We are having a Halloween party tomorrow night, and so I was in our basement getting my homebrew ready. You can see the taps in the background of this picture. While I was working on it, I decided to grab a beer out of the beer fridge in the basement. I still have a few of these left over from the 4-way IPA case I picked up a little while ago.

The bottle says, “Blindfold Black IPA features a blend of hop varieties whose bright, fruity aroma complements the coffee like flavors of the dark roasted malts.”

Location: Poured into a TEKU glass at my home in Bloomington, IL

Numbers: 6.8% ABV, 70 IBUs, ~210 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s black in color, with some brownish highlights when held up to the light. It has a thick, khaki colored head that had incredible retention and lacing. The aroma is a mix of piney, grassy, and earthy hop smells.

Taste & Feel: The body is solidly medium and the mouthfeel is smooth and a bit creamy from the big head on it. The flavor up front is lightly roasty with some earthy hop flavors. In the middle, more of the hops come through, including some piney flavors. It really opens up in the finish with a good amount of earthy and piney hop flavors and bitterness, with some citrusy hops in the background. There’s also a good malty roastiness in the background throughout. The earthy-citrusy hop flavors and bitterness stick around for a minute or so in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has a good amount of hop flavors and some roastiness in the background. I think it would pair this beer with a steak from the grill, as the roastiness in the beer would complement the char/flame from the grill, and the hops would add a different flavor dimension to the mix.

Overall Impression: I thought this was a very solid beer with some roastiness in the background, but it didn’t complete with the hop flavors at all. The hop flavors were a good mix of earthiness, piney, and citrusy flavors. I also enjoyed the creaminess added by the big head on it. Overall, it was a solid beer and a different kind of IPA that didn’t try to go over the top.

My Rating: