Dark Horse Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th Sour Imperial Stout

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Marshall, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes  

Very good beer. Little aftertaste. Nice rich flavor. Great color and palate. Aroma...not great but smelled worse. Very nice imperial but there’s better for the price.

Bottle from triptens...thanks Joe! - Pours deep and dark with no head at all--still as hell, as foreshadowed by the lack of pop on pulling the cork. Sharp alcohol on the nose--boo--roasty and lightly soured, but mostly overshadowed by the heat. The taste is a complete 180--sweet blackberry and currant with vanilla and dark, smooth, chocolatey roast. Not terribly sour, and really, really smooth. Chewy, but still silky--this is a beast of a beer.

Draft. Sampled at Great Taste. Pours a pitch black brown/black color with a slight mocha bronw head. The barrel and booze is pretty evident in the nose along with the normal imp stout characteristics of dark chocolate and some leather. The booze is pretty in your face to me on this one with it being the first thing I notice upon tasting, followed by the barrel, dark chocolate, and slight leather. Medium mouthfeel. Overall, I thought it a tad hot but otherwise pretty drinkable.

Draft, 2010 4 Elf Release Party. Murky black body, no head. Rich, decadent body, with chocolate, molasses, coffee, and alcohol, vinous and heavy, finishing with a tart sourness that abruptly clips the rich stout flavors. The sour treatment seems to work for English porters and Belgian-style stouts, but the tartness in this robust imperial stout seemed out-of-place and ultimately did not complement (nor appreciably diminish) the fantastic base beer.

The beer pours to a pitch black body with a very thin head. The aroma is a sour fruit-ish black malted body. The flavor is a black currant, blackberry, and blueberry combination. Very interesting that the dark malts plus the sourness come off as fruits, because I don’t think there’s any fruit in this. The body was creamy and thick. Viscous. I liked this quite a bit.

750 bottle (Aigre on the label) from sleestak, thanks
Appearance: Pours black with very little carbonation and a small dark tan ring on top, light lacing but nice legs on the sides of the glass
Aroma: Dark fruits, sour malts, chocolate and leather
Taste: Sourness, roasted malts, chocolate, bourbon and slightly tart citrus
Very nice and interesting beer. The more I drank the more I liked it,.

Pouring at the Saturday sessions of EBF. Pours a deep black with a large cascading tan head. Slightly cheesy funk, toast and roast, cocoa and chocolate. Big cocoa, chocolate and pudding. Lots of warmth, but not much sourness. Toast and warm brownies. Chocolate. Might not have been really sour, but it sure was tasty.

Sample at 2013 MBG Winter Beer Festival. Really neat version of plead the fifth. The sourness compliments all the chocolate and malt. Very well balanced. Almost has a raspberry tartness to it.

Dark brown, opaque with almost no head at all. Aroma of coffee. Flavours of coffee with sour notes, some oak and roasted malts. Almost no carbonation. Interesting beer, courtesy of Liam.

tap at dark horse during the 4elf release, 2010. black no head. aroma of bourbon, toast, raisin, booze, and a touch of sourness. flav is slightly sour and has basic imperial stout qualities. choco, molases, fruit skin and just a hint of bourbon. nicely done