White Birch Apprentice Series Nyx

Brewed by White Birch Brewing
Style: Black IPA
Hooksett, New Hampshire USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Aroma; roasty, bread, chocolate, coffee, floral, spruce, citrus, resin, leather, earthy, raisin, licorice, Appearence: black, rocky head, frothy, brown foam, porter esque Taste: medium sweetness, medium bitterness, a good expression of black ipa. Palate: medium body, sticky, lively, bitter, long finish, Overall: Definitive for the style. An excellent example. Nice job Adam.

It pours a nice dark black giving about a full one inch foamy tan head in my pint glass. Lacing coats the glass in a perfect full foaminess. The smell has chocolate, coffee, hops and roasted malts all combined very nicely. The taste is sweet and bitter in different aspects but still combined nicely as well. The palate is fairly heavy, but also could be closer to medium. Some acceptable harshness on the tongue as it should be considering the style of the beer. Overall, this is a very nice black ale that I would come back to.

Large bottle. Pours deep dark brown with a tan head. Very complex malt flavors - licorice, coffee, chocolate, vanilla - it’s all in here. Balancing it all out is the perfect amount of hop bitterness. This is a good one.

I had this at the open house and today decided to open one of the bottles I bought then. Pours a solid black color with a fluffy khaki head that slowly recedes to a ring on top. Smells of roast and hints of chocolate mixed with pine and citrus and a slight bit phenols. Taste is roasty with dark chocolate and hint of molasses. Bitter piney hop resin cuts through the roast very nicely. The finish leaves a long lingering hop and roasted grain thickly on my palette. Medium to thick body, moderate level of carbonation, creamy resinous mouthfeel. I seemed to notice the roasted grains a lot more from this bottle than I remember from the open house. Its possible a little age brought the roast out a little more. This beer blurs that line between IPA and stout in fact if you gave me this and told me it was a hoppy stout I wouldn’t have argued with you. Tasty brew no matter what you call it.

A black pour with a huge frothy tan head. I must say it looks pretty nice! The nose holds huge evergreen and citrus notes with hints of nectar fruits and resin. The malt character is roasty with hints of caramel. The flavor holds tons of resin and earthen soil like hops with huge roast, some char, and some lactic sugars. The palate is uber thick, while the carbonation is creamy and fine bubbled. I was really impressed by this effort, as I’ve been systematically disappointed by many White Birch brews.

Appearance: pours black and thick, forming an espresso crema head also thick and delicious. Slow stream of bubbles trace the sides of my clean glass. Lace sticks and crawls and tempts.
Nose: dry and roasted with coffee beans, freshly drawn espresso, and burnt caramel. Black earth and twigs. Singed whole hop cones in the back. Chocolate bark and bakers chocolate.
Palate: clean and lovely. Burnt sweetness up front, dry earthen singed hops in the back, smooth and frothy along the sides. Bakers chocolate and espresso crema mingle. Tobacco leaf. Old tired brush and shrubs. Chocolate in the middle. Driest along the edges with delectable burnt acridity.
Final Thoughts: holy moly. Of the bottle beers my Love and I bought during our Massachusetts trip, this beer was by far in the top three. I’d heard pleasant rumblings about White Birch online so I was hoping for good but instead I got great. Bottle Specs: bottled April 2011 from batch 1 of a bottle count totaling 1065.

22 oz bottle.April 2011 Batch One. Pours an oily pitch black with a one finger mocha colored head. Rich, but bitter, bakers chocolate aroma with strong roasted malt. Flavor is overwhelmed by black malt and more of the bakers chocolate. I’m not getting much in the way of hops. There are some dark fruit notes. Thick, oily palate. Quite good.

From batch one bottled in April 2011. It pours as black as a cave from the Lost River of New Hampshire with a nice half inch, long-lasting, silky brown head. Excellent lacing. The aroma is full of dark baking chocolate, a yeasty maltiness, and a piney, earthy hoppiness. The body starts out light on the tongue but seems to get bolder as I swallow it. There is not as much chocolate in the flavor but it is elegantly replaced by a dark fruity sensation but not overly bitter. It has a long hoppy finish. Wonderful example of the style.

Bottle thanks to Phatdog. Pours black with thick tan brown head. Nose and taste of roasted chocolate malt, grassy hops, pine, resin, fudge brownie and light spicy malt. Medium body. Dry resinous finish.

Patent malt roasty dark malt nose, floral hops, a little inky. Pours black, tan head. Nice and roasty, slightly acrid, nice bitterness. Floral earthy bitter. Good stuff.