Back in the Black: IPA and CDA’s making a comeback
The never ending churn of India Pale Ale trends, styles, variants and hops occasionally sifts from the sands a vestige of times past, the latest mini resurgence is for Cascadian Dark Ale, aka Black IPA, aka American-style Black Ale. Experts dispute where the style originated, some claiming Phillips Brewing in Victoria, BC, others say Greg Noonan from his time at Vermont Pub and Brewery, and others still credit Rogue Ales famed brewmaster John Maier. It’s all about as fraught as the definition of craft beer, and can leave you wishing there was an Ancestry.com of beer.
Circa 2010 the dark brown to black ales that were hopped up like IPA’s began to gain popularity, and brewers began making the argument for it to become officially recognized by the trade organization Brewers Association. Two camps emerged, one advocating for a more northwest hop flavor and subdued roast, and the other a broader less regional definition that would allow for a wider variety of hop and bittered malt flavor. The former was pioneered by Portland beer writer Abram Goldman-Armstrong as being defined as a Cascadian Dark Ale, and the other was pushed heavily by California brewers to be called a Black IPA. The Brewers Association eventually decided to act as non-partisan body and recognized them by creating a catch all American-style India Black Ale category in 2010. That definition has since been revised into the current American-style Black Ale guidelines.
(This story was first published February 2021, updated 1/17/2022)
Fast forward a decade and the frontlines of the war between Black IPA, CDA and American-style Black Ale and we find much less interest in arguing the merits of each. Much like North and South Korea, the war was never called off but active conflict has subsided. Beer drinkers lost interest and turned to the latest trends that quickly followed and disappeared just as fast like White IPA, Belgian-style IPA and India Pale Lager (IPL). With the rise of hazy, juicy, smoothie and milkshake IPA’s, the debittered Black CDA’s of the early 2010’s dropped into the shadows but never really went away. Today, more than a decade since these beers officially made their debut onto the world stage, the Black IPA and CDA are again painting the town black.
Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA
Firestone Walker Brewing / Pasa Robles, CA
Wookey Jack black rye IPA emerged from the northern California forests for a brief appearance last fall at the Great American Beer Festival where it won a 2020 Gold Medal in the American-style Black Ale category. A limited amount was released into 16oz cans in the Propagator Series this January and were quickly hunted down by beer geeks. Firestone Walker initially had created it in 2012 as brewmaster Matt Brynildson’s answer to both the cries for even hoppier extreme ales, but Wookey Jack had ceased production in 2016.
“Wookey Jack was a reaction to a couple of things: first, there was a Black IPA “American Black Ale” trend going around the craft beer scene. In the Pacific North West they were calling these beers Cascadian Dark Ales. Essentially dark malts added to an bold IPA recipe,” says Brynildson. “At first I wasn’t a fan and saw it as an odd style, but our sales team was asking a lot about this style since they were seeing it out there in the world and it was getting a lot of attention. Secondly, we had recently released Union Jack and Double Jack. There were a few beer geeks out there saying that Firestone Walker still had yet to really make a truly over the top hoppy IPA – even after the release of Double Jack… so we decided to take the gloves off and make the biggest bold IPA we could at the time.”
The black rye IPA was a big hit with it’s one too punch of Citra and Amarillo hops, the two varieties that Brynildson says were “the most pungent and gnarly hops we had access to” at the time. The one two-punch of the hop combination with the added dimension of spicy rye bread flavors built into the grain bill makes Wookey Jack something unique. It went on to win Gold medals in it’s category two years in a row 2012-2013 at the Great American Beer Festival, and a bronze the next year at the World Beer Cup.
The name Wookey Jack refers to a term for hardcore fans of the jam band Phish, who Brynildson used to meet on tour. “Dread locked, blurry eyed tour wizards who smelled a bit dank, made their living on shake down street and never missed a show. It was a fun way to describe a beer that was a reaction to folks saying we didn’t make a dank and gnarly enough IPA.”
The recent January can release of Wookey Jack (the first time in 16oz packaging and with a new label design) was an instant sell-out and may already be difficult to find. Based on it’s successful return, it will be interesting to see if the Black IPA has the legs to return to touring in the near future.
In Oregon the La Résistance is still strong, and many breweries have kept Cascadian Dark Ales on the menu despite the handful who have adopted Black IPA naming conventions.
