Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier

beer practically oozes out, thick and black with a dense brown head that doesn’t retain so well but leaves good lace. smell of boozy chocolate-rum balls, with perhaps some other complex roast aromas filling in around the edges. flavor starts somewhat sweet and chocolate-y but begins to dry to a roasty finish, which is punched up by some not insignificant hop bitterness. lots of big flavors in this stout, but they are fairly well balanced against each other. very nice mouthfeel.

Michigan Brewers Festival 2006. Black body with a nice creamy tan head that fades a bit. Moderate sweet roast aroma. Flavour starts with mild dark roast and is fairly dry, with more sweet dark malt in the foundation. Average palate. Solid beer but not for me. 7/4/6/3/13-15

(Bottle via trade with BBB63, thanks Mike!) Pours black as night, a few microscopic ruby highlights fight through the opaqueness. About 1/2" of light brown head recedes to about 1/8". Aroma is coffee with cream, sweet chocolate, roasted coffee beans and some hints of grape. Mouthfeel smooth, lightly oily. Spotty lacing. Big coffee/chocolate flavor. Bit of grassiness in finish. Darn good, seemed very close to a sweet stout.

A Nice high-gravity porter. An aroma of coffee and malts. A very dark bodied beer with an almost negligable head.

12-oz. bottle from artusory. Pours dark black, near opaque, with a tiny tan head that clings to the edges. Aroma is dark and sweet chocolate and caramel malts, yeast (leather), charcoal, coffee. Moderately bitter and acidic dark chocolate and coffee flavor, slight smokiness, finish is sour. Dark bodied and smooth dry palate.

Finally a beer that has something going for it. Pours black with a nice looking mocha head. Aroma with rich coffee with cream and roasted malt...a bit of burnt chocolate comes in as it warms. Flavor is loaded with robust and bitter coffee...quite a lot of red fruit comes through as well...this is the only DH beer that has had any complexity. Mouthfeel is thick and oily. This beer is much more of a stout than a porter...but I dig it.

the last of our Dark Horses. A pretty good one to end on considering the range we experienced. Not sure "porter" is accurate. Alcohol and flavor are more intense for the simplicity of a "porter." okay, this gets a lot better when it warms. it moves from good to terriffic. Pours black with a one finger brown head. Just huge chocolate roasted malts all over the place and totally masking the 8% abv. Great beer, complex and tasty. Lasting bitterness after the swallow.

a bit too bitter in flavor for me. it’s pretty close to a weaker imperial stout. beautiful elegent appearance. aroma is pretty terrific, but the taste is just a bit too bitter and empty (otherwise) for me.