Founders Dark Penance Imperial Black IPA
A heavy malt foundation includes Crystal malt for sweetness and just enough Midnight Wheat malt to push the color to black. The bitterness is huge, but balanced by malt sweetness and alcohol burn. The hop flavors and aromas range from citrus to floral to pine thanks to a delicious blend of hand-selected Chinook and Centennial hops.
3.8
876 reviews
Grand Rapids, United States
Community reviews
Bottle from mikkeller webshop. Appearance is opaque and dark. Head is brown and thin. Taste is light sweet, medium bitter. Balanced taste. Body is medium and dry. Finish is quite long and somewhat dry. Aroma is chocolate, coffee, roasted, hops, pine, resin, cacao, pepper.
On tap at Bx Beer Depot. Originally reviewed 10/23/2014.
Black body. Quite black. Medium off white head. Thick collar.
Smells of grapefruit hops. A little herbal. Distinct crystal malt aroma. Backdrop of roasted malt.
Tastes of grapefruit hops again. A bit of graininess. The crystal malt is really strong. Makes it sweet and caramelly. Grassy hops in the back end with some dark malts that really only shine in the finish.
Medium body. Pretty bitter. Well carbonated.
It’s good, but nothing really unique. If I were blindfolded, I wonder if I would pick out that it was a black IPA until the very finish.
Intressant doftkomposition där en svagt rostad, chokladbetonad botten kombineras med en ananaskärna och på toppen en fadd citronarom.
Färgen är nästan helt svart och skummet är stadig, ljust mockafärgat och långvarigt.
Smaken är explosiv där en mycket kraftig beska slåss mot en dito rostning. En svagt söt chokladton finns med samt en aning kaffe. Tropiskt fruktiga smaker växer fram efterhand. Smaken är mer brutal och spretig än balanserad och integrerad. Kroppen är oformlig och överfull, eftersmaken torr och laktosbemängd.
Bottle 355ml @ home
Pours dark hazy brown with a tan head. Aroma has notes of malt, caramel, citrus, pine needles, grapefruit and hint of alcohol. Taste is medium sweet and medium to heavy bitter with a long slightly warm, malty, caramel, citrus, grapefruit, piney and hint of chocolate finish. Body is full, texture is oily, carbonation is soft.
Pours pitch black with small head. Aroma: roasted malt, chocolate, hops (particularly herbs, grass). Taste: very intense taste of roasted malt, chocolate, with an intense hoppy aftertaste. Great dark ipa.
Bottle. Black color. Aroma is very good: fruit, honeydew, citrus, caramel. Taste: caramel, fruit, good hop bitterness. Nice.
Bottle from Euston Tap.Black with an offwhite head. Piney hops, almost medicinal. Good roasted malts, but hoppiness leads the way. Nice one.
bottle at home from drinkstore
Full bodied, rich, boozy, slightly solventy, brash bitterness, tonnes of resinous. Dark brown with big dense beige head, quite high residual sweetness, pine, sticky, boozey - a bit ott.
Poured an opaque black with a deep ruby edge tint - looks and pours very much like a stout. Topped with a one-finger tan frothy head that retained very well before slowly diminishing to a persistent collar that laced well. carbonation very low and fine. Aroma of sweet dark malts plus hints of dark fruits; lacks the typical IPA ’punch’ of pine and citrus; quite pale ale like; alcohol comes out as it warms. Taste of sweet moderate strength malt followed by slight roasted notes (like coffee); slight pine and grapefruit but the malt presence subdues that hops characters and hops bitterness; slight alcohol on the after-taste. Medium body. Smooth, creamy and slightly dry with a short citrus finish but also with a harsh bitterness on the finish; alcohol comes through on the end as it warms.
black with a thick, tan head; stout-like appearance; some roasted malt and a good deal of hops and alcohol notes in the aroma; a bit boozy, alcohol notes and roasted malt with plenty of piney hop notes; really enjoyable
Dark color. Roasted, dark malts with fruity hop aromas. Taste is sweet malt with a transition to the hops during the bitter end (pun intended). The finish takes away from this beer as a whole.
Rating from old records (2017): from bottle in IPA glass. Piney citrus hops, roast malt, balanced bitterness
Tap @ CBH 2016, 30/06/16, thanks bluus. Pours dark brown, black, small head. Aroma is hops, plenty of them. Mango and citrus are the strongest. Given without seeing the color of the beer, I’d not put it down as a dark one: No dark malt aromas present. Taste doesn’t follow along those lines though. Quite roasty, but the hops do offer plenty of citrus as well. Slight wooden flavors in the finish.
Keg, 1/2 pint. Pours black with ruby hues and a medium thin brown head subsiding average. Scent is light roasted malts and medium dense Imperial yeast. Light vanilla. Taste is medium dense caramel and light vanilla, along with medium roasted malt, light amounts of coffee and chocolate as well. Finish is very grassy, lightly earthy, medium syrup, maybe a little tobacco. Great.
An imperial stout style IPA with strong dark chocolate flavours along with coffee bean and roasted barley flavour. Smoky/ashen aftertaste. Good to let sit and breath before consuming like a stout or porter
Bottle. Pours clear dark brown. Roasted, lightly burned and smoked, hoppy aroma. Assertive bitterness.
