Trying different things can be scary.  You are never sure how doing something new is going to turn out.  It can always end in a massive failure and most importantly someone could get hurt if you aren’t careful.

So today I am trying something different for my beer write up.  So right now I am going to say this may not go well.  It may get really off course and someone may get hurt (who exactly is going to get hurt from this I have no clue but I have to put it out there).

What I’m going to try is a duel review.  I am taking my tastings of Cigar City’s collaborative Black IPAs called Either and Or and going to try to review them both.

Sure this may sound like child’s play to some but to me child’s play involves a doll that was taken over by the soul of serial killer and started killing people.  See how that can be scary when one’s mind set is thinking about child’s play?  But I digress.

Either and Or were made in collaboration with three breweries collectively.  Those were Cigar City, Hill Farmstead out of Vermont and Grassroots Brewing from Denmark.  They are both Black IPAs (I don’t care what you say I like that name over Cascadian Dark Ale) and both a tad over 11% ABV.  I know you might be thinking why did they make two of the same style.  Are they different?  Well hold your horses I’m getting there, let’s enjoy this experience I am creating here.

I really enjoy the way the bottles were released.  There was no six packs, only singles of each beer.  And Cigar City stated how they wished the bottles to sit side by side in the displays.  The artwork on the labels are very similar with slight reversals of the black and whites on each one.  It’s simple and effective.

Now as for the beers themselves, they both poured jet black into my snifter.  The differences in the visuals was that Either’s tan head was very thin and gone extremely quickly.  It left no lacing and the beer itself looked flat once the head was gone.  Or on the other hand had a head that stuck around a bit longer.  Not really any lacing but didn’t give the no carbonation look.

Either

Either’s nose was rather faint in my opinion.  I got some roasted malts along with hints of licorice, cedar and soy sauce.  But none really stuck out.  Or stuck out much more with some dank hop aromas with underlying smokey characters and a bit of cedar.

Now for the taste of Either it had a really earthy hop base to it that again had some licorice and roasted malt characters to it.  The hop taste became even more prevalent as the brew warmed up.  Or was pretty hoppy from the start with a little roasty, a little smokey and a little woody in there.  Yeah that probably doesn’t sound right.  But Or really had a lot going on.

Or

Okay now a couple deep breathes.  Is everyone alright?  Anyone get hurt.  I’ve check myself over and I seem fine.  Well that wasn’t so bad now was it?

Well in the end both beers were very good but I had a liking for Or a good bit more.  There just seemed to be a lot going on in it and it sort of punched you in the face with all of them.  Figuratively of course.  But wouldn’t it be crazy if a beer literally punch you in the face?  I think I would have rethink a lot about life if that happened.

But overall this was a cool little project that those three breweries put together.  Cheers to all of your for thinking outside the box.  If you can get your hands on Cigar City stuff and you see these I say it’s definitely worth it to try them.  So treat yourself.

Either Grade – B
Or Grade – A-