What is a Black IPA?

Black IPA’s have been causing a bit of controversy over the last few years mainly over the perceived oxymoronic naming of these very hoppy but dark coloured beers, ‘how can a beer be both ‘black’ and ‘pale’ people complain.

Breweries have been using a few different names for beers of this style including “Cascadian Dark Ale”, “India Black Ale” and even just “Hoppy Porter” but the name that seems to have stuck so far is ‘Black IPA’. There have been hundreds of articles and blog posts on the subject so i’m not going to go in to the arguments for and against.

Wherever you stand on the argument you have to admit that ‘black IPA’ is a perfect description of what you’re going to get, the beer is black but the flavour of the beer is all about the hops; the naming is in-ellegant but as a way of describing how the beer will taste, its perfect.