Bad Santa CDA
Pelican Brewing / Pacific City, OR
Pelican Brewing has never let their devotion to pacific northwest flavor die, they have been brewing Bad Santa CDA as a winter seasonal every year since 2007. While other winter warmer type ales have come and go, Pelican has stayed true to delivering a big black bag of hops every year for those craving a little roast with their hops, or vice-versa.
“Black IPA is an oxymoron, honestly. American Black Ale is possibly the most boring and unhelpful style descriptor ever. Cascadian Dark Ale communicates with NW customers in a way that the other two style descriptors do not,” says Pelican’s longtime brewmaster Darron Welch who helped develop Bad Santa with former brewer Jason Schoneman.
Welch says he doesn’t remember where he first heard the term CDA, but credits Oregon’s Barley Browns Brew Pub with brewing the first great rendition of it that he had tried. Barley Browns Turmoil CDA was part of the inspiration to brew Pelican’s own take on the emerging style a few years later.
“Of all the CDAs I’ve ever tasted, it is by far the one that most successfully balances soft roast character with citrusy and piney hops. Most of the time, these sharper hop characters clash with roasted malt flavors, at least for me. Turmoil is pretty unique in that it creates a harmonious balanced flavor with citrusy hops and roasted malts.”
The initial recipe for Bad Santa was built around herbal and woody character of Ahtanum hops and how well they meshed with soft roasted malts. However the beer was arguably improved in 2010 when Pelican was forced to replace Ahtanum with English heritage Fuggle hops because of the formers lack of becoming a widely cultivated variety. Darron believes the Fuggles mesh even better than Ahtanum did with the recipes use of pale, melanoidin and dehusked black malts.
At Pelican, they are all about the harmonious balance of flavors, perhaps more so in the CDA where hops can struggle against roasted barley. “Too many examples of this style have caramel malts or citrusy hops that clash on the pallet and give an overall confused and muddled impression,” opines Pelican CEO Jim Prinzing. “Too much residual extract makes this style especially cloying and chewy. That beer [Bad Santa] is very indicative of Darron’s brewing philosophy—every ingredient in that beer is there for a reason and there’s nothing extra that muddles the flavors.”
Welch believes the keys to a great CDA are:
Soft rounded roastiness that is noticeable but not dominating. This isn’t just a hoppy stout or porter.
Earthy, herbal, and citrusy hops. Woody, more floral hops balance better with roast malt. A dry-hop of citrusy hops like Cascade lends some brightness and a more assertive flavor and aroma.
Drier, more well-attenuated finish to establish it as part of the IPA family. Residual sugars and extracts would detract from its drinkability.
Bad Santa returns every winter in 12oz bottles and 6-packs.
Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA
Stone Brewing / Escondido, CA
Firmly in the Black IPA camp, Stone co-founder Greg Koch was an extremely vocal proponent of naming convention in the early 2010’s. In January, Stone revived their Sublimely Self Righteous Black IPA calling it their most requested beer ever.
“We get 'BRING BACK SSR' comments on just about everything we post to socials,” noted Pope. “Pictures of Stone IPA, videos of our bottling line, a clip of a kitten playing in a Stone Buenaveza box... there's always a 'BRING BACK SSR' somewhere in the comment section. Well, we heard you. It’s awesome to finally reply back with an enthusiastic ‘OK!’"
For a brewery known for extreme ales, Sublimely Self-Righteous fit right in at the time it was introduced. While many beers attempted more balance, Sublimely wallops you with a huge bitter blackened hop flavor and bitterness over top of the style signature smooth malty character.
Sublimely pours black, darker and stronger than most of its counterparts at 8.7% ABV. It has the chocolate and coffee notes of a stout that make it come off closer to a Russian Imperial Stout that was hopped like a Double IPA. Part of it’s signature flavor, is the intense piney and orange-raspberry hop flavor with cold coffee and black currant in the aroma.
For those craving 12 ounces of nostalgia and those simply seeking the remarkable, Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA is now available nationwide in 12oz six-pack glass and 22oz bottles for a limited time. Use Stone's Beer Finder to locate the beer near you.
Citra Solstice Black IPA
Coldfire Brewing / Eugene, OR
When they first began making Citra Solstice, Eugene, Oregon’s Coldfire Brewing had called it a CDA but over time began to call it a Black IPA to avoid consumer confusion. Brewer/co-owner Stephen Hughes acknowledges the Cascade region’s part in the history of the style, but feels that no area can call it their own as it was likely being simultaneously developed all over the country. That said, Citra Solstice was created because of a request by bar manager Drake McKee to make a CDA.
