Dark roots

This is one of those shameful back-of-the-fridge beers, transported home from Croatia last September and semi-forgotten about. It's no kind of life for a black IPA. The Austro-Croatian operation Bevog is the slighted party, and the beer is called Black Blood 2, brewed for the Metaldays music festival.

The surprise on opening was it pours purple. The body is fairly black but its head is distinctly pink. What's going on? Beetroot, says the ingredients. And plenty of, say the visuals. The aroma is typical for a normal example of the style, even after prolonged storage: tarry, with a red cabbage spice. The flavour is similarly spicy and vegetal; roasty with a pinch of bitterness but not too much. 6.66% ABV (because metal) gives it considerable weight and a balancing smoothness. I was expecting a slightly severe earthy quality from all that beetroot but that's not there. You have to hunt for the veg and it's a kind of baby-beet sweetness, though slight. I'm guessing the brewers were more interested in its contribution to the colour and the name.

This is still a lovely beer, though. A full-bodied, full-flavoured black IPA, yet balanced with no severity or sharpness and minimal novelty vegetable silliness. That'll do, Bevog.