New year, new beer style? Black IPA is one of those flavor brain worms that I can’t get rid of. It seemed like a gimmick and I was mostly happy when it more or less went away the first time, but the strange, minty interplay of hard-edged American hops and dark malts is something I appreciate more with time. So why not make a lager version?

But what to call this amalgamation of Euro-style dark lager and American IPA? Can’t call it India Black Lager, because IPL is the stupidest style designation I can think of and IBL sounds like a gastroenterological syndrome that RFK thinks could be cured by eliminating seed oils from my diet, so Cascadian Dark Lager it is. The gentleman’s Black IPA, made ever more refined by porting it to lager world.

Fermented cold, dry hopped warm, and krausened cold with a strategic addition of actively fermenting Pils for rapid cleanup and natural carbonation, Cloak of Feathers is an unabashedly hoppy dark beer that wraps in some of my favorite lager characteristics to form a surprisingly harmonious whole. That is, if you like Black IPA.