Dark Horse Dark Corner Ale (2007)

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

Appearance: Pours a dark brownish-red body with a thin, wispy, off-white head. Smell: Brown malts with notes of caramel, brown sugar, and hearty five-grain bread. Taste: Brown maltiness with a good amount of caramel and brown sugar sweetness. Toasted whole grain bread. Tiny blip of citrus fruits as there’s not much in the way of hops otherwise and only a very, very light bitterness. Sweetish, spicy finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: A fine brown ale that was a joy to quaff even at 7.5%. Does the label remind anyone else of the movie Sin City?

(Bottle) Pours a brown color with a foamy beige head. Dusty, malty aroma includes some caramel and some toffee notes. Taste is rather spicy for the style, and includes some floral hops and citrus. This is in addition to quite a bit of dark malty notes as well. Average palate, above average carbonation. Somewhat thin, but the ABV is not noticeable. A decent beer.

12oz Bottle $1.69 Single Siciliano’s, Grand Rapids Damn! Dark Corner is about as close to being a gusher as you can get without actually being one. As I cracked the cap the foam rose to the top of the bottle but without overflowing. On the pour 3/4 of the glass ended up being thick craggy beige foam. That eventually died down enough to complete the pour. The body was a semi-hazy copper. The aroma isn’t all that inviting. There seems to be way to much earthiness, by erthiness I mean the aroma of dirt, in this beer. Once you get past the earthiness, which is hard to do, there’s a solid dose of caramel and a dash of citric hoppiness on the backend. Unfortunately the taste isn’t much of an improvement on the smell. Caramel and a citrusy (orange and lemon) hop sweetness come through but the dirtyness is still there. If that dirtyness wasn’t there this would be a decent brew but as is it’s pretty disappointing. Not only is this brew a dissapointment in the body and flavor but there’s way too much carbonation present. Too prickly and thin. This is just not an enjoyable beer. I would call this an IPA, although there is a big helping of caramel, if that dirtyness wasn’t involved. Not something I want to drink anymore. This is a complete let down. I’ve never sampled anything from Corner Brewery before but when I saw Dark Horse and Corner brewery each brewed the same recipe at each brewery I couldn’t wait to try it. Hopefully Dark Horse’s version is better but we’ll see. 1/12/08

Muddy caramel, nice beige head, decent lacing. Aroma dominated by roasted grain and bread, faint spicy hops. Flavor much the same, with some burnt grain astringency near the finish, otherwise decent offering.

Picked up a bottle of this and the Arbor version courtesy of Styles. If this is a brown ale, its the first that I’ve ever had that tasted like this. This seems like an American Strong Ale to me. Reminds me of a slightly watered down Arrogant Bastard. Looks very similar to the AB. Reddish hue and very murky. Smells very similar to the the AB as well. Not as hoppy though. Lots of dark fruit. Initial taste is of malts that follow with a mixture of the fruit and some hops. I actually like this. I wish the flavors were more prevalent like in the AB but this is still good. I have never been a fan of brown ales but if more of them tasted like this, I would have them more often. Thanks to Chris for these two Michigan locals! What an awesome trader!

Bottle: Deep caramel, moderate foamy light beige head, few rings of lacing.   Malty nose, a bit of huskiness.   Has a vague breadiness, with an underlying fruity note.   Faint, but they are there.   Quite malty on the tongue, very low hop presense.   Warming, definitely bigger ABV than your average Brown Ale.   A little bit of cereal, probably because it is so malty without much hop backing.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate, falls kinda flat on the tongue tho   Mealy finish.   Good, but I think this one just needs a bit more hops to balance out the malts.   Thanks Chris for this one, and the one from Corner Brewing!

12-12-07 Black Capped Dark Horse Version bottle shared with lb4lb thanks to demitriustown.
Thin light reddish brown with little head. Roasted hints in the aroma mostly covered up by a musky malt odor. Okay flavor - easy to drink but has a strange burnt malt finish.

Thanks to hoppymeal for this black capped bottle. Pours a very dirty, dark brown with a thin tan head. Nose is of sourish malt with some toffee and coffee. Taste is caramel and coffee mixed with a grapefruity flavor. Very nice mouthfeel...and being a hop head, I love the tart flavors in this brown. Thanks hoppymeal.