much more aromatic New World hop dosage. Not many European craft breweries seem to understand black IPA well, and as a ‘fan’ of the style, I find this quite frustrating.

Black with fluffy head. Aroma and flavour have nice fresh, grassy hop notes. Dark roasted malts too but overall the hop bitterness wins.

Bottle at home, picked up at the great Sterk, Amsterdam, 28th November 2021. Pours a black beer. Aroma is roasted malts, citrus, cocoa. Taste is roasty, malty, citrus and cocoa, grains and bitter. A lingering bitterness. Really great BIPA, well balanced and enjoyable to drink

0.33 l bottle from 'Mr. Hop', bottled in September 2021. Black with a medium large, frothy, almost stable, beige head. Sweetish, quite fruity-resiny, slightly roasty aroma of tropical fruits, blueberry, light pine and some chocolate. Gently sweet, moderately roasty-bitter, quite fruity-resiny taste of dark chocolate, coffee, tropical fruits, some blueberry and light pine, followed by a medium long, quite roasty-bitter, gently earthy and a bit resiny finish. Medium body, smooth and gently effervescent mouthfeel, average carbonation. Nicely intense BIPA, fairly roasty as well as hoppy, very tasty.