Black Diamond Brewing Co. Rampage Imperial IPA

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Black Diamond Brewing Co. Rampage Imperial IPA. This beer caught my eye while beer shopping (yes, I beer shop). Black Diamond’s other beers never caught my eye and honestly I hadn’t realized they were located in Concord, CA until I picked up the bottle of Rampage Imperial IPA. Being NorCal centric I figured I had better grab the bottle and see what Black Diamond Brewing Co. is all about.
From the Black Diamond Brewing Co. website: “A massive brew that is enormously aromatic with huge hop flavors wonderfully structured with a great malt body. The flavor comes on with huge notes of citrus, pine and resin which last into the crisp dry finish.”

Let’s get started!

Appearance: Pours slight copper/golden amber with a big white head and solid lacing from beginning to end.

Aroma: Dominant pine and citrus hops, tropical fruit as well as toasted and sweet malts. Oh, this is going to be GOOD.

Taste: Excellent and just like the aroma. Grapefruit, apricot, mango, pineapple with a little orange zest. Hop central. Slight caramel malt presence, but this is very hop forward.

Overall: A solid West Coast Imperial IPA. Very drinkable and at 9% ABV you’re certainly getting a whole lotta fantastic beer in every 22 oz. bottle. I’ll certainly pick up s’more of this one.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey