Beer And Beer Drinking

Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to innovation as long as it's not just novelty for novelty's sake - it just seems a bit perverse to call a dark beer an "IPA" when the P stands for Pale. It's like how the Aussies drink something called Victoria 'Bitter' which isn't actually a bitter at all but a lager (well, it's nominally a lager - it's such a sorry excuse for a brew that you'd be hard pushed to tell from the taste whether it was intended as a lager or a bitter, it's just a generic 'beer').

If you like beers flavoured with other drinks, look out for O'Hanlon's* Port Stout, it's absolutely wonderful.

*They're based somewhere in the West Country but are apparently run by an Irishman and make lots of traditional Irish-style beers like red ales etc. - annoyingly hard to get hold of although you might have luck in e.g. a larger ASDA, which has a surprisingly good beer selection.

Edit: "coffee IPA" sounds like the worst idea anyone has ever had. Coffee stout/porter, yes - IPA, not so much.
 
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comelately

Wild Horses
I've had a couple of port stouts in the last fortnight, including a 11% one from Brodie's ('Mocha Milk Stout - Port Cask'). Obviously Black IPA is somewhat contradictory but I would suggest that it's the most meaningful description available. Now I think about it there are Red IPAs as well.
 
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Immryr

Well-known member
coffee ipas are just...... crap. the two flavours do not belong or work together at all. same goes for chocolate ipas. just really stupid, doesn't work.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Mr. Tea said:
Anyone else getting just a tiny bit tired of the apparently unstoppable rise and rise of ultra-hoppy/citrusy pale ales? I mean, they're great and everything, nothing better on a hot summer's afternoon, but I'm increasingly finding that pubs are stocking them to the exclusion of all else, and also unseasonably (e.g. when it's March and freezing cold, with snow settling). I just wish more pubs would stock porter/stout on tap (and while I'm not a huge mild fan I know Scott for one loves his milds - maybe they're still more common in the Midlands, I dunno).
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Are we talking about the same level of ultra-hoppy/citrussey pale ale here? I mean, I've yet to have an opportunity to get annoyed by a pub that has Thornbridge or Oakham ot Magic Rock type IPAs to the exclusion of all else...

On the other hand, our local's an Adnams pub and while most Adnams beers are very nice pints if they're kept well (and to be fair, the Castle does generally keep them very well), when you go into somewhere with pretty much the full range of Adnams beers on (about five or six, normally) and theyre all moderately hopped mid-to-light brown bitters it gets a bit boring fairly quickly...

Fortunately we're in a ridiculously beer-geeky town so if we want a wide range of weird and/or dark stuff we can just wander five minutes down the road. *smug*
 
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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Mr. Tea said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to innovation as long as it's not just novelty for novelty's sake - it just seems a bit perverse to call a dark beer an "IPA" when the P stands for Pale. It's like how the Aussies drink something called Victoria 'Bitter' which isn't actually a bitter at all but a lager (well, it's nominally a lager - it's such a sorry excuse for a brew that you'd be hard pushed to tell from the taste whether it was intended as a lager or a bitter, it's just a generic 'beer').
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Thornbridge Raven is nice, had that last week.
 
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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
Maybe this is already mentioned but the fairly basic Irish pub the Cock by Hackney Town Hall has re-opened as a wood panelled real ale pub with its own microbrewery in the back (it stinks) and loads of ales and ciders - and lagers for that matter - on tap.
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Yeah, it's a good un. Never noticed the smell!

My only beef is that it gets very noisy and busy. The Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak is nice - their sister pub.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
viktorvaughn said:
Thornbridge Raven is nice, had that last week.
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Doesn't sound much like an IPA from the description of the taste but it does sound fucking lush. Will look out for it, ta.

Edit: on the Belgian side of things, this stuff is superb, dunno how widely available it is in the UK, mind:

url
 
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Immryr

Well-known member
a black ipa is basically an ipa made with the type of malts you might normally use for a stout. i don't think it's a particularly ridiculous name really, not sure what else you would want to call it?

anyway, raven is a good one!
 
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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Immryr said:
a black ipa is basically an ipa made with the type of malts you might normally use for a stout. i don't think it's a particularly ridiculous name really, not sure what else you would want to call it?

anyway, raven is a good one!
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The ratebeer site seemed to say its occasionally called an India Dark Ale (IDA) which could work I guess.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
This should clarify matters:


We had Milton's Nero last night, and Oakham's Scarlet Macaw on thursday. Neither of them were particularly oxymorinic, but they were both really good.
 
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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
In beer news I had a Black Betty from Beavertown at the weekend which was pretty delicious, although very strong in both alcohol and taste. It smells just like a strongly hopped American pale ale but when tasted it's more like a stout with coffee and smoke and chocolate before a bitter aftertaste which is again like a APA.

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On the trad IPA tip I had a bottle of Fuller's Bengal Lancer which I haven't had for years and years and thought it was really nice, very well balanced. Avoids the hoppy and bitter excesses of new school I and APAs and is just really rounded and not crazy strong. Also not too expensive, just under £2 for a 500ml bottle.

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Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
If these 'black IPAs' are black because the malt has been toasted, that basically makes them a sort of stout or porter, doesn't it?
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Basically, all the ones that I've tried, if you drank them blindfolded then you'd guess that they were an IPA. Hence describing them as something else because they're the wrong colour would be less informative. If you bought a stout that tasted nothing like what you'd expect a stout to taste like and exactly like what you'd expect an IPA to taste like, you'd probably be annoyed. In other news, drum and bass sometimes contains elements other than drums and bass.

(I had some Hardknott Code Black the other day. It was alright, but not as good as their Infra Red.)
 
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Immryr

Well-known member
code black is a weird one. i've had it from a cask on three or four sepperate occasions and it has tasted very different each time. first couple of times it was very well balanced in terms of hoppiness and malts, but the other two times it basically tasted like malteasers. i don't know if it suffers from this in bottles.
 
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