Dark Side Of The Moob
Northern Monk Brew Co. in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England 🏴
Collab with: Wylam BreweryIPA - Black / Cascadian Dark Regular Out of Production
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Score
7.73
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For the past four years we've been celebrating 'moobs' with our friends at Wylam brewery. Whether it was a global pandemic, environmental disasters or ongoing challenges around systemic racial injustice, 2020 was truly the year the universe showed the dark side of it's moob. As businesses we've done what we can where we can to be a force for good, here we decided we'd do what we do best, make a big bold beer and dry hop it to hell.
And then one day you find four years have passed behind you. No one told you when to run we ramped the big hop gun.
For this year’s celebration of the humble moob, we’ve gone to the dark side. The series has always showcased Aussie hops, so we’ve led with the punchy combo of Galaxy and Vic Secret, and then backed it up with some headline US varieties like Sabro and Mosaic. This is a silky dark brew, lightly roasty with dark chocolate aromas, but brimming with tropical flavours and a pithy finish.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8.5 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 9
Nicely glossy black, with a dense and very light brown head. Smells roasty, hoppy, some pine, plenty of fruit. Lovely smooth and soft body. Taste is bitter, roasty at first, but plenty of sweet fruityness quickly arrives. Nice roast at the back remains.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
“Hazy black IPA” made in collaboration between Wylam and Northern Monk, two excellent craft breweries in northern England; thanks to 77ships for sharing the can – which bears a hard-to-miss reference to the famed rock album by Pink Floyd. Mousy, somewhat membrane-like lacing, greyish pale beige, opening head on a black beer with hazy mahogany edges. Appealing aroma of hard caramel, cedar oil, fried onions, orange peel, bitter black chocolate, kumquat, wormwood, hints of dried blueberries, passionfruit touch, black radish, peppercorns, coffee, sweat. Sweetish, fruity, indeed somewhat juicy onset, hinting at pear and fig with a touch of passionfruit again, lively carbonated with nevertheless soft, fluffy mouthfeel; hard-caramelly and fondant-chocolatey maltiness, bitterweet with more coffee-like roasted bitterness in the end, when everything gets deeply soaked in a citrusy, spicy hoppiness with slight tropical edges and a long-lasting, peppery but not too harsh bitterness. Coffeeish roasted bitterness maintains the upper hand in the finish, which should, perhaps, not be so strongly the case in a black IPA in order to get a full “IPA” experience – but other than that, this is a delicious beer for sure, with a pleasant ‘old school’ hop bitterness to it. Still, there is indeed a certain influence from the current “haze craze”, not just in looks, but also in a slight tropical passionfruit aspect to it; if this is needed to save black IPA from oblivion, then by all means, but I personally find it unnecessary – and I also doubt if attempting to align black IPA with New England style IPA is always going to work as well as it does here.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
440ml can @ monthly tasting, Chez Sophie, Dec 20. Very dark brown complexion, beige froth. Roasty pine on the nose. Continues to taste, with additional ashy moments, and dried dark fruits. Good flavourful black IPA on a par with Kernels finest. Excellent.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Last gathering of the year for the Shrewsbury Beer Exchange Group, upstairs in Chez Sophie 21st Dec 2020. Thanks Mark for this offering. 440ml can: BB 4th Apr 2021. Almost black with a tanned head. Good feel to this malty, yet hoppy brew. Loads going on in both the aroma and taste, choose from Chocolate, tart berries, sweet berries, grass and some malty molasses.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
440ml can. Almost black with a beige head. Aroma of berries, grapefruit, chocolate. Taste is sweet, fruity, berries, grapefruit, light coconut, dark chocolate, roast malts, bitter finish. Medium body. Excellent BIPA.
danlo (11000) reviewed Dark Side Of The Moob from Northern Monk Brew Co. 3 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
440ml can from Wylam. Black brown colour, biege foam head leaving lacing and aroma of tropical fruit & citrus hops along with a roasty malt hint. Taste is dark malts, tangy, fruity, orangey citrus, earthy, and some spicy bitterness. Full bodied, soft carbonation, dry earthy spicy bitter finish. Very drinkable BIIPA