Cascadian Dark Ale / Black IPA

As I am sitting here drinking a bottle of Rodney Kibzey's Longshot winning Black IPA, I can not help but think about the beer "style" it is.  Yes I do not believe that CDA/ BIPA is a beer style!  It is a fad and to me a bad fad at that!  Just because someone can brew a beer and other people copy it does not make it a style or good.  This beer will soon enough be relegated to the trash heap it belongs in.

Yes I am on the muscle tonight.  I have tried multiple CDA/ BIPAs and really have not found one I like. The closest is 1T's BIPA, it is probably the best balanced of the many I have had.  Most of these beers are not balanced, they are either very roasty or very hoppy.  The one I am currently drinking is towards the hoppy side.  Also there is just too much bitterness in this beer between the roast and the hops, making it nearly undrinkable in an quantity over a 12 ounce bottle.

As most you may know the roots of CDA/ BIPA can be traced back to the East Coast instead of the West Coast, it is said that the first CDA/ BIPA was brewed by  Greg Noonan in Vermont in the late 1990s.  It really started to become popular in the Pacific Northwest in the early 2000s when such beers as Rouge's Skull Splitter and Phillips Brewing's Black Toque were being made.  As it became more and more popular in the Cascadian Region a common name was arrived at Cascadian Dark Ale.  Around the same time in the rest of the United States it became known as a Black IPA, either name is considered correct.

So, what is this beer that you rant about, you may be asking.  By a proposed set of guidelines from Brew Your Own Magazine http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/article/indices/11-beer-styles/2072-birth-of-a-new-style-cascadian-dark-ale it is as follows.  Color- 30+ SRM, OG 1.060 - 1.080, FG 1.010 - 1.016, 50-90 IBUs, and ABV 6.0 - 8.5%.  Northwest hops predominate so piney, citrus hop notes are picked up.  Also the dark malts add dark roast and chocolate notes.  So it is a hoppy, dark, roasty beer that mixes some attributes of an IPA with a stout.  It is a hybrid of styles, not a style unto its self. 

When this beer is entered into a BJCP sanctioned event it goes into Category 23 Specialty Beers.  The last time I judged Category 23 at a contest, of the 11 beers we judged 7 were CDA/ BIPAs.  Needless to say we were both tired of this beer "style" by the time we were done judging the flight. 

There will continue to be some consideration of making this beer a "style" unto its self when the next time the BJCP Style Guidelines are revised in the future.  I am split as to whether or not to give CDA/ BIPA deserves it own sub category.  On one hand if it is given its own sub category it will no longer be in Category 23, so next time I would judge Specialty Beers there would be none of them to judge.  On the other hand as I have stated before this beer is just a fad that will die out and why have more empty categories to judge?  Isn't it bad enough that the California Common has its own sub category?    When was the last time you have seen a Cali Common in a contest?  I have not seen one in years.  Why just add more minutia to the judging process?

So to get back to the beer I am drinking right now, I'm glad I did not have to pay for this bottle.  Otherwise I would of felt cheated by this beer because I do not find it overly enjoyable or even remotely well balanced.  If you enjoy a CDA/ BIPA do not let my rant stop you from your enjoyment, but I do not plan on trying many more CDA/ BIPAs in the future.

QC Beerguy