Fish Tale Swordfish

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Black IPA
Olympia, Washington USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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22oz Bomber- Fish Tale Brewery - Olympia, WA
Dark brown in color, clear with a thin head. Tons of hops from the opening of the bottle. Huge dark malt and hops flavors. This was big Double IPA/malt madness. Awesome dark roast flavors big hops flavor and finish this was a great beer.

Bottle shared with Parksy. Dark brown with a medium light tan head. Luscious citrus and pine aroma, juicy and fresh. Nothing in the aroma suggests dark malts, only because the fresh hop load is overwhelming. Hops also dominate the palate, but here the malts provide the essential balance that makes this beer such a treat. It isn’t that dark traits are prominent in the flavour profile because of the hop domination, but rather the roasted malt provides a less sweet, less sticky base, allowing the hops to shine without becoming astringent or harsh. A truly unique balance, and probably the best example of the style I’ve yet tried, next to Stone’s Sublimely Self Righteous. But at nearly $11 per bottle, I probably won’t be enjoying it often.

650ml bottle from 16th St.Liquor in West Vancouver. Pours deepest brown with thin head. Aroma is extremely fresh piney and citrus hops mixed with a cocoa malt. Taste is wonderfully multi faceted. Unlike some CDA’s the two promient features of dark malt and hops don’t neutralize each other but instead provide a wonderful two tiered taste. Big pine and grapefruit hop flavour with delicious chocolate malt counterpoint. Finish is bitter. Very good example of the style.

Pours dark dark dark, light beige head, with hoppy aroma. Piney, stone fruit, and alcohol. Medium Mouthfeel, bitter in the middle, and lots of roasty malt. Very much like a black IPA, but with more roast. Resinous throughout, and I would guess a candidate for aging. Tasted @ 58F.

Root beer colored body with lacey caramel brown froth. Pleasant intermingling of pine and chocolate in the nose. Easy roast breathes through Pacific Northwest evergreen forest. Resinous, piny flavor with chocolate undertones and smoothened roast that is present, and palatable, but whose sweetness is only there to accent and harmonize off the hop panoply. Piny, spicy, mint hop finish that lingers well past the last sip.

22oz bottle at Fred Meyer - black with white head. Floral hops. Fantastic aroma. Roasted malt flavor. Very well balanced. Surprisingly good beer from fish!0

22 ounce bottle thanks to Mike. Pours a totally black color with a medium cream colored head. A sweet fresh hop aroma initially, lots of pine, then a bit of cocoa and toasted malts. A very well done flavor; bitterness, oranges, roast, chocolates, balanced. Very darn good.

Putting this up head to head with a bottle of Hopworks Organic Session Cascadian Dark Ale. Poured out an ultra dark brown with a thick light brown head that is quite compact and leaves plenty ’o lacing. The aroma powered out of the bottle once I tore the cap off and damn, it is excellent. Soooo fresh! Gotta thank the local distributor for getting this so freaking fresh. Massive citrus hit hard and made me forget all about the HUB CDA sitting in the glass mere inches away as that one was no where near as awesome. Oranges, rrgf, sweet lemon, pine, resin. The sweet part morphs into the well balanced malts, roasty, toasty and a touch of cold coffee peering out on occasion. finishes out the aroma with a peachy nectarine richness. Just poured the second half of the bottle in and the cap is of stout quality in compactness and how it bends along the rim. Excellent flavour! Huge, fresh hop citrus wonderfulness, plenty of pine, rrgf, light chocolate, light roast, peach, rich, lots of fruit, wonderful taste. Medium bodied, long finish with plenty of bitterness and a malty base that has no caramel in it, praise his name.Very very good beer. For once I get a hold of a very fresh hoppy American beer and I’m loving it. Drink this as soon as you can buy it. A top end IPA with a softer, darker malted background which works very well for me. Got to drink the last third of the bottle without thinking about reviewing and it holds up big time. A highly satisfying beer with plenty of complexity. As for the direct comparison? There is no comparison. This beer is far superior to me - bolder, fresher, better and lacking coffee. I’d take this beer over the Hopworks 10 out of 10 times.

Bottle. Hopefully a treat to make me forget generic lager day on the deck. ALmost black but you that with the right light you would get some nice highlights. Smells like a nice hoppy IPA with a nice background roasted malt. Instead of a balance of darker malt and hops, many of which tend to far towards the malt, this is an nice IPA that just happens to be made with dark malt. Tasty!

Bomber from Malt & Vine. Pours very dark brown with a creamy bubbly 3 finger tan head. Aroma is primarily cat pee. Near full bodied. Creamy/frothy carbonation. Lots of hop. Backbone is more than usually toasted malt. Hop seems evergreen, though I thougt cat pee was citrus. ? It’s doing ragged ring lacing, and it’s very tasty stuff. Excellent mouthfeel. There’s a nagging bit of chocolate that distinguishes this from a "standard" DIPA. 64 IBUs. Seems like more. Brilliant.