Haandbryggeriet Sundland Kreosot

These guys are building up a pretty strong portfolio so far, but this is the first Black IPA trialed from their burgeoning range.

It's one of those 'home-made-jam--printed-on-my-laserjet-printer' style labels as is traditional for Haand, but the beer itself comes out pretty proudly, displaying good opacity and a sticky miniscus of dark tan coffee head. Aroma is inviting too, delivering that dichotomous porter / hoppy IPA combination that makes you stop and think for a while before drinking, just to ponder and identify the different notes in there.

Surprisingly I didn't pick up a great deal of smokiness, which turns out to be opening the batting for this beer in the flavour league cup. Almost bacony levels of roast characterise the opening salvos, but it's all backed up with sufficient hopping and a roasty toasty choc porter standard bearer. It's probably the first really smoky attempt at a Black IPA I have trialled, but it all comes together very nicely really. The smokiness ties the two sometimes disparate brew types together with a common thread.

Good beer, not lifechanging but interesting, flavoursome and refreshing stuff. 8.0