Beer Town Austin

Since we decided we weren’t already overwhelmed and understaffed enough, we decided to add a new category.

Drink and Write. We drink donated beers, and… er, write about them. Nope, we’re not trained. Yup, I often mistake beer styles. Mmhmm, some of us still refer to beer styles as “dark” and “light”. Yes, we do think this will be worth your time. We’re not in denial, we know you’re only reading this site to avoid work for a few minutes… we have no delusions of grandeur here.

Here goes… remember, these are just opinions.

Drink:

• Hop in the Dark C.D.A
• Deschutes Brewery. Bend, OR
• Cascadian Dark Ale… Black IPA?

Write:

• Scary dark
• Immediate hop aroma; tricks your brain as you are not expecting that from such a black beer
• Also hints of roastiness in the aroma
• Tastes like this: smooth, slight roasted malt, BITTERNESS, chocolate, toasty bitterness, camping

In Short:

I like it. I first had this back in June while the wife and I were romping around Oregon. There’s an ongoing semi-debate about whether or not Cascadian Dark Ales can be classified separately from Black IPAs. Lines have been drawn in sand and blood has been spilt. In my opinion I think there is a difference, or I’d like to think there is. Mainly it’s because I like each differently. I like a nice solid, crisp, hoppy, drinkable black IPA on occasion. I also like a bigger, more robust, rich, daddy beer CDA. Different strokes for different folks.

It’s more than an IPA, but not quite a porter or stout. Some weird love child between the styles. The style is originated from the Pacific Northwest, AKA the Cascadia National Forest, mountain range. Interestingly, Widmer, of Portland Oregon brews a similar beer called the Pitch Black IPA… so not all are in agreement of the moniker for this yummy blackness.

Whatever, I like the style and I’m glad to see more of it around. Check out this post on the New School beer blog from a Cascadia located beer drinker/blogger for a closer to the source opinion.

Unlike other CDA/Black IPAs I’ve had, I like the balance that is present in the Hop in the Dark. At only 6.5%abv, it’s still semi-sessionable but still packs a lot of flavor. Not so hoppy it makes your teeth shiver while at the same time not quite as heavy as a porter or stout.

My suggestion, check it out. It may not be for everyone, if it it’s for you, you’re in luck.

Thanks to Tish (she hand delivered this beer to me at work!)  and Deschutes for supplying the beer to sample.

<shameless>Do you have more beer than you need and would like to provide some for us to “sample”? Hit me up at chris(at)beertownaustin.com.</shameless>