Hoppy. Dank. Amber. 85 IBU. 1.008 FG,

Modern Times Blazing World

This is a nice beer. Perfect for our homemade ramen with its dark rich salty broth. The can says “pleasingly dry, sporting a lightly bready malt backbone that serves as a platform for the huge and complex hop profile.” Our experience was quite nearly opposite of that. We found a rich sweet malt roastiness with persistent but not hugely flavourful hop bitterness. We’d pick the apparent bitterness in the 60’s tops.
So, is this an impact of travel? BwB does a fantastic job of ensuring cold point to point shipment and it’s a pretty fresh can. It’s a can.
Again, it’s a nice beer. Just not as the label promised.

Can we talk about dank? There is some controversy about just what dank refers to in a beer. Most agree its a fresh, intense resinous odor or flavour, reminiscent of good marijuana. Since hops are a related plant, it makes sense that there might be an overlap in flavours. Dank also means musty, as in a musty basement. Some folks think that fruity new world hops like Nelson Sauvin are dank. It doesn’t work for us. Others bring up cat pee, which is an earthy intensity in a way. We get dank in summit and columbus, and a range of other fresh intense, resinous hops. However you describe it, its not in this beer.  (Though citra can be a bit dank at times.) We could probably write another article on dank, but would be best left for another time.

Here are is how one writer defines it:

Dank / Earthy
Frequency: IPAs, possibly others
Result Of: Hops (mostly)
See Also: Hoppy; Pine; Roasty
Certain hops, like Columbus and Chinook, will give beer a character that can only really be described as “dank,” but not in an unpleasant way. IPAs with such hops will have a bold woodsy, earthy character. Darker beers like porters and stouts sometimes lean toward a “dank” character as well.

More dank resources: Broadford Brewer, West Hop Press

Again, this is a nice beer. A distinctive beer, with a dry finish, sweet caramel and complex roast character. We would gladly drink some more, especially with roasted foods.

If you couldn’t get any and can’t wait for the next shipment, you can also brew a version. Michael Tonsmeire blogged about the development of his dank amber recipe on his Mad Fermentationalist website. The beer later became Blazing World. Here are the commercial brew #3 tasting notes. At least brew #3 wasn’t dank enough for him.