Right Brain's Broken Nose

Bottoms Up

By Craig Manning | July 19, 2025

The Black IPA is the best beer style that (almost) no one makes anymore. Wind the clock back 10 years and it wasn’t uncommon to spot this type of brew on tap lists around the state. Dark Penance from Founders Brewing Company? Goodnight Bodacious from Short’s? These are some of our favorite Michigan beers in recent memory, but they’ve fallen out of regular rotation, thanks in part to the late-2010s rise of New England IPAs. Fortunately, Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City recently resurrected their 2010s Black IPA classic, Broken Nose. Currently available on draft and in cans at Right Brain’s taproom, this beer is a perfect example of the Black IPA form, expertly colliding the crisp hoppiness of an American IPA with the rich, malty flavors of a porter or stout. It’s a knockout punch. Find it at 225 E Sixteenth St. rightbrainbrewery.com