Appearance - 3 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 3 | Overall - 13

Bottle from Beer Ritz. Sampled March 2016. Pours hazed very dark brown with a beige cap. Aroma: toasted malts, chocolate coffee, pine. Taste: light sweet & moderate bitter, dry, roasted malts, grapefruit, zesty citrus, pine. Medium body with soft carbonation.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Vibrant Forest Metropolis IPA - Black/Brown/Cascadian Dark 748415
Lukt: Kaffe, citrus. Utseende: Sort. Skum/kullsyre: Tynt dekkende skum, heng. Smak: Kaffe, citrus, vanilje. Hvor: Mellombels Ølstove, Bryne. Medium: Tapp@100ml@Planke, ABV@6%, Når@24.04.2019.

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 8

Bottle @ home. Dark brown to black color, full sized rough off-white to beige head. Smell and taste malts, dark malts, nicely hoppy, decently bitter. Decent to medium body and decent carbonation. Quite pleasant. I like this one.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Black IPA from this well-known craft brewery in Hampshire, UK, bottle from de Caigny. Regularly shaped, creamy, yellowish pale beige head, papery lacing and stable, over a hazy black robe with wine red hue. Aroma of pine needles and cedar oil, toasted pistachio nuts, dried porcini, grapefruit peel, unsugared cocoa, toasted black radish, cigars. Dry onset, very subdued in sweetness with a porcini-like umami edge, touch of old dry raisins, sharpish carb, minerally, but nevertheless retaining a smooth, full, oily mouthfeel. Very toasty-bitter, roasted nut-like middle, much more bitter than sweet with the bitterness obviously enhanced by a long, resinous, piney, spicy, dry hop bitterness, tad powdery, yet remaining overall quite gentle and allowing malt nuttiness to slip through in the end. More than decent ‘Cascadian dark’ and an excellent beer 'tout court', but I prefer this style even hoppier and a somewhat more citrusy profile on aromatic level probably wouldn’t have hurt.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Keg at the Reading Beer Festival. Brown-black with a beige head. Pine followed by juicy tropical fruits, with chocolate lurking behind. Fresh, tasty and interesting. When done well, black IPAs are one of my favourite styles, and this one is done very well indeed. Beer of the festival for me.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

Svart med høyt lys brunt skum. Beskjeden lukt, men noe solbær, vingummi og sitrusskall. Middels fylde og bitterhet. Sitrus, grapefrukt, kakaopulver, mørk sjokolade og hint av sydhavsfrukt i avslutningen. Middels lang

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Cask at PoW, Farnborough. Intriguing fruity berry aroma. Cola brown. Bubbly off-white head. Now, this has been getting rave ratings, and it ma have been that a black IPA did not go with the hot weather, but I just wasn’t impressed. Medium bitterness. Beer is and roastiness, before organism bitterness via a hoppy grapefruit. Herbs and spices then came into play, which is where it started going wrong for me. Relatively light bodied and a touch watery. Lucy carbonation. Low key but astringent finish. As I drank more I just found the aftertaste and spicey elements a bit offputting. Just find’ t enjoy it after the first few sips.