Capital Dark Voyage Review

Name: Capital Dark Voyage
Style: Black IPA
ABV: 6.5%
IBUs: 80

Next up in my Capital Brewery sampler pack is Dark Voyage, which is a Black IPA. However according to Beer Advocate, this is classified as a Black Ale but RateBeer classifies this as a Black IPA. So whose telling the truth?

In either case, this beer was added to Capital's lineup a couple years ago, if the internet is indeed being truthful with me. So first we have Ghost Ship, and now Dark Voyage. I'm starting to notice a very.....boat-ish theme here and it comes from the heart of Wisconsin.

Appearance - Pitch black with a dark brown tinge along the edges of the glass. The head pours a fairly thin khaki-color with some good retention and leaves behind a decent amount of lacing.

Aroma - Piney & bitter hops with some roasted barley. I'm also getting some chocolate malts and orange peel in here too.

Taste - Strong bitter hops and roasted barley on the front of the palate, with the latter lingering throughout the palate. Towards the middle, I'm getting a very noticeable smokiness, chocolate malts and some very light piney-dank hops. As for the back end of the palate, it's mostly roasted barley, smoke and a potent bitter hoppiness.

I've had many Black IPAs before but this comes across as more of a hopped-up porter than it does a Black IPA because the flavor profile is definitely darker & more roasty overall than it is hoppy. Even with the hop profile, because it seemingly gets absorbed by the roasty/dark aspect of the flavor, it comes across less like a Black IPA and more like a porter.

It's not offensive but I'll have to pass on this one.

Capital Dark Voyage - 6/10