I haven’t chatted about Winnipeg’s Half Pints recently. It is not like they have fallen out of favour with me or anything, or that they aren’t continually finding new things to do. It is just that most of their latest one-off and seasonal efforts have been Winnipeg-focussed, making it harder for me to discuss them intelligently. This is, actually, a good thing, for Half Pints as it means sales are going so well in their home city they are doing everything they can just to keep up with their local market. Anything farther west is just a bonus.

If you want proof of that, take note that their latest seasonal release, Black Galaxy, sold out at the brewery in an amazing 35 minutes! Fortunately, Half Pints Dave thought ahead and shipped some bottles to Alberta and a couple kegs to Regina ahead of time, meaning we are likely the last places on earth to have this beer available.

The speed of the sale seems worth talking about. The beer might be too. I picked up a bottle myself this week to give it a twirl. Black Galaxy is Half Pint’s first crack at a Cascadian (Dark) IPA, the newish style that has grown out of the Northwest U.S. In brief, Cascadian IPAs are IPAs with added dark malts to create, yes, a dark India Pale Ale (oxymoron and all). [CORRECTION: Dave from Half Pints tells me they did one before, Black Scrapper IPA, back in 2010. Sorry for the mistake.]

It pours a surprisingly dark, opaque black with only the slightest of brown accents on the edges. The head forms a thick mesa of dense , light tan foam. The aroma starts with a dark, rich chocolate and touches of molasses and coffee quickly followed by a piney, woody hop aroma. There is a nice balance in the aroma.

The first sip remains true to the aroma. I get a robust porter character upfront, light roast, bitter chocolate, nut, raisin and brown sugar. The hops don’t take long to make their presence known. They offer pine, wood and some delicate citrus in the flavour and the bitterness plays a game of footsie with the roast malt. It finishes fairly dry with a noted hop linger.

My first thought is Old Engine Oil with hops. And while that isn’t quite accurate – Black Galaxy is drier and not quite as rich – it seems more accurate than the more generic “black IPA”. Because this isn’t a black IPA (although I recognize it broadly fits the description). It is more than that.

This is the darkest Cascadian I have ever tasted, and the first (that I have tried) willing to bring out some porter-like roast in the beer. And, I like it. This has more dimensions going on than most Dark IPAs. I really appreciate the interplay between the hops and the roasted malts. It intensifies the bitterness, but also deepens it, making the beer more complex. In a lot of dark IPAs, they go for balance but at the expense of overall robustness. That isn’t a complaint – I generally quite appreciate the style – but having just tasted this one, I have a sense of what is possible.

This is a bold interpretation of the style, and they find a way to pull it off nicely. Would I expect anything else from the folks at Half Pints?