Day 116, April 26, 2011
Magic Hat Brewing Company / South Burlington, VT
A | NG | P | G | VG | O |
Here is the mixture of life’s elixir.
That’s what it says on the doors into Magic Hat’s Artifactory – their tasting room, brewery tour and gift shop – in South Burlington. Been there. Twice.
Magic Hat is definitely one of the funkiest brewers and breweries around. The place is filled with funky art and stuff, staffed with funky people, wearing funky clothes and funky hair, some of whom smelled just a little funky. Besides their flagship #9 Ale, which has a slight flavor of Apricot, Magic Hat brews a variety of different beers, both year-round and seasonal. But even some of their year-round beers change out now and then.
I’ll compare Magic Hat beers to one of my favorite recording artists, Elvis Costello. I’ve been a fan for a long time, and I usually like / love most of the “product” they put out, and I will buy it on the spot. But once in a while, they let me down. Not today.
So we’re kicking off a Magic Hat Beer Run for the next few days. Thanks to Regina and Chris for hooking me up with a few Magic Hat brews to start the series.
The Demo IPA is part of Magic Hat’s “IPA on Tour” series – a different IPA for each season. And this season, it’s fashionable for IPA’s to be black. Black IPA’s are generally produced from roasted malts, which gives the beers a darker color and a toasted or smoky flavor.
This beer grew on me as I drank it. At first, I was unimpressed with the lack of a noticeable head on the beer, and the initial sip was a little bracing. But as I nursed this beer, I came to appreciate and enjoy the more complex flavors in the beer, especially after last week’s much lighter Caribbean beers.
First let me say I love the style known as Black IPA aka Cascadian Dark ale or India Black Ale (IBA). It is definitely a hot new style the past year or so. The best I've had is Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous ale, really a delicious beer which I recommend to anyone who likes beer. The first time I had it was that time we went to Church Key. They also have it at Norm's in 22 oz bottles.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the ingredients in IBA's, have to correct your statement about roasted malts. There are several dark malts that could contribute to the color and flavor of an IBA. Roasted malt might be used in small quantities to give the beer a mildly roasty flavor, but not toasty or smoky. Toasted malts would give it a toasty flavor and smoked malts would give it a smoky flavor. Color and flavor could also be contributed by black and/or chocolate malts.
I definitely want to brew one at some point, just need to find the time. I will let you know when it's ready. :)
Cheers
HHH