[Dixielandjazz] OT - on the recent Beer thread - no musical content.

[David Richoux]

Hi all,

This column was in my local paper this morning - a recent development  
in the micro-brewing world:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12923113?source=rss&nclick_check=1

here is part of it -

> Brooks on Beer: Is Black IPA an emerging style?
> By Jay R. Brooks
> for the Bay Area News Group
> Posted: 07/29/2009 01:00:00 AM PDT
>
> A new style of beer is a rarity. The last time one emerged on the  
> West Coast, it was the Double or Imperial India Pale Ale. Few people  
> thought such a hoppy beer would catch on; but catch on it did, and  
> in a big way.
>
> Helped along by the Hayward Bistro's Double IPA Festival, the style  
> is now judged as a separate category at the Great American Beer  
> Festival, and examples are made across the U.S. and even abroad in  
> England and Belgium.
>
> It's possible it's happening again with another hoppy beer, this  
> time the Black IPA. It's too early to tell what its ultimate fate  
> will be, but more and more Black IPAs are being brewed up and down  
> the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle.
>
> This is not the first time dark beers have been made hoppier and  
> dark IPAs are hardly rare in homebrewing circles, either. But we've  
> never seen so many commercial examples using the term "Black IPA"  
> before:
>
> Speakeasy Ales & Lagers in San Francisco has made a Black IPA, a  
> dark black, 8 percent alcohol beer, as part of the seasonal Bootleg  
> Beer Series. Also in San Francisco, 21st Amendment Brewery brewed  
> Back in Black, which at 7.2 percent and 65 IBUs — measured on the  
> International Bitterness Units scale — is similar to their more  
> traditional IPA, but with black malt.
>
>

Guess I will be trying some next time I am across the Bay...

Dave RIchoux