21st Amendment Back in Black

Been working through my hoppier beers before I head off to Belgium next week so opened one my cans of 21st Amendment Back in Black. The brewery itself is in San Francisco but I'm pretty sure the beer for the cans is brewed in Minnesota or something.

Slightly roasty nose with some piney hoppiness. Body followed with more roast and some slight bitterness. Nice creamy mouthfeel which was quite nice actually. Basically exactly what you'd expect from a not too hoppy Black IPA, sorry I mean American Black Ale, and decent enough for the price.

21st Amendment Hop Crisis at the Kite & Key

In the next exciting installment of Rich goes to the Kite & Key, I got a glass of 21st Amendment Hop Crisis, a double IPA aged on oak spirals. (The difference between oak aged and aged on oak spirals is the former has the beer in an oak barrel while the latter throws little pieces of oak into the beer for aging. It changes how quickly the oak flavor affects the beer since there is more beer touching the oak spirals plus it's easier since you can throw oak spirals and beer into any container instead of needing to store barrels.)

Nice grapefruit nose. No bitterness at all. Starts with grapefruit, continues with more grapefruit, and ends with grapefruit. I didn't find any sweetness but detected a little oakiness in the finish. It doesn't say how long they aged it on oak spirals, but it must have been for at least a little while for the bitterness to die down. The aroma still exists because they dry hop it after aging. Overall, good choice to try and the bartender liked it so much she bought a case for herself from across the street.