There are chocolate people and there are vanilla people - plus, a new "chocolate" beer style: Black IPA

There are two types of people in this world: Chocolate people and vanilla people.

Let me give you an example: me. Let's say it's my birthday, and you surprise me with a chocolate cake. And this cake looks delicious. And you all sing, and there are candles and everyone is happy. And every, including me, is smiling. There's one problem, though. I am personally offended on the the inside. You see, I'm a staunch vanilla person. I am NOT happy. You d not know me well enough to get me cake. You don't deserve to be the one to get me cake.

Another example: A guy I work with. He LOVES chocolate cake. He lives for it. I turned to him the other day and asked him if he was a chocolate cake or vanilla cake person and, before the question was out of my mouth, he drooled "CHOCOLATE! CHOCOLATE!" all zombie like.

Now, this is where it gets interesting: Each time I've gone out with this guy, he orders a dark beer. He's personally offended if a brewery or pub DOESN'T offer a dark beer. In fact, his first question to the bartender is always "what do you have in dark beer?"

I, on the other hand, tend to avoid darker beers. I love a good, hoppy IPA, or a well done lager or a balanced APA.

You see, darker malts make darker beers, they also give beer that chocolatey flavour. And I'm a vanilla man. I also like lemon cake. These are my flavours. My coworker lives for the chocolate flavours of the darker malts.

The point? Not quite sure. Maybe "to each his/her own?" Maybe that, if you're a chocolate person who isn't crazy about beer, you should try something darker, you might like it more? (and same for vanilla people?)

Either way, there are chocolate cake people and there are vanilla cake people. And there are dark beer and pale beer people.

All this said, as the seasons are changing, so too are darker beers more appropriate to drink. As a result, I've been trying some new ones out with an open mind. Here's one I really like:

Tasting Notes: Flying Monkeys Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale.

This is a great dark beer for a hop head like me. The style is also known as an American Dark Ale or, even more appropriately, a Black IPA. I've mentioned earlier that an IPA is a really hoppy beer. Hoppy, that is, with American hops, which give it a grapefruity, resiny taste. Dark beer, made with dark malts, gives a kind of roasty chocolatey kind of taste. That's exactly what this beer is: A dark beer loaded with North American hops (Cascade hops are a type of North American hops, hence the name Cascadian Dark Ale). I like this beer very much.

The beer comes in typical, horrifying Flying Monkey packaging/Small cream coloured head.VERY dark, can't see through it/Smells of dark malts/Taste: Nice dark tang. Roasted coffee, dark chocolate and a burst of west coast, grapefruity hops. Very interesting combination of flavours/ I'm still a vanilla man, but this is a good and lively brew!