Baraboo Snow Drift Black IPA

Baraboo Beers are a proprietary brand of the Hy-Vee chain of Midwestern supermarkets.  The beers are contract brewed by Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This beer pours black, ruby and garnet in color. There is a short light brown head. The aroma is dark roasted malt and tangy and grassy hops. The taste is very deep and dark roasted malt, slightly smokey char, dark toast, with a light fruity tang on the end that is complementary to the dark malt.  The finish is bitter, from both the hops and dark roast, and also quite dry. 

This is a well put together black IPA and even better than I expected.  Most black IPA's suffer from a poor balance between the malt and hops, but this one is well-balanced.  Hy-Vee's Baraboo line of beers sets the standard of what a store line should be, and are better than those I have tried from Trader Joe's, Costco, Whole Foods and others.