IPA by Mitch Steele

Author:Mitch Steele
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brewers Publications
Published: 2012-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

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BLACK LIE, BLACK IPA, AND CASCADIAN DARK ALE

Back when the Liar’s Club in San Diego was still around, we used to sell Louis Mello quite a bit of beer for his bar. He especially liked getting casks from us. The fastest I’ve ever seen casks blow in a nonfestival atmosphere was on Friday nights, at the Liar’s Club.

Louis called me up one day and asked if I would like to do an anniversary beer for the Liar’s Club. I, of course, said yes and asked him what he had in mind. He asked if I could make a black IPA. I thought about it and said sure. I drew up a brand-new IPA recipe with a standard malt bill and hop schedule and brewed away. Before I whirlpooled the beer, I added a bunch of Sinamar to the kettle. Fermenting away we had black IPA. I also added a little more Sinamar into the bright tank, because I didn’t feel that the beer was black enough. The result was a black beer with no dark malt aroma or flavors. It had a huge hop aroma and flavor.

The beer sold like crazy at the Liar’s Club and here in Carlsbad. This was back in 2007. We have made the beer about once a year ever since.

A few thoughts on black IPA—especially after a recent trip to Oregon. I now believe that Cascadian dark ale and black IPA are two different styles. I’ve had black IPA from several breweries, and when I was in Oregon I had what they call CDA, or Cascadian dark ale. My original thought was that brewers from Oregon were calling their black IPAs CDAs. After tasting several of them, they are different. They aren’t nearly as IPA-ish. They are darker brown in color, have some dark malt flavors, and have a hoppy character. They do not have huge hop aromas, nor are they really that bitter or fully black. They are also around 5.5–7% abv. Most black IPAs that I’ve had are stronger, more bitter, have striking hop aromas, and are pretty absent of dark malt character altogether. CDA seems to be a combination of brown and robust porter, American strong pale ale, and American brown ale. Black IPA is just that: American IPA that is black.

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