Tasted 5/10/08. 12oz bottle. Black Cap. Strong nose from a distance. Hazy brown with a slight bone white head. Aromas of dark fruit and toffee. Figgy and caramel nose. Big nose! Full bodied with big malts. Sticky body with a good dose of alcohol. Nutty and dried fruit flavors. Spicy. Warming with a good palate. Malty with fruity estery undertones. Sticky finish with mild slight hops. Maybe a touch resinous to add to the stickiness. Subtle flavors of pepper caramel and toffee. Mild vanilla note. Touch woody note. Ever so slight citrus hits the palate. A lot of flavor profiles but none of them are overt. But they are all blended wonderfully. Tart with a great complexity. Love the labeling to boot.

Black cap: Pours a hazed brown color w/ a shallow, creamy spattered froth. Head retention is decent and it leaves only partial lacing. Aroma is complex w/ sweet malty scents carrying along with it melon, dried fruit cocktail, and mildly nutty. Full nectar w/ soft residual effers creating a very creamy texture. Nice! A big malty backbone supporting flavors of cocoa, brandy, melon, peach, pine, caramel, and some herbs. It’s only mildly sweet w/ a defined peachpit bittering component that brings it to balance somewhat. The finish is bittered well and tastes of brandy and nut shells. 7-3-7-5-15= 3.7 *****Red Cap: more citrus hops aroma and in the flavor. Not as fruity and has a green herb essence. A nice minty chocolate flavor crawls through w/ some caramel. I like the red cap better. 8-3-8-5-15= 3.9

This is from a mixed six pack, three from Arbor Brewing (red caps) and three from Dark Horse, according to the info on the bottom of the six pack carton, the two brewers used the same "grain and hop recipes" and each using their own house yeast. I’ve been looking forward to trying each brewers interpretation on the Imperial Brown Ale. This 12 oz. bottle is the black capped one, the Dark Horse version. A mucky caramel brown appearance, bubbly topped, foamy beige head with good retentive powers. Slowly settled into a thin sudsy lacing, minimal amount of ringed sticking. Malty smells of caramel toffee, caramelized sugar and soft grainy bread. In the middle floral and fruity hops emerge, orange blossoms and tangerines. Quite nice. Smooth medium body with moderate carbonation, this goes down quite easily. Tastes of caramelized malts and brown bread, light traces of cocoa. Tangerine hops that turn softly spicy at the end. The alcohol is not that noticeable, just a low temperature spicy, fruity warmth in the back of the palate. Dryish finish, sweet malty and leafy. An impressive take on a Imperial Brown Ale, quite quaffable, I would to try this from the tap sometime soon.

Thanks for the bottle, General_Gao. Ruddy brown body with a medium yellowish khaki head. The aroma is rich caramel with some cocoa. There is also some fresh cut wood. The taste is more rich caramel with a leathery finish. The body is surprisingly light and delicate, amazing for a beer with that much alcohol. The finish is nice and dry with a little bit of wood. The caramel sweetness gets a little cloying. A solidly made brew that is almost like an aged English style barleywine.

From the tap at Dark Horse. Big full "imperial brown" ale. If all brown ales were this full, malty, roasty and yummy, I might just give up IPAs. Exceptional.