James Kemp has lead the way with developing the Black IPA style ever since his days at Thornbridge and needs to take a lot of responsibility for my own love for the style as a result! We've worked together a number of times over the last few years but a Black IPA is one style we'd never actually got round to brewing, until the opportunity to collaborate with JK and his current brewery, Marble, for Manchester Beer Week came around. We decided to go 'juicy' and soft, giving our dark take on the NE IPA style. Copious oats in the grist alongside super soft water to give us the mouthfeel, some Simcoe hops at flameout for a depth of classic dankness then a double dry hop of Amarillo and Mosaic for all the soft orange, mango and dark berry. As a final squeeze of juice, a load of pureed Mandarin went in at the end of fermentation, perfectly complementing the hops and the soft fruit and sherbet tones of our house yeast. For the colour, a small amount of Carafa Spezial III in the mash tun and then a first experiment with Weyermann's Sinimar to darken the beer with minimal dark malt flavour contribution. This beer had been christened 'Black Hole Sun' weeks before brew day and before we even had a recipe. Come the day and our sparge is interrupted by the news of Chris Cornell, of Soundgarden, sadly passing away. We hope our creation is a suitable tribute.