Black Hops - Beer Review
Black Hops Beer, Blue Hills Brewery, Canton, Massachusetts
One of the greatest pleasures in the world of beer is the fragrance of dark beer. Black Hops Beer delivers this pleasure extremely well. Rich, deep and a little smoky, the aroma wafts up at you as you pour yourself a tall, dark amber glass. "Drink me," it says. So I do.
Effervescence is a little disappointing, I have to say. Even the second glass doesn't sport much of a head. Nevertheless the toasty dark beer flavor is clean and crisp and goes down very smooth indeed. Kind of a Beck's Dark without the preservatives, almost.
The color is quite true to dark beers everywhere. Not as opaque as a stout, but not quite translucent either. The taste is also representative of dark beers, smoky like its fragrance, with a lingering aftertaste that is borderline bitter - not in a bad way but in an intriguing way that stays with the drinker even when several minutes pass between sips. For this reason Black Hops is a great beer to socialize with. There is no reason to make haste to drink it since it remains robust in the glass straight through the bottle.
Blue Hills Brewery calls Black Hops their masterpiece, but for my money, Antimatter is the better beer. Antimatter is a really extraordinary beer made in a radically different way. Black Hops is a great dark beer, and good company for a leisurely evening with friends, and I won't hesitate to drink it again. Yet nine times out of ten, I'll go with the Antimatter given the choice.
With alcohol content of 6.75 percent, Black Hops has a respectable punch, but not enough to put you to sleep. Once again, a great beer to socialize with. Nevertheless, drink responsibly, buckos.
