Dark Horse Amber Ale

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Marshall, Michigan USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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I reckon I purchased this’hr bottle at Family Liquor in East Dubuque. Yes sir I did.

This here beer pours a nice bright orange color, I do suppose it has a great big white head atop that liquid. I even suppose there are some traces of the head left on the glass once it’s good n’ receeded.

The aroma is malty, but not all together clean. It’s got some solvent kind of character that detracts quite a bit from the pleasant fruity and lightly spicy aromas the beer has. as the beer warms it becomes annoyingly perfumey, I’m very much on the fence about how I feel about this one.

The flavor is very malty, and very fruity. Almost annoyingly sweet, but somehow balanced by a clean malt flavor and plenty of hop bitterness. I guess if I were drinking a lot of this the over-bearing-ness of the malt might not be so annoying, but as is it’s decidedly not my kind of amber. As it warms it gets kind of odd in a floral on chocolate kind of way, which is not too awful and ends up redeming the beer a bit for me.

Serving glass: Poured from bottle into tall glass. Appearance: Dark cloudy brownish-orange with no head or lacing. Just looks kind of stagnant. Hopefully, it will get better from here. Smell: Sweet toasted malty bread, light Belgian aroma with slight banana. Taste: Heavily toasted malts, with dark fruit and cherry. The Belgian aroma I detected doesn’t make itself known in the taste besides for maybe some light clove. Very medicinal and metallic at the end. Palate: Seems kind of flat and spritzy at the same time. Light body with off-dry finish. Overall: Just a strange beer overall. Not a fan, especially with that atrocious medicinal aftertaste. Seems like I may have gotten a bad bottle, but many others comment on the murky look with no head.

Purchased at Hyde Park Wine & Spirits in Cincinnati, OH; enjoyed on a nice Thursday night while setting up a joint checking account, good times! Appearance like mud water, a really cloudy copper brown with almost no head, very small carbonation bubbles rising to the top. Aroma is rather malty, mostly caramel malts, considerable sweetness, almost a Belgian ale yeast quality to it. Taste is really similar to a Belgian, has a sweetness from caramel malt combined with a hint of clove, a little bit of fruitiness as well. Did they put the wrong label on this one? It’s pretty good, not outstanding but I can hang with it during my bank set-up duties.

Bottle from Delirium Hoppy Loft. Red brown body with thin oliy head. Nose is sweet and malty. Taste is malty and weird fishy taste. Sweet. Okay.

Another interesing, but well crafted beer from this brewery. A nice crisp toasted taste with some fruit and spice. Very enjoyable.

Bottle from a trade with CLevar. Pours clear amber color with off white head. Toasted malt and nutty aroma. Toasted malt and caramel flavors with a hint of fruitiness. Medium body with moderate carbonaton. Thanks Caleb.

Bottle. Orange / amber color, tan head, cloudy. Very mild aroma, mainly malt. Smooth, medium body, nice mouthfeel. Balanced taste ... a little sweet with balance. Decent amber, very drinkable, no major flaws.

from Erzbierschof.ch - cloudy amber-brown beer with a poor head retention; aroma of pear, raisins and caramel; medium to full-bodied, some sweetness and quite acidic/sourish, fizzy and with a dry malty aftertaste with lingering acidic notes of red fruits

Bottle. Brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is caramel, malt. Flavour is caramel, malt, fruit, hop. Medium body. OK beer.

12oz bottle, pours a very murky brown/amber, kind of reminds me of extremely dirty water, luckily it smells and tastes better than it looks, aroma has a nice malt background with some fruit touches, the flavor has a decent amount of caramel with malt, biscuits and a hint of fruitiness in the finish, really not all that impressed with this one.