Fyne Ales West Highland Black IPA

Brewed by Fyne Ales
Style: Black IPA
Cairndow, Argyll, Scotland

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Cask at Craft Beer Co on 23rd November 2011. Black with light brown head and patchy lace. Thick pungent aroma, big on roast malt. Liquid is very malty with plenty of roast malt, coffee and hoppiness. Citric hop lasts to a pleasant bittersweet finish. Full body and pleasant, engaging carbonation texture.

Cask at York Tap, December 2011 Had forgotten to rate this at the time! Pours brown black with fairly subdued aroma and low carbonation. Fairly pithy bitterness with the malt coming in at the finish.

Cask, The Hallamshire House, Sheffield. Jet black, dark tan head. Roasted malt and pine resin aroma. Very smooth, milky, with a nice bite that mingles with a creamy chocolate finish.

Nose is great but the taste has a black hole. Too much roast in with the hops for me and needs some zing to be considered exciting...

Half, from cask @Craft Beer Co, London. Almost translucent, black body, topped by a layer of big tanned bubbles. Discreet and rounded aroma of mildly roasted dark malts with a choco scent and light fruit and earth tones. Taste is dark malty with coffee and licorice, balanced by a firm bitterness. Medium body strenght. Nice malty-bitter ending. Nice all over.

[cask at Caley Sample Room, Edinburgh] Pours as black as a sea loch at midnight. Enormous beige head – as with my 10 Years After (drunk on the same night) it went off immediately after I’d bought one. Thankfully, this one had held up better. Lovely dark roasted malt and piney hop aroma, leading into a cocoa and chocolate flavour, more of that lovely roasty malt flavour on the aftertaste. Fruit on the palate was more vinous than on the nose. Great beer – it may be a modern invention, but for me black IPA’s are no fad [07012012]

Cask. Black IPA with little off-white head. Spicy nose, with plenty of pepper and floral hops present. Taste is quite dry with very dry bitter finish, licorice and chocolate flavor. The palate is medium. OK.

Cask@Craft Beer Co, London. Quite much pitch black colour, small off-white head. Aroma is dark fruits, some bitterness, mild toasted notes as well as quite herbal notes. Flavour is liquorice, fruity, floral, herbal and also some bitterness. Aroma is ok, but the flavour feels a bit out of balance.

(Cask at Craft Beer Co, Clerkenwell, London, 24 Nov 2011) Black colour with foamy, pale brown head. Roasted, malty nose with notes of coffee, cocoa, dark bread and pine needles. Malty, roasted taste with coffee, cocoa, pine needles, grapefruit and a generous piney bitterness in the finish. Medium body, quite dry and bitter. Very nice beer.

Cask at CP&K. It pours opaque black, with a thick beige head. The nose is resin, wood, roasted malt and manure. The taste is roasted malt, bitter-sweetness, resin, alcohol warmth, treacle, burnt malt, tar and some smoke, with a bitter-roasted finish. Medium body, soft carbonation and chewy mouth-feel. Solid.

Cask conditioned at The Craft Beer Co. Clerkenwell, Gt London. Black with tan head. Initial burnt, malty flavours interlaced with a sweet hoppy flavour, charcoal to berries, lots of clashes but it works well. Liked it.