Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Marshall, Michigan USA

Another big beer. Excuse me for rating so much at once: Have a lot of notes. Will rate more consistently soon. Anyway, this beer was too big. Almost a hop tonic. Sweet, hoppy, thick....I love all of those aspects, but not together. Too much of everything. Still, a good beer.

Tasted on 5/15/08. Pours a nice dark amber color with little to no head from a slightly aggressive pour into my Sierra Nevada Pint glass. It smells really nice and sweet and also has a subtle, citrusy hop aroma. Kind of surprising that the malt stands out more than the hops on this one. The taste is excellent. Its a great balance of that sweet caramel malty taste with a pungent citrus hoppiness that makes it lean almost closer to a barleywine in my opinion. The mouthfeel is really nice and creamy on this one and man the 13.6% alcohol is hardly smelled or tasted at all meaning this one could really sneak up on you. A great beer.

Bottle thanks to mibirder. I would guess this beer has at least two years of age on it. Yellowish wax if that indicates anything. Pours with a largish, off-white, creamy head covering a murky amber-brown body. Good lacing. Aroma is of strong, sweet toffee, brown sugar and some lemon citrus hops. Wow, lots of malts in the tastes, no hops really. There is some alcohol in the taste, but considering it is 13.6 it is EXTREMELY well hidden. Very sweet overall. Oily mouthfeel with light bubbles.

Clear amber with a tight tan head. Nice piney hop aroma with some sweet malt. Smooth medium body. Nice triple ipa flavors are sweet pine hops with sweet malts mixing nicely with a boozy bitterness. The 13.6% never really gets in the way, and is fairly well cloaked until the brew warms. Nice

Bottle with fancy green wax on the capt. Pours a cloudy brown with a minimal head that dies quickly. Aromas are heavy on the pine hops and a little bit of a caramel malt undercurrent. That said, I would expect a fuller nose from a beer this strong and the color is fiarly unique, too. Flavor is like an alcoholic hops bomb wit a bit of a thick and sugary stickiness. I guess that this is the reason that I don’t get too excited about these high ABV IIPA’s... they are just over the top and the hops and alcohol cover up any complexity that might (or might not) be there.

very malty and woody with a moderate smooth alcohol influence. secondary hop presence that is clearly inhibited though apparant and does put in it’s lightly bitter signature. caramel and moderately sweet it is also woody and tawny as well. bit of a more black pepper essence as from a pre-grated container in the grocery store. points for being very mellow sophisticated and smooth and in good balance as it reveals itself as complex but in good order . not exactly my description of a double ipa. low on citrus with hardly any other hop presence.

Bottle. Small, off-white head that disappears quickly. Aroma is moderately hoppy with hints of grapefruit, orange and resin and moderately malty with notes of caramel leading one to think that the hops will carry through well into the flavor, but they don’t. In addition, there is a strong hint of alcohol in the nose which does follow into the flavor. The flavor is heavily sweet and lightly to moderately bitter. It is also peppery with alcohol. The finish is moderately bitter and alcoholic. Full body, syrupy texture and moderate carbonation. As much as I Iike Dark Horse products and as much as I like double IPAs, this is a big disappointment. The alcohol and thick, almost sickly sweet malts are just too overwhelming; they don’t let the hops present much character in the flavor. An off-balance, unenjoyable double IPA.

From a bottle at Wine Sellers in Macomb. Did I have this in Michigan? I can’t remember. Everything a Double IPA should be. Malty and intense. Fantastic.