Bashah

It's always fun to find something that you haven't seen before, especially when it's a limited release and you may not see it again for a while. I was lucky enough to score one of these while cruising around through Payless Liquers on 96th and 37. (If you're in Indy anytime soon, definitely worth stopping in!)

Bashah is a Black Belgian Double IPA made in collaboration with Stone and BrewDog. Normally I run from something that sounds this hoppy, but I like Stone and it seemed well worth the risk. I poured it out of the bottle into a pint glass even though it probably should have been a tulip. My pour was terrible. Not sure why I had so much head, but it happens. Bashah was 8.6% abv.

The poured out black like a cup of coffee that you cannot see through with a light tan head that lasts for a long time (although my totally amateur pour may have had something to do with that). The beer has a sweet coffee aroma with just a bit of fruity hops. The beer was lighter than I expected based on the color, but I think that was the Belgian in it.

The flavor was sweet and roasty. It tasted like someone had figured out how to smoke semi sweet chocolate out back in the smoker. There were hints of toffee and a bunch of coffee. It had a mildly hopped up finish with just the right amount of bitterness and dryness, so you didn't have the lingering sweet aftertaste of some malty Belgians.

I am really not sure what I would call this beer. It looked like a heavy stout, it was bitter like a porter, but it had more hops than a porter. I expected a heavier hop profile since they called it a double India pale ale and it was from stone. It was complex and not something that's part of my normal rotation. The flavors were all so different from each other but they were well  fused together.

All in it was a great beer I would drink again in a heart beat. If I stumble across more of this, I will pick up every bottle that I can find.

I give it a 4.5