330ml bottle. Big hoppy aromas, with the dark colour betraying the true nature of the beer. Taste is more nuanced, with lots of sweet citrus and pine up front and roasted toffee at the end. Lovely.

Bottle shared at RBWG: Poured a black with a tan head. Aroma is super hoppy to the nose with a undertone of malts. Taste malty with hops and a medicinal hint.

Tap @ BrewDog Clerkenwell, small sample. Dark color, short frothy head. Aroma of roast, pine, dark fruit, slight coffee. Medium bitterness, slight roast and dark fruit. Good balance between selected hops and amount of roast. Good one.

Poured from 330mL bottle. Dark brown with beige head. A bit of toasted malt and mild grapefruit hops. Finish is a little odd (but interesting) with some dusty wood and berries.

From a 330ml bottle on 1/8/2016. Pours not far off black with a big foamy head. The aroma features a bit of fruit, some roastiness, and light hops.The flavour follows suit - some sweet fruit, light roasted malt and some moderate hops. Light to medium body with moderate carbonation. A tasty enough but relatively subdued black IPA.

Black IPA by BrewDog, one of their more ’moderate’ interpretations of the style. Very thick and frothy, pale greyish beige, heavily cobweb-lacing, moussy head over a black beer with chestnut brown edges, only visible under bright light. Quite herbal and at the same time roasted aroma of dried fig, salmiak, dried parsley, coffee grounds, leather, burnt toast, lots of iron, dry beef stock cube, liquorish candy (’drop’), tea, dried seaweed, mocha, hints of charcoal, frozen spinach, black olive, old cloves and a very faint vanilla-ish sweetness peeping through. Clean, smooth, rounded onset, a bit on the neutral side actually, with very low ’dried fruit’ sweetishness and more outspoken ’dried seaweed’ umami flavor, otherwise minerally and medium carbonated, with a very smooth, slick mouthfeel. Somewhat thinnish body with a metallic ’sound’ to it, as toasted and eventually charcoal-like roasted malts pass the mouth cavity, leading towards a herbal, spicy and somewhat grassy hop bitter finish blending in well with the roasted bitterness; this bitterness, however, remains in all relatively soft for a BIPA and certainly for a BrewDog BIPA, roasted bitterness gets the last word and the metallic effect goes down with it. Perfectly decent beer, in all, supporting my argument of a typically European form of black IPA being in development, but honestly I did expect more from it. It is light-bodied, which in itself is not a bad thing of course, but it also lacks texture in the finish because the hops, though spicy enough, remain fairly superficial; a resinous, peppery hop bitter flavor does linger, but just not quite long enough to leave one completely satisfied. Especially since this is BrewDog, one of Europe’s most daring craft brewers, I was hoping for a bit more ’oomph’, I guess. Take their Libertine instead of this.

Bottle at Hair of the Dog, Phloen Chit, Bangkok. Poured a clear dark brown with a frothy off white head. The aroma is smoky roast malt, light grassy hop. The flavour is moderate bitter with a dry roasty, light ashtray, hop bitter palate. Medium bodied with average carbonation.

330 ml bottle at Ulfborg. Almost black color with beige head. Light malty and hoppy aroma, light roasted, licorice, grass, pine, spruce. Light sweet and moderate bitter taste. Medium oily body with soft carbonation.