Fans of La Debauche may have noticed that a lot more of their beers are now packaged in cans, and the Black Ale India Stout is one of them.
It’s a little hard to categorise this beer really. It is a dark ale, with more aggressive hopping than your normal stout. Interestingly, even the brewery stop short of calling this a black IPA, so it probably does fall somewhere in between a hoppy stout and a black IPA.
Whatever your opinion on style, I think it is a beer most people will enjoy.
The aroma is inviting, with dark chocolate, coffee, dark stone fruits and some hop character. I remember this beer seeming more fruity in the hop character when I had it a couple of years back, and to me the malty side of the beer clearly dominates the aroma as well as the flavour.
Lots of dark malts for that lovely roasty flavour, dark chocolate, coffee, licorice and some spice. Then there a solid hop bitterness with this beer, which hints at citrus probably mostly in the form of grapefruit.
I like beers that can marry several different attributes without bludgeoning you with one. I think this beer does that well, though I can’t help but want a little more fruity hop character. But maybe that’s my failing memory!