A black IPA pours dark brown to black under a persistent tan head. It has the dryness, bitterness and hop flavour of an American IPA; the dark malt adds a gentle note of chocolate or coffee, never burnt or ashy. It finishes dry and bitter, at 5.5–9% alcohol.
Where it comes from
Greg Noonan of the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington brewed the first commercial one, Blackwatch IPA, around 1990. It caught on in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California in the early to mid 2000s, was a fad in the early 2010s and has since faded in the United States. The BJCP lists it as a specialty IPA.
How to serve it
Pour it at 10–13 °C into a tulip. It goes with grilled shrimp and grits, blue cheese or aged Gouda, or chocolate truffles.
Next to its neighbours
It has the balance of an American IPA or double IPA with roast as restrained as a Schwarzbier’s, and is lighter and smoother than an American stout or porter.
Black IPA in numbers
- Classic examples
- Cervecería del Valle Sagrado, Cervejaria Big Jack, Cervejaria UNIKA, Brasserie Dunham, Cervecería Blest, Stone Brewing
- Original gravity
- 1.050–1.085
- Final gravity
- 1.010–1.018
- Also called
- American black ale; Cascadian dark ale
- Food
- Grilled shrimp and grits; blue cheese or aged Gouda; chocolate truffles
- Classic examples
- 21st Amendment Back in Black; Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA; Duck-Rabbit Hoppy Bunny
- BJCP style
- 21B Specialty IPA: Black IPA
Sources
Checked .
- 21B. Specialty IPA: Black IPA, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
- American Black Ale — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association
- Blackwatch, The Vermont Pub & Brewery — BeerAdvocate
