Deep black color and a nice white head. Nose Is roasty, malty, fruity. Taste follows the nose, black berries and DARK fruits.

After a rather successfull attempt at the historical East Coast IPA, I had this deliberately old-fashioned black IPA by Uiltje, also generously donated by Hinke - what an interesting IPA evening that was. Thick and foamy, densely creamy, membrane-like lacing, pale yellowish beige head over a pitch black beer. Rich aroma of spruce tips, bergamot, orange zest, toasted Brazil nuts, dark bitter chocolate, lemonbalm, After Eight, Thai basil, unsmoked pipe tobacco, pink peppercorns, burnt blackcurrants, cooked dark grapes. Lively onset, fruity in a non-estery way, quite juicy even (so we are off to a good start here), reminiscent of fig, pear and ripe blackberry; sweetish with mellow carb and smooth, oily, full mouthfeel. Dark mouth-filling maltiness, toffee, dark chocolate, Macadamia nuts and toast but all very elegant and not becoming too roasty - at least not to the point where it becomes stout-like; instead, from the middle onwards the hops gain momentum, drenching these malts in a citrusy, grapey, zesty bitterness and 'hop fruitiness', piled on top of that dark maltiness and its inherent bitter aspect. The toasty aspect of the malts, however, remains beautifully subordinate to the hops, which eventually even display a Pacific-tropical character, highlighted by a calvados-like alcohol glow which otherwise does not stand in the way of everything. As one of Holland's most experienced IPA brewers, Uiltje, even in the clutches of Heineken, manages to pay tribute to its own track record of Cascadian dark ales, and does so with bravoure and grandeur: while many present-day European BIPAs are essentially hop bitter stouts or porters, this one understands perfectly what the genre is about and brings it to perfect balance. It is black, roast-inclined even, but still completely smells and tastes like an IPA: black IPA is all about finding the exact balancing point in that, which proves far more difficult than many contemporary brewers seem to think. I have been longing for a really good black IPA for a long time and now I finally got it. It surprises me that even within Heineken, this famous brewery is still capable of such greatness - Uiltje has absolutely managed to find the exact balancing point here and produced a black IPA the likes of which are very rare today, even in the States. A masterpiece in its style, as far as I am concerned.