Dark Horse Raspberry Ale

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Marshall, Michigan USA

Serve in Flute

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Bottle. It’s an unclear, amber-orange beer, with a dense, off-white head leaving lacings. Berry notes, sour hints and a caramel maltyness on the nose. Raspberry sourness on the palate, and raspberry flavor all the way, not much room for anything else here. Quite pleasant though. Medium body, smooth. A decent beer, but to me it’s nothing more than interesting, it’s not the kind of beer I’d like to have again. 110311

Malty, sweet, but also a bit dark. Beyond the raspberry, there is a sort of burnt toast taste. A fairly strong finish.

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange color with a small white head. Grainy aroma with sweet berry notes. Grassy, with a big malty flavor and a subtle raspberry finish. Lighter in body with average carbonation. I like the fact that its not an overpowering berry flavor and is quite refreshing in the hot Summer months. It just needs a little something extra to make it standout.

draft at brewery...pours orange with basically no head. aroma is mildly sweet with fruity notes, but nothing overpowering. flavor is slightly sweet, slightly tart with a muted raspberry flavor with some sweet malt notes. didn’t go over the top in any way...not cloying, but also didn’t hit a homer for a fruit beer ( which is a style I do enjoy). far from offensive, but nothing that memorable either.

Keg at Craft. Orange and slightly cloudy with small white head. Aroma is lots of raspberry, grainy and wheaty, bit of flour. Taste is quite light, not as fruity as the smell suggests. Bit of strawberry in there as well as the raspberry. Fairly crisp, but something’s not quite there.

Another ’want’ of mine that started getting distributed to my area. Score! 12oz bottle poured into my Highland pint glass. Pours a very murky dark amber/gold with light reddish hues. Cloudy beer. Small 1-finger bone white head atop. The nose is interesting. There is some mild tart fruity esters noted, but a sort of hay-like dryness makes up the rest. Grainy nose. Good body. Faintly syrupy at times, with a bit of a dry finish. Good carbo depth though. My standard for "raspberry" ales is of course NG’s Raspb. Tart, so I expected a wallop of fruit all over this. That, I did not get. What was there instead was a decent beer with all of it malty goodness, grains, light bitterness, and then a decent zip of fruity tartness on the finish. Huh. This wasn’t what I anticipated, but it held its own nonetheless. I like that the fruit character is more muted than in-your-face. Plus, my wife loved it.

On tap @ Beer Temple. Dark blond color, hazy. Firm off white head. Aroma’s: raspberry, forest fruit, slightly sweet, somewhat grainy, slight hop aroma. Flavor is fruity, lightly acidic, ever so slightly bitter. Light body. Finishes with some grain and a light bitterness. OK, I suppose could be nice in Summer.

Draft. Hazy orange with no head. Multitude of sweet-tart fruit flavors. Raspberry among them but not pronounced. Dry finish. Refreshing to drink, but not much a beer. Bit of a wheat body but still falls shy of an easy category. Certainly not a red fruity sweet drink.

Found at Barley’s in Asheville. The pour is a cloudy walnut hue, with a wispy-fizzed head that reduces to a thin ring of soap, leaving soapy lace down the glass. Raspberry and cereal to the nose. Flavored of tart citrus lay on top of a muddy grain. A spent, almost burnt grain finish ensues. The mouthfeel is light and the body is medium-thin without becoming seltzery, due to the active amount of carbonation at work. Decent warm-weather brew, and never becomes cloying, so it does the job it sets out to do.

Mild aroma and minimal taste balance with decent mouthfeel. An awkward blend of flavor that almost works together. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Poured into a snifter. 2.5 A: Opaque peach amber color. Two fingers of frothy white head. Retention is lacking and no lacing is left. 2.5 S: Bready with raspberry essence. Doesn’t smell bad, but it’s simple and the raspberries aren’t strong enough to wow me like they do in something like NG Raspberry Tart. 2.5 T: Pretty much like the nose. The raspberries are more than half assed, but barely. Maybe 4/7s assed. Otherwise, simple like watered down juice or something. 3.5 M: Medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Not quite creamy, but something like "frothy." 2.5 D: Not even close to the worst of the fruit beers, but still not good. I doubt my gender is the target buyer for this. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 03-09-2012 22:40:25