Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Marshall, Michigan USA

Nice beer. Orange pour. Aroma and taste of citrus hops and some resiny pine. Lacks the obnoxious bite that some IPAs have. $10 a 6.

This one is a lot like Founder’s IPA actually. Pours a deep orange, almost an amber. Aroma is almost all citrus and flowers, with a slight hint of pine in there somewhere. No head, little lacing. Very tart and very bitter, extra bitter on the back end. Alcohol really compliments this one. Very solid all the way around, and probably my favorite of the bitter IPAs. Lots and lots of hops in this one for a regular IPA...I cannot wait to try the DOUBLE version!

On tap at the map room, Chicago. Hazy amber with large white head. Aroma is strong citrus hops, resiny and "drink me" caramel malt sweetness. Sweet caramel body upfront that is all trickery because the hops come back with a venegance, citrus, pine and delicious hop flavor, a west coast gem from the mid west. Medium to full body and creamy. This is an awesome brew, but I still have to put the single and double next to each other to see just what this brew has to offer.

This was a hit, and I was surprised to even see it in the first place. It was dark in the room, but this looked cloudier than most IPA’s, and it had a sticky feel to it. Very good level of bitter hop flavor, not too much where it begins to get sweet.

Pours a hazy amber/golden color with a cloud like head that is billowy and a nice white color. Plenty of lacing, and floaties. Smell is sharply hoppy, none of the citrusy notes that you can get in many other IPA’s. A resiny piney hoppy smell that is pretty damn sharp. Taste is surprisingly mild. From the smell I was ready for a West Coast ass kicking but it is surprisingly light and refreshing. Predictable hops citrus resiny flavor but it didn’t have the kick in the nuts that many do. This is a very excessible beer that is very very good.

Bottle pours a hazy light amber color with a thick white head that lasts forever. Smells like I just tripped into a pile of pine needles. Medium mouthfeel leads to a hop blast. I feel like I’m chewing on hop resins as I drink this. Laces the entire glass. Hop-heads rejoice!

Thick, cloudy, orange-brown with light beige head / Nose of fresh pine and pineapple / Medium body, a little watery in the middle, with good fresh hop finish / Flavors of fresh pine and pineapple / Promising, but needs work.

Aroma is sweet caramel, orange, rind, alcohol as it warms. Opaque orange, with some lacing, this beer is pretty. Taste is sharp orange, some sourness also, strangely, but damn is this tasty. Also get a little bit of alcohol as it warms. Some graininess. Very good.