Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier

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

Bottle. Aroma of heavy chocolate with roast, sweet and salty with a high level of malt. Opaque black pour with a creamy dark brown head. Quite bitter roast coffee taste, with lesser notes of chocolate and astringency. Aftertaste is quite dry and one of the more delicious roast finishes I’ve had. Salty on the tongue in the mid-body and end. Medium creamy body (surprisingly thin for the level of robustness in flavor), smooth drinking. Reiterating the salty/dry. Intense! Deviant for style but that’s not a bad thing!

Very dark pour with a small dark brown head. smells rich and roasty. Flavor is incredibly roasty, coffee, slightly bitter with chocolate. Pretty smooth overall. A very good porter. Definitely one of my favorite porters.

Pours black with a thin light tan head. Roasted malt and chocolate predominate. Palate is thinner than you’d expect from the aroma, but it’s not watery. Taste is a ton of roasted malt flavor, along with a chocolately-bitter coffee finish. Very nice. There’s enough going on in this beer, you kind of assume it’s an imperial.

Black with a little tan head that fades fast. Sad. Lacing sticks to the glass. Aroma is deep roasted malts, chocolate is very evident, and a sugary creamy latte. Flavor mimics aroma with a little smokieness and bitterness on the palate. A very well made and balanced brew. Very good.

Bottle: Dark black pour with a smaller tanned head. Aroma of roast, malt, and coffee. Taste is roasty, dark fruits, some bittersweetness, and hints of smoke. Even a bitterness in the tail, and kind of dry right in the end. Thanks IndianaRed.

Bottle Pours pitch black with a small tan head. Deep roasted aroma with some slightly sour notes. Flavor is slightly burnt malts, dakr purble grapes and black currants. Very smooth slick feel, very soft carbonation and a long bitter, smokey, slightly acidic trailor. Thanks drewbeerme for this one

Bottle: Pours a dark black color, light head. The nose is sharp in roast and some patentish notes, lots of cherry and cocoa as well. The flavor shows the real stort and we’re looking at a stout here. Sharp french roast astringency? check. Sorry, this ain’t no porter, it’s an aleish schwarzbier perhaps. The flavor is balanced, plenty of hop bitterness and a nice snappy caramel note in the end. Good, just a bit lost. Thanks IndianaRed.

12oz bottle, no date. Pours dark brown--black in the glass--with a minimal brown head fading to a ring. Aroma of roasted malts, soy, raisins, oatmeal, and milk chocolate shake. Taste is roasty malts (a bit acidic), creamy oatmeal, soy, with some more milk chocolate. Moderate bitterness that quickly leans a little towards sweetness. Low carbonation, medium bodied and smooth. Not really the norm for what I think a porter is, but still tasty.