When creating Citra Solstice, the recipe was based around the house yeast strain which tends to throw off some fruity flavors. Hughes was afraid the esters would clash with ashy flavors of dark malt, so he built the grain bill and hop selections around chocolate-orange candy, for that there would need to be a little more body and sweetness. They went for a soft base malt bill with Rahr Pale and Golden Promise, but layered in a lot of complexity for darkness and body with Weyermann chocolate wheat, Carafa special II, and a little bit of both low and medium SRM crystal malts and golden naked oats. To get the color deep without overly roasty, they use Sinamar in the whirlpool.
As the name suggests, Citra Solstice if full of Citra hops. Whereas the CDA’s of the mid 2010’s would be packed full of cascade, chinook, maybe even galena, summit or magnum hops, this rendition is a very modern interpretation. With the goal in mind of nodding to the piny resinous character of older Black IPA’s, Hughes added the orangey but also piney and resinous variety Simcoe in both CO2 extract and T90 pellet form. They finish off with a punch of “C” hops including lots of Citra in the dry-hop.
“There is a super cool and unexpected harmony that can occur when the right balance is struck that makes this style a challenge and a great reward,” says Hughes, who seems to have slight regrets in calling Citra Solstice a Black IPA. “After I read your email, I went to the bar and asked a beertender for a CDA. They instantly knew exactly what I meant and handed me a frothy pint of Citra Solstice. That makes me happy.”
pFriem CDA
pFriem Family Brewers / Hood River, OR
Cascadian Dark Ale was in the lineup in pFriem’s first year back in 2012 and it’s made atleast an annual appearance every year since. Though brewmaster/co-owner Josh Pfriem acknowledges that the style is not in demand as it once was, it’s achieved a solid following as a winter seasonal and really hit a sweet spot in recent years. It’s also a fitting tribute to their home, foot planted firmly into Cascadia.
“I remember around that time brewers were in the early stages of taking new spins on IPA. There were a couple of folks in particular that were really excited about making a CDA more than a one off, in particular I remember Abram Goldman-Armstrong and Jim Parker really speaking to this dark hoppy beer being a thing from the Pacific Northwest or Cascadia if you will,” says Pfriem.
His first experience was the Secession CDA from Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland. It had a touch of roast, but certainly wasn’t a stout. Despite all the pushback on CDA, pFriem has stuck with the nomenclature and the beer. For Josh it’s the perfect beer for winter in Cascadia.
“I vividly remember our first batch of CDA at pFriem, it was like drinking a liquid Douglas Fir.”
Ace of Diamonds Imperial Black IPA
Hopworks Urban Brewery / Portland, OR
Hopworks Urban Brewery was also an early adopter of Cascadian Dark Ales, owing much of that to their close ties to homebrewer, writer and CDA pusher Abram Goldman-Armstrong. Back in 2011 Hopworks released Secession CDA based on Goldman’s homebrew recipe, and it epitomized everything that made the style unique. Lush piney and pungently grapefruit like hops, earthy dankness, with an underlying and deceivingly light subtly roasty edge. If you closed your eyes, you almost couldn’t tell that Secession was black.
Ace of Diamonds Imperial Black IPA is a new take on the style that Hopworks is currently pouring on draft and packaging in 16oz cans. Unrelated to Goldman-Armstrong’s Secession recipe, Ace of Diamonds is especially current with it’s reliance on cryo hopping and a blend of modern hops Centennial, Simcoe, Mosaic, Cascade. While Goldman-Armstrong may take umbrage with it being called a Black IPA, Hopworks has nodded to the CDA with the green, white and blue colors on the label art that emulate the flag of Cascadia.
Ruse Brewing’s Dark Between the Stars
Also Available Now:
Culmination Brewing: 4 & 20 Black IPA
The annual winter release of Four & Twenty Imperial Black IPA was in late December and it was the first beer Culmination ever made. Strong Porter notes of roast and chocolate working with a heavy NW Hop profile of Chinook, Amarillo, Cascade, and Centennial for notes of spice and pine.
Threshold Brewing & Blending: Stark After Dark
black IPA, a collaboration brew with West Coast Grocery Company. Brewed with Midnight wheat and Simcoe and Columbus hops, 6.7%