{"id":2115,"date":"2011-03-19T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T11:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2011-04-05T04:21:01","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T16:21:01","slug":"croucher-patriot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/19\/croucher-patriot\/","title":{"rendered":"Croucher ‘Patriot’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Croucher<\/a>
Croucher 'Patriot'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So here we are again with the ‘Black IPA’, which I’ll just go with calling it for now<\/a><\/em> (the brewery themselves went with ‘American Black Ale’) and which it seems is cementing itself as quite the trend — though to take a stab at for how long<\/em> would be patently foolish, as always.<\/p>\n

I like<\/em> these hoppy-but-black \/ black-but-hoppy beers, as I’ve said a few times before<\/a>. So I was excited to try Croucher’s ‘Patriot’, since I’m usually rather fond<\/a> of their stuff — their ‘Vicar’s Vice’ is the only counter-example that comes readily to mind; it was just very much<\/em> Not My Thing, but it seemed pretty well received by plenty of others, so I’ll just chalk that one up to the blessed subjectivity. Oh. Oh, wait<\/em> — he says, flipping through his Diary<\/em> a bit — there was also ‘Mrs. Claus’; I didn’t like that at all<\/em><\/a>. But apparently the little memory-management trick I pulled on my future self by sneaking it into a double-whammy entry worked quite well. Which is nice to know. So let’s press on quickly and pretend we didn’t remember, future-future self…<\/p>\n

But this<\/em>. This impressed me pretty quickly. I was sufficiently enamoured of my first try of it — on Saint Patrick’s Day — that I took a quick snap of my taster glass. And I realise that you don’t all have anywhere near the particular kind of odd brain that I do, so please just trust me when I say: that’s rare. I had my first proper full pint — and thereby made a Diary<\/em> entry — a few days later. Then had two more pints that day. And have had several more since; its differentness<\/em> doesn’t outstay its welcome. Compared against its siblings in the Unnameable Style, I found it a bit lighter and thought it was deliciously Jaffa-ish,1<\/sup> which is probably down to the usually-distinctly-orangey Amarillo hop they used. Really rather delightful, and easily capable of making friends with people ordinarily shy of both the very-dark and the conspicuously-hopped. Which is something of a clever trick, to say the least.<\/p>\n

\"Croucher<\/a>
Diary II entry #76, Croucher 'Patriot'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Croucher ‘Patriot’ 19\/3\/11 5.5% on tap @ MH, shouted by a regular. I am really liking this Black IPA trend, whatever we wind up calling it. This one’s all about the Jaffas, with the very orangey Amarillo hop in abundance. Very smooth; weird but not overwhelming at all. Much better than Croucher’s other recent one-offs, so I hope it joins the roster; which is rumoured. On the name issue, Croucher have gone with “American Black Ale”, which I don’t like because of the breezy “American = hoppy” assumption. This will<\/span> be a tricky style to name.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Croucher<\/a>
Croucher 'Patriot', my first taste of<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Croucher<\/a>
Croucher 'Patriot', my third pint of<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Croucher<\/a>
Croucher 'Patriot', tap badge and style name<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

1: Note for aliens from far-flung lands: I mean the chocolate-and-orange flavour of the eponymous candy<\/a>, rather than the presumably-just-oranges flavour of the actual orange variety<\/a><\/em> — nor do I mean to imply that the beer somehow tastes like a historic port city in Israel<\/a>. Damn I love the many and varied things you can learn from a Wikipedia Disambiguation Page — and I positively adore<\/em> the fact that there exists a page entitled ‘Disambiguation (disambiguation)’<\/a>.<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So here we are again with the ‘Black IPA’, which I’ll just go with calling it for now (the brewery themselves went with ‘American Black Ale’) and which it seems is cementing itself as quite the trend — though to take a stab at for how long would be patently foolish, as always. I like … Continue reading Croucher ‘Patriot’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,12,30],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale","tag-porter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":661,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/13\/croucher-pilsner\/","url_meta":{"origin":2115,"position":0},"title":"Croucher Pilsner","author":"Phil","date":"January 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We'd been lucky enough to have this and the Pale (which is further back in the Diaries) on tap at work once, so I already knew I was a fan of this, and it seemed like the perfect consolatory beer after a bit of a Day. It's lovely, really. (They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pilsner","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pilsner-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4844,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/07\/23\/croucher-raindogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":2115,"position":1},"title":"Croucher ‘Double D’ and Raindogs ‘Apothecary’","author":"Phil","date":"July 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It is, for some reason, traditional that here in Wellington trans-Tasman flights arrive Eastward around midnight and depart Westward just before sunrise. 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Or hoppy porter, at least \u2014 the question of whether the one is the other is an enjoyable piece of modern beer taxonomy for me to ponder as I have a nice glass of something-dark on a wintery evening. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Left Coast 'The Wedge'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Left-Coast-The-Wedge-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1008,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/30\/croucher-pale-ale-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2115,"position":5},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday brought an end to my Hamilton Expedition, but did compensate me with a lovely drive home down State Highway 4 -- I decided I'd done SH1 too often, so thought I'd go around the other side of the Lake. And when I got home, I had a house full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-500ml-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2115"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2166,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}