Dark Horse 3 Guy Off the Scale Old Ale

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Marshall, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

7/24/04. Poured out of 22 oz. bottle, sampled at San Diego Barley Wine Tasting courtesy of SDbruboy 7/24/04. Pours an extremely dark brown-red with orange outline. Looks badass. Big, fittingly badass filthy bitter with strong twiggy flavors. Very silky mouthfeel, almost syrupy, and huge, bold flavor. Extreme stuff, and I quite like the ass kick that it delivers. Finish is long and dangerous. Bold and round, still big and go for a long, long time. Chewy, chocolatey, nasty, and lovely. Would love to age this one for several years. Very complex and potent stuff. Damn good barley wine.

from the bottle. poured a cloudy amber, with no head. aroma the alcohol jumps right out there, than got malt, caramel, honey,fruits, apple. flavor, there is that alcohol in 1st again, hops, got hints of toffee. for me this is the best dark horse I have had. the flavors are robust and a nice full smooth mouthfeel.

On tap at Dark Horse. Amber body with redish highlights and a thick, creamy off-white head. The aroma is caramel and pine with a touch of alcohol. The flavor is caramel, toffee, pine and grapefruit. Finish is soapy with big chunky bitterness. The mouthfeel is big and chewy.

2004 vintage courtesy of footbalm. Bomber pours clear copper with thin head. The aroma is rich creamy and yummy. I get creamy candy caramel, some dark fruity esters, some alcohol and a bit of vanilla. Amazing and interesting. The taste is the same as the aroma with chewy sticky maltiness, a bit of pine flavor non hop bitterness, caramel goodness and a nice warming sensation. This brew has aged greacefully. Wonderful.

2005 bottle thanks to hoppymeal. Look up big in the dictionary and this bad boy should be right there. Nice looking reddish-brown color with a medium size head. Aroma is mildly hoppy with alot of sugar and fruit sweetness. Taste is big and sweet with lots of citrus hops left over to go with some brown sugar, candy, and sweet maltiness. Big, sweet, smooth and a tad alcoholic sums this one up. The only problem is that the 2005 seems young, so I can understand the low ratings for the recent release. As for my 2008 bottle, its getting tucked away for quite some time. Nice brew!

Purchased in a 4 pack at the brew pub. Raisin bread and dates and roasted fruity malts dominate the aroma. Some cinnamon, vanilla, and other aromas. Very dark brown with a bubbly head. Very rich chocolaty initial flavors with the sweetness really pushing forward. Again lots of rasins, dates, caramel, cinnamon and other wintery warmer spices with some woodiness and a little cheese. Some light bitterness to balance. Thick and rich on the palate. With a very nice warming duration. Definitely a rich sipper. Very good.

12 oz. bottle from sprinkle. Pours a clear reddish copper color with a faint whitish ring and very little carbonation. The aroma is thick with caramel malt, ripe fruits (cherry, raisins), alcohol but in a good way. This alcohol is more like an apartif. The flavor is sweet chewy caramel malt along with a touch of roast. The fruits are cherry, raisin, and apricot all at the point of peak ripeness. There is some hop induced bitterness midway remaining to the finish. The alcohol is present but much like you would find with an after dinner drink and encourages you to savor each sip. I like the way everything plays on each other. Full bodied with a syrupy mouthfeel that is smooth going down. The alcohol is present, but never in a harsh way which serves to hide the true ABV. This is a very solid offering that I am glad to have had the opportunity to try.

’09 bottle: Pours a dark amber with a minimal tan head. Immediately something hit me that seemed distinct compared with other barley wines...their seemed to be a strong smoked bacon aroma permeating through the massive amounts of malt, some toffee and dark fruits noted as well. Completely devoid of any hop notes in any way/form. Sticky sweet body, flavor is quite hot, smokey, dark cherries, plums and toffee all apparent. Very good brew, complete opposite of most fresh barley wines with their ridiculous high alpha hop content.

Big thanks to James for this one, a 12oz bottle poured into a snifter. This one pours clear amber with hints of red, though not quite copper, with a smallish tan head that recedes quickly to a bubbly collar and a small swirl of bubbles in the middle. Lacing is minimal though the beer leaves some legs after each sip. The aroma is wonderful on this one. it’s certainly more in the English BW vicinity as there aren’t any hops to speak of in the nose. What there is loads of is deep, sweet caramel malts with tons of dark fruits, raisins especially. There’s some brown sugar as well which leaves this super rich and sweet in the nose. The taste doesn’t let me down at all and follows the aroma fairly closely. The sweetness is completely dominant with caramel malts, toffee and loads of sugar-coated fruits. The booze makes its presence felt in the finish, as it’s tough to hide the entirety of the big ABV. The mouthfeel is slick and full-bodied with low, soft carbonation and almost gets cloying, but not quite. Well, this is certainly not an American Barleywine, but it’s one hell of a beer and I’m thoroughly impressed. It’s much more an English BW with the huge caramel malt backbone with little in the way of hops and heavy on the sweetness. A great dessert sipper.

UPDATED: AUG 7, 2009 Bottle, thanks to tjthresh. Aroma of red to dark fruits, notably cherry and plum, graham cracker, mocha, and of course plenty of malt. Flavor rich without being sugary (shockingly), with a sticky fig sort of feel and more of those graham cracker/cake sort of malts. Though I would need to see the lab test to believe this is 15%, however big it is, it is remarkably under control yet still powerful and certainly interesting....rerate ups flavor from 8 to 9, overall from 15 to 17, just great complexity here with so much chocolate, bread, cocoa, mocha, tons of rich notes that again, to emphasize, are never sugary. Quite excellent.