black ipa

[matthewdick23]

sitting here with a thornbridge black ipa

If i close my eyes im drinking an ipa. really piney and pretty fresh ipa at that

its nice

no malt, dark or smokey or otherwise at all

we def needa do a black ipa day soon

[matthewdick23]

but had a black ipa by sierra nevada in dublin at wkend- def a malty, roasty dark note in the background with that one

so both v different

btw, belfast has a long way to go in terms of craft beer compared to dublin

[Bill_00]

Yep, it very definitely does. For me, Alley Cat and Cuckoo are carrying the torch...though Cuckoo rotates its range a lot less often

[matthewdick23]

have u tried the sunflower round th corner from hudson. they have a cask- ususally hilden and some beers ive not seen anywhere else in belfast

hudson are changing their range soon too

i hear bittles is quite good, but never been there myself

[iain_todd]

Definitely. We're still too focused on Harp, Smithwick's and Guinness. I don't know what it is, but Northern Ireland is quite insular in many other respects so it's perhaps to do with that. We don't much like change as a society, do we?!

Glasgow, for example, is amazing. The best bar is called the Three Judges - 10 guest ales which change and rotate during the day, a decent draught selection and two fridges of bottles of continental and Scottish beers. I think we're a long way off something like that in Belfast!

Yeah, I think we should do the Black IPA - shall we get another brew day on the go?

[Bill_00]

The main problem is that there aren't that many freehouses...there's the same problem in a chunk of England, except that it's usually an ale brewer that they're tied to