Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier

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

12oz bottle poured into my delirium tulip glass. Pours black and roasty with only a minimal head that doesn’t last. Smell is really good. Roasted malts and some cocoa bean coming through. Taste is even better. A good coffee, tobacco (very well done) taste hit you at first. This has a decent bitterness to it. This is a very solid stout. The mouthfeel is a bit thin for an American Double but the taste more than makes up for it. The thin mouthfeel does keep it from making it to the next level. A very good offering from Dark Horse and I’ll seek out more of their beers. If you see this beer, definitely pick it up.

12oz bottle: Opaque black color with tiny, quickly dissapearing dark tan head. Aroma has notes of cherry, vanilla, lots of hightly kilned malt, touch of red grapes, prunes, slightly vinous. Flavor is malty, slightly sweet, with blackened malt, bit of vanilla, oak, note of brandy, with a balanced finish, with subtle herbal bitterness and equal sweetness. A nice porter, very well done.

Black color! Lots of roasted malt flavor and aroma that seems like a stout to me. Not much hop bitterness. Label is so childish that it detracts from an excellent brew!

Style designations mean little here. Theoretically a Porter, this presents like an Imperial Stout; that was my guess before logging onto here. Put it in a blind taste test up against an Impy and see.
Like many a well-done Impy, this is very good, and you know pretty much what to expect in such.

Pours about as perfect as you can get, imo. Thick, black, with a good sized head that lasted quite a while. Half way done with the glass and still ahs lacing on the entire glass. The alcohol up front that mixes with the chocolate and malts nicely on the finish. 8% porter that is this smooth? :banned:

Bottle from Sprinkle. Pours a very dark black color. Little foam. Looks quite thick and oily. Strong roasted malty aroma. Lots of burnt foreign stout like qualities. Rich bitter and roasty. Bittler hoppy/roasty finish. Alcohol is very well hidden.

<i>Bottled.</i> Okay, what’s with the crude drawing of the donkey from "Hee Haw" on the label. Anyway. Pours Pretty stoutish black, with a thin tan head. Big smell and taste of coffee, toasted carob, hint of licorice. I think there’s a pretty good-sized charge of hops here, and some of it may be American C&C. Somewhat of a Kingsford briquette aftertaste and quite a lot of bitterness. Perhaps this harshness might be covering up harshness from alcohol, but I definitely taste that, too.

This was yummy! Black colour with a thick brown head and tons of lacing. Lots of roast aromas, almost burnt malt. The flavour is phenominal, one of the best porters I’ve had! There is a bit of coffee like flavour in there, but not bitter or astringent flavours. I get chocolate and roasted malts again. Dry finish and a nice mouthfeel that is either missing from all other porters, or puts this one a bit out of the regular porter category.