Arbor FF #13 - 2012 Double Black IPA

Brewed by Arbor
Style: Black IPA
Bristol, England

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

pitch dark , small light brown head. aroma is pretty mild, roasted malts and subtle hops. flavor is roasted malts, strong herbal note, hops are weird with this one, dusty, fruitpeely..

Bottle. Black with a very lively beige foam. Aromas are woody pine with floral notes and cocoa bean. Liquorice with blackberry and coffee. Flavours are grapefruit juice with roast malts and nutty coffee. Woody with light smoke and even some burnt notes. Cocoa with pine and fruity bitterness. Very nice.

Bottle at my Semi-Final Tasting, London. Pours muddy, brown-black with a light, beige bubble foam head. Rich nose of burnt malts, grapefruit and pine. Nice flavor, medium sweet with thick pine, dirt, burnt cocoa and burnt grass. Medium bodied with fine carbonation. Oily, highly resinous finish with lots of burnt grass and heavy roast. There’s a touch of abrasive hops in the finish as well, the the beer is quite decent overall. The beer does have its rough edges (as I think many Arbor beers do) butt his is a very solid effort.

Bottled at 7.5% ABV from Grape & Grind, Bristol. Opaque and near black with a small, tan head. Beer had a heavy and slightly oily body that coated the mouth. Dark chocolate aroma with some pine and a tropical fruits. Flavour had plenty more pine, black coffee, grapefruit and a lingering, dry finish. Very enjoyable.

Bottle. Pitch black beer with an incredibly strong light brown head. The aroma is fairly strongly roasted, and the flavour extremely bitter and espresso coffee roasted. What a good strongly roasted beer is all I can say.

33cl bottle from Bitter Virtue, Southampton. An opaque black pour with a ruby red glow against the light and a billowing tan head; the aroma is intense with bitter Belgian chocolate and a touch of wood smoke. It’s absolutely bursting with flavour - ripe purple fruit, licorice, burnt treacle, and tar setting the head ringing. The finish is comparitively calm, but full of toasty, deeply roasted malts and rather dry. This is incredibly satisfying and beats the Kernel Scanner Darkly Black IPA I’d just tried hands down.

330ml Bottle - Black with a foamy tan head. Liquorice, coffee, chocolate, roasted malt, soap and nuts int he aroma. Roasted, hoppy and fairly rich taste with coffee, chocolate, sweet liquorice and roasted malt detected. Some soapy hops can be felt in the lingering finish.

Bottle.Black with a small head.Bitterness hits you from the first taste and lasts. Not a lot of hoppiness which increases the struggle that I have with a black IPA. This is more like a very bitter stout. Strength was 7.5 per cent. A lovely beer to be drunk slowly and appreciated.

Bottle at Leighton’s Euro Semi-Final tasting. It pours cloudy deep brown, with a bubbly tan head. The nose is chocolate, caramel, pine, treacle and dark tangy fruit. The taste is dark tangy fruit, caramel, citrus pith, pine, resin, charcoal, roasted malt, treacle, bitter chocolate and burnt malt, with a charry, burnt finish. Medium-full body and average carbonation. A solid black IPA.

Bottle from Pete. Jet black, low cream top. Smells car piss and pine + coal tar. Very stouty roast: crunchy, super bitter. The hops add a err, not sure. Perhaps they add a thin slice of perfumed mouth tremble. This really is very bitter indeed. A great UK beer, with a loooong aftertaste.