Tasting Black Abandon CDA

This was a very interesting beer that was fun to brew, turned out surprising well, and showed just how quickly hop aroma and flavor disappears. I kegged half of this straight from the primary fermenter on an ounce of Citra hops, put it on tap, carbed it in three days and started drinking.  The other half was bottle conditioned and stored in my room-temp, under-the-basement-stairs "cellar."  I entered two botttles of the latter into the Dominion cup.  I haven't seen the score sheets yet, but I won't be shocked to find they didn't so well.

Good thing I've got Imperial Pints.

The kegged beer was shockingly smooth, with an ever-increasing fruity hop aroma as the Citra released its goodness.  There's a reason this hop is crazy popular right now...it's darn good.  I really enjoyed the touch of chocolate roast in combination with an all-American, cascade-dominated hop profile. (Just a touch!  The ever-carmudgeonly Velky Al has a great post on the need for Black IPAs to bend to his will here, and I tend to agree) A great beer, but at a calculated ABV of 7.8%, a bit strong in full pints.  I ended up giving away five or so liter growlers to my BJCP class when it met at my house, a week or two after kegging.  I finished the keg a week after that, and was fairly happy for it.  This beer was consumed as fresh as possible, at what I believe to have been its prime.

The bottled version was nowhere near as smooth, and the hop aroma not nearly as fruity or as pronounced.  The last hops this version saw were in the primary fermenter, and the bottles are stored warm, so it's no wonder I didn't get the hop aroma of the kegged variety.  What really amazed me was how quickly that aroma faded.  Additionally, as shockingly smooth as the kegged version was for a nearly-8% beer, the bottled version showed its alcohol content in spades.  With this version, the touch of roast combined with harsh, fusel alcohol notes to become the beer I fear when I go to homebrew club meetings.  I've also been amazed at how the hop character has dropped precipitously—three weeks ago, cascade was very apparent.  Today, it's mostly gone.  The flavor is still there, but the aroma has faded nearly completely. Unfortunately, this is the beer I entered into the Dominion Cup!

What have I learned?  Mostly, that some cold storage would be nice to have, and that hoppy beers need to be drunk as fresh as possible.  Nothing world-shattering there, but the conventional wisdom is certainly cemented as truth in my mind.