Review 60: Heavy Seas Black Cannon

Review 60

6/4/12

Heavy Seas Black Cannon: 7.25% abv

We haven't done a whole lot of black IPAs in our time, so we wanted to do another one. And who wouldn't want to drink a beer with a name as cool as this one. There's not a whole lot of background to this beer, but it's high alcoholic content encourages us that flavor is soon to arrive. To the tasting notes. 

On the nose, we find a very stout like smell, with chocolate, coffee, molasses, caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, and malt, but proceeds with some slight floral character, maple wood and peanut. This is a creamy smelling nose, and if you weren't being meticulous, you'd call it a stout. The taste, however...nope, like a stout. Instantly notable is the coffee, caramel, vanilla, molasses, chocolate, with unique tasting of orange and slight smokiness, ending with some butterscotch. The finish is sugary, with tobacco, peanut butter, apple, slight bitterness, smokiness and a medium-long length. 

This stout...IPA...IPS?...is actually rather unique, and with a variety of flavors to offer, it puts a unique spin on the stout character. But to call it an IPA is kind of silly. Unlike the Black Hatter by New Holland, it doesn't remind you that you're drinking an IPA. So because it's an IPA and we're rating it as an IPA, it doesn't hit the mark. But if you like stouts, this might be the right wrong beer for you. 

Score: 8.0/10