Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier

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

I find myself thanking Beerdrenched yet again for picking a treat up for me. Pours close to black with a small dark orange head. Aroma is wonderful - roasted and creamy with vanilla, chocolate, anise and other spices - smells like dessert in a glass. Starts out rich and medium bodied with burnt roasted malt and some some and hoppy spice. The finish has lots of spicy hops and tons of roastedness. On the finish the mouthfeel is much lighter. Very nicely done beer.

GTMW ’06. Dark brown body, dark tan head. Chocolate roast and grahm cracker in the aroma. Nice munich, roasted barley, and sweet chocolate flavor. Light noble bittering hops at the end. A damn fine beer.

Near black with a taller dense tan head. Toasty malt and dark chocolate lead in the nose. Fairly simple in aroma, but very enticing and welcoming. Full dark chocolate and bitter coffee flavors. The best thing is that the bitterness mellows to just a mild acidic dry cleansing finish. Full and rich feel that gets thinned out a touch by the black malt acidity. Depending on the time this one "swills’" about the mouth, the bitterness varies. If you take a quick hit, the bitterness is less pronounced and only a short after thought. Let the brew set on the tongue and the acid oozes out and dries the tongue and wears the palate out. A very nice black brew.

Pitch black pour with a frothy tan head. Aroma consists of coffee, chocolate, sugar, nice roasted malt notes, light caramel, and nicely hoppy. What is most prevalent in the taste is first the coffee and chocolate notes, then the roasted malt textures come through with the hoppiness. Palate is bitter/sweet, long, and full bodied. Overall, This ranks up there with the Fullers London Porter I rated a while ago. This Packs a bigger punch though. Very, Very nice Porter!!!!

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.