Copenhagen 11/6 2016. 35,5 cl bottle from Meny. Ancient granny on the label - probably doping some penance. Pours opaque dark brown with big light beige head. Settles as fat several cm thick layer of foam. Lacing on the side of the glass. Aroma is rich and fruity. Exotic fruit, caramel and citric fruit intermingling. A good bitterness dominating. Soft carbonation and oily palate. Flavor is rich and mainly quite bitter. Only subdued sweetness. You notice the substantial ABV as well. Quite a mouthfull - but a nice one.
Tap @ bierhaus cork . Perfect . A must. So strong and the afters is so good, really good , I like this beer very much.
Draught at KØ16. Quite fruity aroma. Very dark brown colour, seems slightly hazy. Small tan head. The flavour starts off with a distinct grassy and piney hop note. Then comes a good fruity malt note, red berries and a quite high bitterness.
Bottle from We Brought Beer Balham, London - UK. Color: deep dark black beer with no carbonation and small brown head. Smell: roasted malt domination with grassy hops and sweet finish. Taste: full body with roasted malt, caramel notes. Brown sugar, licorice balanced with grassy and resin hops. Very superb. Alcohol finish. Astringent. Aftertaste: coffee and roasted malt notes. Licorice. Dry bitterness and alcohol finish. Amazing !
Dejlig klæbrig
Tør men ikke kvælende bitter
Lækker kaffe og grape samt lidt fersken
Masser af den ramme, skrappe bitre humle, i mørk indpakning. En vild én
Bottle from Kihoshk, pre-CBC. Pine and citrus hops, dark and hoppy and a bit sticky, with some caramel, chocolate and a bit of cocoa thrown into the mix. Good stuff.
355ml bottle. dark, clear colour with ruby reflections. rich beige/white head reducing gradually, little lacing. aroma of sweet tropical fruits, roasted malts and coffee. taste driven by coffee and notes of nuts and sunflower seeds ending with massive bitter accents. evarege carbonation and perceptible alcohol notes. overall very good.
355 ml bottle bought at The Bottle Shop in Sai Kung.
Looks: Cola blackish brown colour with a very thin ring of dirt-like yeast sediments; Three-quarter finger head and beige foam which lasts for 90 seconds; Excellent sticky lacing with zero carbonation.
Aroma: Very fragrant rich dark malt, with moderate roastyness, grapefruit, lemon peels, floral, molasses, light pine, resin, bread, yeast, and grassy hops.
Taste: Close to strong sweet dark malt, with strong roastyness, strong grapefruit, strong citrus peels, caramel, toffee, floral, vanilla, very strong molasses, pine, strong resins, strong lime, very strong bitter hops and strong sharp grass. Wow!
Body: Close to full body. Very slick and oozy palate.
Mouth Feel: Rich dark maltyness in a solid, slighty oily background. Strong roastyness with slightly burnt caramel and toffee. Strong sweetness but well balanced by strong dose of grapefruit, citrus peels, floral and resins. The 8.9% booze is almost unnoticeable. Nice strong lime with traces of vanilla to round. Intense and beautiful!
Hoppiness: Grapefruit, lemon peels, floral, light pine, resin, and grass in nose. Strong grapefruit, strong citrus peels, floral, pine, strong resins, strong lime and sharp grass in taste; Bitterness is very strong, sharp but tasty for a lasting, very astringent strong sweet-bitter malty finish.
After Taste: Quite dry. Oozy, citrusy and strong bitter to mouth.
Comments: This one may not be as colorful as BrewDog’s Libertine, but it has all the bases well covered with strong and sweet dark malt, very intense citrusy and bitter hoppiness. Big with subtlety and very pleasant, what a nice sipper to have for a relaxing afternoon. A resounding ‘Yes’!
P.S.: BTW, love the Cypress Hill’s “Hits from the Bong” for my 1420th rating, but what is it all about?
Tap @ basement beer bar, Aalborg. Aroma of citrus, tropical hops and some roasted malts. Very dark brown colour with tan head, mostly diminishing. Taste is heavy bitter and light sweet, more roasted character and caramel. Full body, dry feel, avg. carb., bitter caramel finish.
Pours a deep dark orangish amber color. Aromas of big hop action, sweet malts, and more hops. Flavor has some caramel malty tastes with nice grapefruit and floral hop taste.
A 12 fl oz bottle bottled on 14th September 2015 and poured into an oversized wine glass. It poured a deep dark dark brown colour with a one finger tan head that dissipated fairly quickly to a thin layer but left nice spotty lacing. Aromas were sweet roasty malt with some light pine and citrus orange in the background. Tastes a light roasty coffee and chocolate with nice spikes of pine and citrus bitterness which lingers on the finish. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall a nice Black IPA that balances the sweetness, roast and bitterness.
Bottle from Bine & Vine. Pours dark brown with a tan head. Aroma of pine and dark malt. Med body or so. Flavor is pine, dark malt and some mixed hop. It’s bitter, not much heat, and the malt is dark, but not sweet. Somehow anise has come to my mind. Probably the "feel", not the actuality. It’s a decent beer.
Not my kind of black IPA because of lack of upfront hoppiness. Very drinkable and nice complexity but not for hop heads. Borders on stout or brown ale.
On tap at Warrens Ale House.
Flaske. Hvis du vil have en sort IPA, her er hvad du leder efter. Meget let brændthed men ellers en super crisp duft og smag. Let til trods for alkoholen. Dejlig øl.