Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA

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

Green wax topped bottle sent to me by Miketd. Thanks Mike! I thought this was a pretty decent IIPA. I didn’t take notes on it, but remember it being very well balanced between malt and hops.

Guess the only reason I’ve neglected entering a rating for this is that I was already pretty toasted each time I tried this. I recall distinctly pulling one out of fridge, fumbling with wax on cap and returning to fridge on eve as I was already wasted. But both times I actually did place it to lips and beyond - OMG. It does personify the double in the IPA to me - think and maybe leaning to medicinal, hoppy and .. well, one I’ll be glad to try again with a head and tongue not quite so trod upon. That I recollect so easily what I do attests to its strong "personality". Russ, get me more!

2/05/2008: Double Crooked Tree India Pale Ale has an opaque/cloudy, burnt golden color an no real head. There doesn’t appeare to be very much carbonation left and what little is there seems to be having difficulty moving up through the apparently viscous liquid to the surface! The aroma is much like that of a barleywine at this point. It has lots of sweet, lightly roasted and sugary caramel and toffee maltiness and and obvious level of toned-down citrus hoppiness. Actually, the strong, tempting aroma just lauches out of the bottles as soon as the cap is off and continues to grow and evolve into a wonderful bittersweet caramel-citrus with some hints of alcohol starting to poke out. The flavor is an excellent blend of sweet, but not intense maltiness along with a reserved, but growing amount of hop flavor and bitterness. The bitterness starts to take more and more hold with each sip revealing the original intensity of this sucker. I bet it is bitter as sin when it’s fresh! Now it is a great balance of malt and mellow hops with the hops still reaching out over the caramel maltiness from time to time. I think the commercial description of "After a year or two stored in a cool dark place you’ll notice the heavy caramel and malt flavors are trying to sneak past the hops, they’re just not fast enough" is dead on. The alcohol is surprisingly absent from the flavor considering its oringinal strength of 13.6% ABV! This beer is wonderfully thick, yet smooth. Wow, this is really good. I would consider this an American-style Barley Wine and this point and a damn good one at that!

Dark green wax-topped 12 fl. oz. bottle (Alc. 13.6% / 98 IBU’s) via trade with Styles in October 2006. Thanks Chris! Rating #240 for this beer...

Bottle from ogglethorp. Pours a thick dark orange, thick clingy head. Pine, grass, alcohol and sweet malt on the nose. Flavor is hoppy, yet a lot of caramel and alcohol. Thicker body that has a good mouthfeel. Nice warmth, you can tell this thing has a lot of alcohol in it. Finish is dry, hoppy yet making you take another sip. Very nice and a little different twist on a double IPA.

12oz bottle from mreusch. Thick, rich, chunky, dark and muddy orange pour leaving a frothy off white head and uber sticky lacing. Tangerine, apricot, caramel and toffee on the nose. Some pine resin and dirty earthy malt as well. Not as crisp and vibrant as I would like. Plenty of earthy and caramel malt and dirty apricot musty hops on the tongue. Heavily hopped with loads of malt but everything seems a bit muddled. Thick and chewy on the palate. Dry, bitter finish. Alcohol is hidden remarkably well but the beer seems a tad disjointed. More along the lines of an ASA than a IIPA.

12 oz bottle from Schroppfy. Hazy amber in color. Aroma: Citrus, as well as alot of caramel/molasses and light alcohol....Taste is very malty, with a ton of caramel, hops are very present but seem to support the malt backbone rather than the other way around. Pretty nice, although I would think this is a barleywine, rather than a IIPA.

A much better showing with this beer (for me) than their last beer, which was their "regular" crooked tree IPA. This beer comes with a huge aroma and an even bigger taste. A big mix of citrus/grapefruity hops and resinous pine sap. While not nearly as complex as say...Balllast Point Dorado, the nose on this is still tops. Appearance is a copper in color and a smallish sized head. Mouthfeel is both smooth and alive at the same time. A really intensley hopped beer but the sweet malts stay with the hops blow by blow. It’s amazing how each sip brings on both a bitter and sweet assault on the tastebuds. Some might think it’s overly sweet, and yes I do enjoy sweet beers probably more than most. But I gotta say that these guy do this style up right with this beer. It’d be right at home amongst the hoppy WC beers we have.

[1001-20071223] 12floz (c/o GregClow, w/ him, jerc). Aroma has lots of citrus lemon hops and malt tartness. Cloudy, amber brown body with a quick foamy off-white head. Malty flavour is mostly hoppy bitter lemon pips. Medium body has a bitter finish. Good, mutes alcohol.