Croatia’s craft beer industry is booming. The latest Christmas addition.
Just in time for the holiday celebrations, Croatia’s oldest craft brewery, Medvedgrad from Zagreb, launched their newest offering, Crni Jack (Black Jack) black IPA, reports Vecernji List in its ‘Volim Pivu” column on December 12, 2015.
This beer, sometimes also called Cascadian Dark Ale or India Dark Ale, is characterised by strong hop flavours matched by the coffee and chocolate of the dark malts.
Medvedgrad (which means Bear Castle), has produced a true black bear of a beer. Four kinds of malt and four types of American hops result in a creamy almost stout like consistency, the chocolate and coffee combined with the flowery aromas and the strong bitterness of of the West Coast Hops. The aroma is enhanced by dry hopping, the addition of hops at the fermentation stage. It is nicely bitter without being overpoweringly so. Its IBU count is 55, and as a means of comparison Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is 38 and Thorpedo IPA 65. Alcohol is 6.5%.
The Medvedgrad brewery has been around almost 21 years. It has been producing great craftbeers, all unfiltered and unpasteurised, and this writer cannot wait to find out what they will do for their 21st birthday!
Recommended food pairing: baby back ribs coated with honey and cooked in Crni Jack beer.
