One of a series of beers brewed by winners of Lagunitas’ Homebrew Contest. The Chicago entry is by Steve Kamp of Beecher, IL. This was debuted Monday at Murphy’s Bleachers. The winning recipe was a "Chocolate Rye with Sorachi Ace hops," but those specialty things are not easy to get, apparently, so they just experimented with various tweaks, including a dry hop with Simcoe, Mosaic, Amarillo and Citra. So instead of the Specialty Grain I labeled it as here, it’s more of a Black IPA profile. Certainly smells like an American Pale Ale, with lots of fresh northwest hops. A little piny, maybe with some English hop note to it as well. Brownish-black malt with a nice tan head. Taste is a big hit of IPA hops, not as malty as the color suggests, more of a brown ale profile, with some caramel and toast to help set up the flavor. (Edited with corrections 7/28/2012).