Elusive: Metamorph (England: Black IPA: 5.6% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown to black. Medium sized creamy off white bubbled head.
Nose: Mandarin orange and tangerine. Green grapes. Roasted. Boiled eggs.
Body: Malty chocolate. Choc orange. Hop prickle. Bready. Tart grapes. Pineapple. Good bitterness. Milky chocolate.
Finish: Sour dough. Malt chocolate. Choc orange. Charring. Grapefruit. Nettles. Tart grape. Good bitterness. Peppery.
Conclusion: Ok, first up, my hot take, in line with the painfully hot heat at the moment. A black IPA should not just be a bitter hoppy stout. Hoppy stouts are fine but not what I look for in a BIPA. I want dark malt flavour, good bitterness, but most importantly against fresh bright fruity hop aromas and flavours. It is that last bit that so many miss. Normally in my faves I see this grapefruit, citrus, green fruit style to the hop flavours, Stone, at their best, turned out Sublimely Self Righteous Ale as the epitome of that style for me.
This kind of is that style, but not just that. While yes it has dark malts, yes bitterness, yes some tart green fruit, the green fruit doesn’t feel like the main hop call. Instead there are a chunk of orange notes, both fresh and merging with the malt to give choc orange flavours.
It manages to both be exactly what I am looking for in a BIPA, and different to what I have had before. A hard combo to manage, and one I adore. How much do I adore it? When I found out Indie Spirit was getting low on stock I grabbed all the cans they had left on the shelves.
Dark malts giving chocolate notes. Check. Good bitterness, with none of that New England stuff. Check. Tart notes. Check. Bright fruit. Check. Different. Check
Yep, we have a new entry in the hard to earn “one of my favorite Black IPAs” collection.
Background: A Black IPA! Yay! These are seemingly so rare these days, so I am always happy to find one, and Elusive generally does well with hop forward stuff. Listed as using Nectaron and Mosaic hops, which seemed an interesting choice. While I love Black IPAs I have to admit they are one that, if I drank a lot of, could get too heavy, so I guess I should be glad they show up as on occasional treat. Found at Independent Spirit, this was drunk while listening to Avatar: The Black Waltz. I would claim I was drawing links between the Black Waltz and a black IPA, but actually it is as I had just encountered them as a warm up to Metallica and was on a kick for their stuff. However if you want to imagine I was doing clever thematic linking feel free.
