Heavy Seas Black Cannon - Heavy Seas Beer

Displayed for educational use only; do not reuse.

BA SCORE
86
good
-
468 Ratings

rAvg: 3.82
pDev: 13.61%
Reviews: 204
Hads: 264

Ratings Help

Brewed by:
Heavy Seas Beer

Maryland, United States

Style | ABV
American Black Ale | 7.25% ABV

Availability: Rotating. bottle (176), on-tap (25), growler (2), cask (1).

Notes:
No notes at this time.

View: Beers (52) | Events (0)

Reviews

Sort by: Latest | High | Low | Top Reviewers | Show Hads:

« first ‹ prev | 1-25 | 26-50 | 51-75 | next › last »

Reviews by ThisWangsChung:

ThisWangsChung

Maryland

3.63/5 rDev -5%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

12 oz bottle into a Samuel Smith pint glass.

A: Pours a ultra-dark red color with a good opacity. The head is kind of dinky - a half finger light khaki color. It doesn't even retain what little it has well, but tries to leave whatever lacing it can down the side of the glass.

S: Features a good mix of citrusy hops and bready dark malts. It seems to feature a good deal of Centennial and Cascade. Upon further whiffs, a bit of chocolate and coffee come through. The aroma is respectable but meek.

T: Not much in the way of hops come through on the flavor, or maybe it's just that well balanced? Whatever the case here, the hop profile is perhaps integrated too well into the brew's dark malts - coming off as just a well-hopped stout instead of a black ale. Hazelnut, chocolate, and subtle citrusy hops initiate the flavors, before finishing with coffee, faint cream, and roasted barley. Grapefruit tones come through more expressively on exhales. I'd have to say Centennial hops were a good choice here - they give just enough of a hop bite and a balancing bitterness without killing the profile with acid and soapiness.

M: Dry, dry, dry. There is just enough sweetness on the finish to neutralize some of the dryness after a few sips, but this will still cause the very back of the palate to be parched, even while the front has a bit of a syrupy linger. The medium-heavy body makes this more of a sipper than a chugger.

O: This works MUCH better if you go into this expecting a well-hopped stout instead of a proper black ale. When looked at as the former, it's really damn good. I'd buy it again, that's for sure.

Serving type: bottle

01-16-2013 22:33:28 | More by ThisWangsChung

More User Reviews:

brutalist

Pennsylvania

3.5/5 rDev -8.4%

05-22-2013 03:04:43 | More by brutalist

InspectorBob

New Jersey

3.75/5 rDev -1.8%

05-19-2013 15:27:03 | More by InspectorBob

BeastLU

Virginia

3.5/5 rDev -8.4%

05-18-2013 15:43:09 | More by BeastLU

philaduffia

New York

4.25/5 rDev +11.3%

05-17-2013 15:00:56 | More by philaduffia

ajtorres311

Florida

3.25/5 rDev -14.9%

05-15-2013 16:30:50 | More by ajtorres311

earlholman

District of Columbia

4/5 rDev +4.7%

05-14-2013 13:41:45 | More by earlholman

GratefulEdd

Alabama

4/5 rDev +4.7%

05-12-2013 16:30:04 | More by GratefulEdd

Mike099

New York

3.75/5 rDev -1.8%

05-12-2013 06:03:46 | More by Mike099

hollywood_15063

Pennsylvania

4/5 rDev +4.7%

05-12-2013 04:38:11 | More by hollywood_15063

rabiddawg

North Carolina

3.75/5 rDev -1.8%

05-11-2013 22:31:26 | More by rabiddawg

JWing

Virginia

3.25/5 rDev -14.9%

05-11-2013 20:07:18 | More by JWing

blknikon

Massachusetts

3.75/5 rDev -1.8%

05-07-2013 22:32:26 | More by blknikon

Jason1337

Pennsylvania

3.75/5 rDev -1.8%

05-05-2013 19:58:30 | More by Jason1337

Darkmagus82

Montana

3.81/5 rDev -0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.75

Poured from bottle into a pint glass

Appearance – The beer pours an almost pitch black color with a small cream colored head. The head has a low level of retention fading to leave very light lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell - The aroma is of a roasted malt smell mixed with some caramel sweetness. Along with these smells are notes of licorice and a moderately strong aroma of molasses. Being an IPA, it is no surprise, that along with these smells are some nice notes of a pine and earthy hops, which when mixed with the rest, as well as a roasted coffee malt aroma, give a nice roasty but semi-sweet and moderately hoppy smell.

Taste – The taste begins with a roasted malt taste mixed with a small amount of a citrus hop taste. There is a lighter sweetness present upfront that fades as the taste moves on and then returns again at the end. While the nose depicted a much sweeter profile, the taste was not all that sweet, yet was on the drier and roastier side until the very end where it sweetened up to a lighter to medium amount. The grapefruit hop that was present upfront is soon joined and surpassed in strength by a pine hop flavor. Toward the end an earthy flavor and a decently strong coffee flavor comes to the tongue. With some sweeter flavors of a caramel and light molasses flavor coming to the tongue as well, in the end, a lighter hop flavor mixed with a decent roasted coffee and semi-sweet taste is left to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – For a 7.25 % abv brew, the body of the beer is on the slightly thinner side with a carbonation level that is on the lower side as well. The lower carbonation was rather nice for the roasted flavors of the brew as well as the lighter hop flavors as it accentuated both. The thinner body however was not so good and took away from all those nice flavors.

Overall – A tasty and drinkable brew overall, although it was not really all that hoppy tasting as a IBA would be expected to be. It drinks nice and is rather enjoyable, but don’t expect a hop powerhouse here.

Serving type: bottle

05-05-2013 01:27:53 | More by Darkmagus82