Speakeasy Butchertown Black Ale

Brewed by Speakeasy Ales and Lagers
Style: Black IPA
San Francisco, California USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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draft pour. Black color with tan foam. Nice pine floral, chocolate aromas. Medium bodied with a smooth mouthfeel. Nice milk chocolate, dry black malt flavors with fresh floral citrusy hoppage--drying bitter finish--good

Draft. Pours brown with a beige head. Piney and citric hoppy aroma, with sweet malts and a light roast. The flavor has pine, citrus fruit, some honey like sweetness, and light roasted malts. Good stuff.

Bottle. Black pour with a tall, foamy tan head. Strong citrus and floral hops mixed with roasted malt, coffee and dark chocolate. Taste is big citrus notes, floral hops, pine, chocolate mint, roasted malt, coffee, and hop resins. Body is medium with a soft, creamy carbonation and a slightly oily mouthfeel. Lingering bitterness throughout. Ends with more roasted malt, citrus, floral hops, herbal notes, chocolate, pine, light mint and coffee.

Draft at blind tiger with Linh. Pours a deep amber brown body with tons of down lacing. Aroma is light hop. Mouthfeel is medium to light with nice bitter hop and sweet caramel chocolate malt.

Labeled as a brown at the festival but this is a black IPA. Definitely on the mellow side of bitterness. Still a decent hop bite. Mostly this is an okay Johnny come lately black IPA.

Deep dark brown coloured body with a thick, two centimetre tall tan head atop the beer, but a relatively clearish brown glow at the bottom. Aroma of fresh cascade hops with a slightly herbal and grassy nose, a bit of roasted malt and perhaps some nuts and light caramel sugars. Medium-bodied; Assertive roasted malt flavours up front with nuts and earth behind and a grassy, nutty hop character that shows more english and german varieties than American. Aftertaste relatively smooth for the style, with only a handful of flavours in malt and nuts and a few light tastes of hops, but some alcohol and some caramel noticed more than anything else. Overall, a decent black IPA, but nothing incredible and perhaps underwhelming in the hop side of things. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchsaed from BevMo in San Bruno, California on 04-March-2012 for US$5.99 sampled at home in Washington on 04-May-2012 a few hours before leaving for California again.

Bottle: The aroma consists of moderate chocolate, caramel, roast, light dust, espresso, and pine. It pours a dark brown with some orange highlights and a three finger beige head with great retention and leaves behind a lot of soapy webbing on the sides of the glass. The flavor starts with moderate chocolate, caramel, and a touch of vanilla. The finish has moderate roast, pine, espresso, dust, and a touch of burnt notes. It’s medium bodied with mild carbonation and a somewhat soft mouthfeel. Overall, another Black IPA that just makes me think hoppy Porter...not that that is a bad thing. I found this quite tasty.

Bottle from some corner store in SOMA, SF. Hadn’t sampled a Speakeasy beer in some time, and figured I’d give this one (significantly, avoiding the "India" part of the nomenclature) a shot. Thinnish dark brown pour, with a nose that’s a bit one-dimensionally charred and bittered. A bit more going on in the flavor, with some ripe hops and a dose of licorice. But I found it fairly average in the end.

Bottle... Poured black with a light tan head. Nice roast on the nose that meshed with earthy pine. On par for the style for sure. Bitter hopiness, with resinous black paper earthiness along with toasted grains, roast, dark malts and sweetness. Nicely done.

Clear brown pour with good fair layer of khaki head. Foresty earthy piney old mellowed hop profile. Nose is fresher than the flavor. Malt and toast and biscuit undertone. Reminds of a ’cascading dark ale’ I’ve had before, which I find a little different than a black iPad. A little low on the carbonation. This was pretty damn good actually.