Croucher Patriot American Black Ale

Brewed by Croucher Brewing
Style: Black IPA
Rotorua, New Zealand

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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500 ml bottle. Pours black with light head. Aromas of spruce and dark, sour over-ripe fruit. Maybe a hint of chocolate. Definitely American hoppy flavors, grapefruit and pine, but lacking in malt to balance. Nice but not great.

From a 500ml bottle on 2/10/2012. Pours a dark amber with a small head. Has a moderate fruity, hoppy aroma with just a hint of chocolate. The flavour more full on with an interesting mix of roasty, resiny bitteress, set off against some sweet citrus fruit and touch of toffee. The carbonation is typical of an IPA. All in all, an enjoyable, high quality black IPA.

Pours a clear dark brown color with a big frothy light brown head. Aroma is a big citrus burst with fruity tropical fruit esthers like passion fruit and guava. Taste is citrus hops with much of the same tropical fruit flavors and some roasted malts in the background. Not really a black ipa, needs more of the porter aspects to give it more body otherwise this just seems like a sessionable dark hoppy beer.

A pretty solid black IPA. Some fruity hoppy nose, some tropical fruits and a bit of coffee and roast malt. A little smokiness and some coffee with a nice fruity hop bite. Thin body. Very solid.

Big rich aromas and pours a nice dark colour. Not much carbonation as it quite a soft beer on the palate. Has good length of flavours but is a little restrained. Finish is slightly bitter and the hops that were prevalent when this beer was first released have dissipated.

Poured an opaque brownish black colour. Moderately thick beige coloured foamy head that disappeared fairly quickly. Aroma of hops. Taste dominated by roasted grain. Medium body. Finishes long, slightly sweet with slight bitterness. A tasty black ale!

Very dark brown red in colour with an open tan head. Hoppy aromas of citrus, pine passionfruit and roasted grains. Pleasant enough in taste but a little thin in body.

Pours a very dark brown colour with small off white head amounting to a few spots and a light ring around the glass after a few minutes with moderate lace. Aromas of grapefruit, tropical fruit, and roasted malts. Flavours are citrus, pine, roasted barley, medium bitterness and overall a bit thin, could use a bit more of a malt backbone. Good beer, not sure if there’s a style for it yet.

UPDATED: OCT 22, 2012 The label is clear about it: “Don’t buy this beer if you can’t handle the hops.” So true, but I insisted on this Patriot, for the sake of drinking it to toast the 4th of July. My mistake. Well, in my opinion, hops has been historically added to beer as a preservative and flavouring agent, but in this case there is probably some beer added to hops extract. I had never had a so-called “American Black Ale” and, besides the oxymoronic style ("Black IPA" - sic.), this has been a somewhat unpleasant experience. The beer has the overwhelming spicy esters of hops, but the flavours just fall apart into chloride, sodium and copper, with a lingering finish of aluminium and zinc. I’d rather drink the farty sulphur-rich waters of Rotorua. But if you love hops, especially in a poor combination, here’s a nasty challenge... and probably a reawrding experience for you.

Pours black with a fluffy beige head and a wonderful sweet fruit/citrus aroma with hints of chocolate and coffee beans as it warms and the head fades. The flavour starts off as a well balanced IPA and finishes with espresso/chocolate flavour like a IS. This beer has an outstanding aroma/flavour and i will be stocking a few of these in my fridge.