Beer of the Weekend #760: Sanitas Black IPA

It’s Wednesday and work has been somewhat hellish this week. Today I spent a half-hour changing single-quotation marks to double-quotation marks in an accepted manuscript — then had to clean up the references. Needless to say, I need a beer.

I’m dipping into my Colorado mini-haul and will try to polish it off quickly; I don’t want to let the beers linger for too long, as I did with last fall’s Texas haul. The first beer is Black IPA, brewed by the Sanitas Brewing Company of Boulder, Colorado.


Sanitas Black IPA pours a dark brown into a pint glass. A finger of dense, shiny, bubble-spotted head leaves a ring of lacing stuck to the glass and a skim with a cluster of bubbles in the center. The aroma is mostly malty with toasty brown malt, but its IPA character is noticeable with pine and faint, mostly nondescript citrus. Grapefruit? Probably. Chocolate is also present. Overall, the aroma is muted; it is not as aromatic as other black IPAs. Though the aroma is malty, the flavor is all IPA with a prominent bitterness that makes the taste buds stand at attention. It is piney and astringent. It is a tad too bitter for a black IPA for my liking, but I’ll drink it. The brown malt is relegated to the background, though the toasted character does emerge as the beer continues to warm. There is a bit of caramel, but pine and hints of citrus dominate.

Fun facts about Sanitas Black IPA:

• Style: Black IPA.

• Price: $1.99 per 12-ounce can at Tipsy’s Liquor World on Alkire Street in Littleton, Colorado.

• Alcohol content: 6.5 percent ABV.

• IBU: 65.


The Quiet Man’s grade: B+.

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