Blackman's Brewery Ice Cream IPA & Paradise City Black IPA

Style
Oat Cream IPA & Black IPA
ABV
7.0% & 5.8%

You don't need more than a cursory glance at this pair from Blackman's to work out which is the dessert beer of the two. And yet...

Let's start with the obvious: Ice Cream IPA, complete with 80s ice cream tub swirls on the cans, sets out its stall (or should that be van?) clearly enough. Indeed, even if you hadn't seen the cans or checked the ingredient list, it goes about its business clearly enough too; if you've been around beer over the past half decade, you'll pick the vanilla added alongside the lactose for added ice creaminess. Pouring with a solid peach haze, the fruitiness of the hops – Citra, Strata and Bru-1 – is given an added sweetness by that creamy duo, coming across aromatically like a citrusy Mövenpick ice cream. To taste, it’s more a clash of textural citrus and stonefruit hops and vanilla sponge cake sweetness, with the flicker of bitterness the sole reminder you've got a 7 percent ABV beer in your hand.

With Paradise City and its Guns N' Roses stylings, you've got a black IPA promising "a whole bunch of hops" as well as roasty dark malts. It's not the sort of style you'd associate with dessert so much as a punchy early 2010s limited releases. However, the way in which the hops take on a minty character amid those dark malts, combined with the charred edge to the beer's roastiness (and, possibly, memories of Guns N' Roses' peak era) makes the experience a little like tucking into a slice of mint Viennetta straight after downing your last mouthful of burnt crust brisket at a barbie.

James Smith

Published April 8, 2023

Name
Blackman's Brewery
Address

26 Bell Street
Torquay
VIC 3228

Phone
(03) 52615310
Open Hours

Tues to Thurs: 4:30pm to 10pm
Fri & Sat: 3:30pm to midnight
Sun: Midday to 9pm

Podcast B2
HCH 2025 promo 2 MREC

More from Blackman's Brewery

Blackman's Brewery Needs More Vic Secret
West Coast IPA
6.5%
Blackmans Brewery Citra Cryo & Flanders Red
Pale Ale & Flanders Red
4.6% & 5.0%
Blackman's Brewery Angry Reg (2024) & Hang 10
Double IPA & IPA
6.0% & 8.8%
Blackman's Brewery Needs More Galaxy
Single Hop IPA
6.5%
Blackman's Brewery Dark Lager & Hollywood Haze
Dark Lager & Hazy IPA
5.2% & 6.0%
Blackman's x Collective Arts x Heartbreaker Ice Cold IPA
Cold IPA
6.5%
Blackman's Brewery Needs More Enigma IPA
Fresh Hop IPA
6.5%
Blackman's Brewery Blood Orange IPA
Blood Orange IPA
5.5%
Blackman's Brewery Milk Choc Easter Egg Stout
Chocolate Stout
5.0%
Blackman's Brewery Spicy Dill Pickle
Sour Beer
4.0%
Blackman's Brewery By The Power Of Thiol
Thiolized IPA
6.4%
Blackman's Brewery Easy Roller & Mango & Passionfruit
Hazy Pale and Oat Cream IPA
4.0% 6.0%
Blackman's Brewery Juicy Juicy Bang Bang
Double IPL
7.0%
Blackman's x Hawkers Juicy West Coast & Peach Sour
West Coast IPL & Peach Sour
6.3% & 4.3%
Blackman's Brewery Radical Haze
Hazy IPA
6.3%
Blackman's Brewery Continuous IPA & Angry Reg (2023)
IPA & Double IPA
7.1% & 8.8%
Blackman's Brewery Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (2023)
Barrel-Aged Stout
10.0%
Blackman's Barrel Farm Dark Barrelled Funk
Barrel-Aged Dark Beer
5.5%
Blackman's Brewery Salted Caramel ESB
Salted Caramel ESB
5.5%
Blackman's Brewery Galaxy Fresh Smash
Fresh Hop Pale
4.8%