Tag Archives: Black IPA

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

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  • Brewery: Firestone Walker
  • Country: USA
  • Style: Black IPA
  • ABV: 8.3 %
  • Size: 650 ml
  • Bought from: Online
  • Beer Advocate
  • RateBeer

Next up for the evening is Firestone Walker’s Black Rye IPA, Wookey Jack. I’m a very big fan of Firestone Walker, and have loved practically every beer I’ve tried from them. They seem to be able to balance flavors fantastically, whilst still keeping their beers hop-forward and clean. The beer has been brewed with pale ale, rye, cararye, midnight wheat and black malt, while hopped with Magnum, Citra and Amarillo to 80 IBU. As with the majority of Firestone Walker beer, it has been fermented with an English yeast strain. We brewed a Black Rye IPA inspired by this beer earlier this autumn, and it will be really interesting to try the original! Cheers!

[easyreview title=”Firestone Walker Wookey Jack” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours with a very dark brown, almost black color, and a huge and fluffy tan-colored head is formed, that collapses slowly leaving drapes of lacing along the glass. Held against the light, you can see that the beer is crystal clear and that there are some ruby-like colors in the beer as well. A really nice appearance!” cat1rating=”4.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is surprisingly light, with some roasted coffee and chocolate, together with some tropical fruits, citrus and resin. Compared to our own homebrewed Black Rye IPA, hopped with the same varieties, the hop aroma is much more muted. However, this beer is almost half a year old, and the beer was most likely much different fresh. Some slight notes of caramel, alcohol and spicy rye as well in the background. Not bad, but I must admit I’m slightly disappointed. It does get better as the beer warms up though, and I may have opened it a bit too cold. I had first planned on giving 3-3.5 points for the aroma, but when the beer gets warmer I must say it gets closer to a 4-4.5, with the aroma amplifying.” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with a slight roastiness and sweet caramel tones, giving off an impression of mocha. There is even a slight ashiness present. A fruity (its mostly mango and grapefruit) hoppiness then joins in, and the longer the beer lingers in the mouth, the more the flavor shifts into the pine and resin territory. Throughout there is a slight spiciness from the rye as well. The finish is semi-dry and the beer has a firm bitterness. The flavors balance well together, and whilst the aroma was a slight disappointment, the flavor certainly delivers. Not quite as roasty and heavy as Imperial Stouts usually are, and with the fruity hoppiness of a nice IPA, this Black IPA gives a great balance of both. The alcohol is hidden well behind the other flavors. Compared to our own homebrew, the flavor is cleaner and slightly less roasted.” cat3rating=”4″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a medium-full body and a medium-high carbonation level. The texture is smooth, and the beer makes a great slow sipper because of the roastiness and bitterness.” cat4rating=”4″ summary=”Overall a very nice beer, that was quite similar to our homebrew. The combination of roasted tones and fruity hoppiness works very well here. I imagine this would be even better fresh, but this still features a nice range of hop tones. I must say that I’m a bigger fan of traditional IPAs, but here all the flavors worked very well together.”]

Preparing for Double Brewday

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On Sunday we (the same group of friends from the previous posts) will be brewing two batches of beer on my brewing equipment. I’ve just bought a new March 815 pump (hopefully making mash temperatures more even with faster recirculation and slightly shorter brewdays) and a HopRocket (to pack my beers with even more hop aroma and flavor) to add to the brew system. The beers we will be brewing are a Black Rye IPA and an American Barleywine. During the week I’ve been growing some yeast at work, and today I removed the 3 liter starters of WLP001 and WLP002 from the orbital shaker to allow for yeast sedimentation until Sunday. Hopefully everything goes smoothly (especially with the new additions to the equipment) and the beer ends up tasty! Stayed tuned for a brewday post!

 

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Brewdog Abstrakt AB:06

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  • Brewery: Brewdog
  • Country: Scotland
  • Style: American Black Ale / Black IPA / Cascadian Dark Ale
  • ABV: 11.2 %
  • Size: 375 ml
  • Bought from: Arkadia Alko, 18.32 euro
  • Beer Advocate
  • RateBeer

 

I recently had Brewdog’s Abstrakt AB:08, a beer from their one-off series of concept beers (known as Abstrakt), and today I will be trying the sixth beer in the series. AB:06 is a triple-dry hopped imperial black ipa (their words), which has been brewed with maris otter and various dark malts (including dehusked black malt). There is no information available on the hop varieties used, but the IBUs should be around 120. Haven’t tried many Black IPAs/Ales earlier, but it seems like most craft breweries are making one nowadays. I like the idea of a huge amount of hoppiness coupled to some dark and roasty malt tones. Let’s see how it tastes!

[easyreview title=”Brewdog Abstrakt AB:06″ cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours with a clear dark brown color, and a minimal cream-colored head is formed. The surface is oily and is full of foam islands.” cat1rating=”3.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma features tones of caramel, roasted malts, dark fruits, pine and citrus. There is some alcohol detectable.” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins quite sweet and malty, and there are tones of brown sugar and molasses together with roasted malt. This is joined by a slightly spicy and citrusy hoppiness. The flavor finishes quite dry and with an earthy bitter tone, that clings to the back of the tongue. There is a lot of bitterness in the beer, but it is subdued quite well by the sweet tones. There is surprisingly little hoppiness in this, but it is a year old though.” cat3rating=”4″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a quite full and oily body with a low carbonation level. Quite easy to drink, and alcohol well hidden, but the bitterness is definitely present.” cat4rating=”3.5″ summary=”Overall a nice beer, and I liked the AB:06 better than AB:08. This Imperial Black IPA, had turned more into a Imperial Stout light on roastiness, and I was missing some resinous hop aroma and flavor, that probably was present when the beer was fresh. An interesting beer, but not worth the high price.”]