RJ Rockers – Black Perle

Hello fellow snobs!

Tonight beer snob Don and I decided to root around in the ole beer fridge to see what I had. Low and behold we discovered this beauty. The irony is that as Don laid on the couch this afternoon he came across The Pirates of the Caribbean. As he dozed in and out of consciousness he began to dream of a beer that bore the name of the ship The Black Pearl….ok, that’s all crap. Don did notice the movie on but I’m sure he was doing something manly like folding laundry.

So, if you haven’t heard of RJ Rockers they’re out of Spartanburg, SC and have been brewing since 1997. We first ran across them many moons ago at the Brewgrass Festival in Asheville, NC. One of my favorite beer shirts came from these guys – check it out here. We’re seeing more of their beer in the mighty Volunteer State so be sure to keep an eye out. This particular brew came from McSrooge’s but Vic’s Total Package has them as well.

Alright, so on with the beer! We’re seeing a lot of black IPAs pop up on the market lately. According to Jennifer Muckerman, Head Brewer for Marble City Brewing Company,  a black IPA should be indistinguishable from your regular run-of-the mill IPA in a blind taste-test.

On the nose, if we didn’t know better, we’d swear this was a porter given the malty aromatics with very little hop aroma. Also, in the picture this looks like a dark beer – and it is – however, in the light it’s easy to see the brownish tones around the edges – much like a porter. This is a dry beer, you get the roasted malts up front with a bit of cocoa sweetness and a very bitter finish.  We’re not getting a lot of a hop taste off of this brew. However, it is very enjoyable – just wish it had a little more punch. The brew seems to be more similar to an ESB style – in our snob-like opinion. For those that are wondering, this brew clocked in at 9.5%.

Final snobs: Even though this brew isn’t exactly what we expected, we still really like it  and would certainly buy another one. The packaging alone is pretty cool with the wax-dipped top – until it came time to open it which required a pocket knife along with our bottle opener but it was well worth the effort. RJ Rockers never disappoints.

Cheers!