Struise: Black Damnation 08 S.H.I.T (Supreme Hoppy Intensive Thing) (Belgium: Black IIPA: 12% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still. Thin brown bubbled dash head.
Nose: Fudge. Caramel vodka shots. Thick. Sticky toffee pudding. Crushed Twix chocolate biscuits. Liquorice.
Body: Charred oak. Cashew nut green flecks. Prickly. Charred hop bitterness. Bitter black coffee. Some toffee and dry fudge as it warms.
Finish: Cashew nut green flecks. Charred bitterness. Bitter black coffee. Fudge as it warms.
Conclusion: Ok, the aroma is just a huge fucking liar here … the shit (Ba dum tch)
The aroma is big, thick, chewy, sweet with huge bourbon influence and huge sweetness from the malt. It is stout like and so chewy, The fucking liar. The shit.
The body, well the body is a fucking assault of charred, bitter hoppiness. The hoppiness isn’t here for fruitiness or such like a lot of BIPAs. This is the roasted bitter stout but hoppy as fuck take of BIPAs. Impressively bitter but I will admit that that style is my less favoured Black IPA style as it feels like it does less of what make IPAs great for me.
The bourbon has only a subtle influence on the flavor as it warms, some toffee but not as much as you would expect. It feels similar to the Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout in that it feels like the oaks smoothed the base beer too much, making there less resistance to the hops, so it makes the hops come across too harsh. I am aware that Oak Aged Yeti was generally held to be superior to unaged and excellent, but for me it didn’t work and standard Yeti was far superior. So, this feels like it would benefit from a bigger, maybe not oak aged, body working against the hops.
So, do I hate it then? No actually, but I do wish I liked it more. I have had this more than once, I don’t hate it, and in fact grabbed the 2nd one to do notes on as I kind of wondered if I would like it more the second time. There is something to this, it just generally doesn’t quite click for me.
I mean it does what it says on the tin, supremely hoppy, intensive and a thing. I wonder if they ever released a non oak aged version as, again, I feel a bigger boozy body could actually help rather than hurt this.
Taken as the beer it is, there is coffee from the base beer, and toffee from the ageing, but the bitter assault that is the mainstay of the beer, while fine, feels very one note.
I want to love these but I merely liked it.
The shit.
Background: Ok we all know why it is this, of all the recent Black Damnations I have tried, that I am doing tasting notes on. It is because it is called SHIT. And I am puerile. Anyway, bottle lists this as a Black IPA, odd as most of the Black Damnation series is stouts – though a lot of BIPAs do feel like highly hopped stouts. Untapped lists it as a half and half (Half stout and half IPA) which makes sense. Ok technically they call it a Black and Tan, but as always that term has … implications… in the UK so I prefer half and half. Anyway, bottle says BIPA so I decided to list it as an imperial black IPA. Bottle says this has an intense 150 IBU, which is pretty close to the max most people can tell the difference hypothetically. Though as always I find IBU is less important for actual bitterness feel than if the beer works with or against it, etc, as I have had comparatively low IBU beers that feel harsh and high IBU beers that feel smooth as can be. This has spent 2 years on bourbon barrels before being bottled. This was the last bottle left of it at Independent Spirit so I quickly grabbed it. Music wise wanted epic, so went with Esprit D’air: Live in Barcelona! My friend had this on tap at the GBBF, and he raved about it. From his description sounded like it had a bigger weight and thickness from that which helped immensely.
