Dark Horse Dark Corner Ale (2007)

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

Black Capped Dark Horse Version bottle thanks to demitriustown!
Pours a dark mostly opaque brown with a nice beige head. Smell is slightly tart, semi-roasted malt, faint notes of coffee. Taste is similar to the nose, but very full bodied and nicely rich for the style. Light tartness. Not sure if its intended or just past its prime. Nice rich brown malty flavor, and subtle balancing hops. The tartness in the nose/taste is the only thing keeping me from really loving this beer, and it’s mouthfeel is awesome for a brown. The 7.5% is hidden very well, and would probably be better fresh, but not bad by any means as is.

12oz, no date from artusory, thank you Ryan! Cloudy brownish red with a one finger beige head (not near as carbonated as Arbor Brewing’s version), nice retention and lacing. Now this one smells much more like a brown ale (compared to Arbor’s version). Lots of toasted malts, sweet malt, brown sugar, and some light roasted grain. A bit of vanilla shows up as it warms. Flavor was much the same with a strange, but nice, addition of some hoppy citrus rinds, although the bitterness isn’t very high--maybe a 2-3 out of 10. Hides the alcohol quite well compared to Arbor’s. Medium body with creamy low to moderate carbonation. Much better than Arbor Brewing’s version--this seemed to smell and taste a little fresher, but that isn’t to say that the other one was past its prime rotten, either.

Unfortunately the shop where I bought this didn’t have the version brewed at Arbor Brewing, so I couldn’t try the beers side-by-side. This version pours a slightly hazed dark brown body with a modest but sustained tan head. Plenty of lacing here. The aroma is lightly roasted dark malts with a splash of milk chocolate and a squirt of pink grapefruit juice. It has a flavor of dark caramel with a sturdy citric bitterness that develops as the drinking goes on. The finish is warm and mildly bitter with grapefruit (yellow now) with some lemon zest. Nice.

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12oz bottle 2007 bottling. Black Capped Dark Horse version. Poured into a big snifter and side-by-side with the red capped version from Arbor. The color is a very dark brown, almost black. There is a ring of white cream. Swirls of white. Some nice lacing. Aroma isn’t as distinct as the red cap. Actually not very attractive. A touch of alcohol, maybe some liquorish. The flavor is rich caramel malt with the liquorish again. Smooth body. Not the better of the two.

Bottle courtesy of ughsmash. Pours brown with a thin off white head. Smells earthy with touches of citrus, tea and spice. Tastes of caramel, tea, lots of spice. Mouthfeel is on the thin side. Finish yields some booziness.

This is from a mixed six pack, three from Arbor Brewing (red caps) and three from Dark Horse, according to the info on the bottom of the six pack carton, the two brewers used the same "grain and hop recipes" and each using their own house yeast. I’ve been looking forward to trying each brewers interpretation on the Imperial Brown Ale. This 12 oz. bottle is the black capped one, the Dark Horse version. A mucky caramel brown appearance, bubbly topped, foamy beige head with good retentive powers. Slowly settled into a thin sudsy lacing, minimal amount of ringed sticking. Malty smells of caramel toffee, caramelized sugar and soft grainy bread. In the middle floral and fruity hops emerge, orange blossoms and tangerines. Quite nice. Smooth medium body with moderate carbonation, this goes down quite easily. Tastes of caramelized malts and brown bread, light traces of cocoa. Tangerine hops that turn softly spicy at the end. The alcohol is not that noticeable, just a low temperature spicy, fruity warmth in the back of the palate. Dryish finish, sweet malty and leafy. An impressive take on a Imperial Brown Ale, quite quaffable, I would to try this from the tap sometime soon.

Bottle thanks to Schroppfy! Poured clear, deeper coppery-orange with a very light cap of whitish head. The aroma was rather sweet with caramel and chocolate as the major players.. bright pine accents as well.. stronger, sweet, and enjoyable. The flavor was quite fruity with lesser caramel and chocolate.. large doses of pine and citrusy bitterness with some alcohol warmth at the back-end.. tasty. Creamy on the palate with nice bitter accents.. a touch grainy and warm.. medium-bodied. This turned out better than the red-capped one.

Black cap bottle. Poured a medium to dark brown with no real head to speak of. The aroma was sweet malt. The flavor was not as good as the aroma led me to believe. Fairly bitter, and not much else. I didn’t really care for it.