CBC Beer Description
The following beer description is from our archive. For currently available beers, please refer to our House Beers, Seasonal Beers on Tap, and Cask Special pages
Penumbral I.P.A.
inaugural beer in CBC's Tabula Rasa Series
CBC inaugurates it’s new Tabula Rasa specialty beer series with Penumbral I.P.A., an almost black Belgian India Pale Ale. The Tabula Rasa (blank slate) series will celebrate outside-the-box creative brewing as informed by ancient history, poetry, philosophy, conceptual art, and rock ‘n’ roll music. Releases will be irregular but inspired.
A penumbra is a partial shadow, as in an eclipse, between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination. Penumbral I.P.A.’s depth of color sends you into the shadows only to be illuminated by bright floral hop notes in the nose and on the palate, balanced by spice and earth notes from our house Belgian yeast. Some of you may find yourselves confused by the apparent contradictions of this beer. Belgian brewers had made nearly black beers for centuries, but they’re not known for super hoppy brews and only recently have “Belgian stouts” appeared. Leave it to American craft brewing ingenuity to combine Belgian character with an I.P.A., and then paint it black.
Amarillo and Glacier hops provide fruit and floral notes while a backbone of Belgian pale and aromatic malted barley is augmented by German CaraFa, a specialty malt which provides color without excessive roastiness. Blend in a little Belgian funkiness and your palate will plunge into the shadows of this dark-but-brilliant beer.
Cheers,
Will Meyers, Brewmaster
OG: 1.064 FG: 1.012 ABV: 6.8%