Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA

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

Wow! Thick’n fruity nose. Definitely unfiltered. Golden orange in color. Decent carbonation without any head. Pour this stuff very carefully to eliminate dumping the half-inch of sludge in to your glass. This brew is scary to look at, but is a complex ale with an intriguing flavor. Filtered the dead yeasties with my teeth. Thick caramel fruitiness, warm dry ending. Some bitters in between. Frothy without too much carbonation.

2006 bottle tasted Dec. 2007.

I brought this bottle back from Ann Arbor with me in something like April 2006; this is perhaps the last survivor from that stash. After peeling away the green wax there’s a bit of rust around the edge of the cap, but no harm seems to have come of it. The bottle opens with a soft whisper and emits a deep citric grapefruit-and-lemon aroma. Once in my glass, though, I get more the malts: caramel and a hint of vanilla, rye and just a touch of oxidization with some residual lemon-citrus hops floating across the top. Beautiful pour, a glowing deep caramel with red highlights, swirls of microbubbles along the surface, thick lacing up the sides.

Sweet malty caramels dominate the flavor; at this age (approximately two years) it’s more like a barleywine than an IIPA, and that suits it quite well. Hops make themselves gently apparent through the midrange and close, never strong, and there’s a solid, mouth-drying woodiness to the finish that I find very pleasant atop the sweet vanilla caramel with which each sip begins. The mouthfeel is very full, this is a rich, heavy, oily beer, but not hot in the least, making it a rather curiously drinkable 13+% beer.

I really like this beer, and at the same time I think I may have made a mistake by aging my sole bottle for a couple of years. As good as it is aged -- and it definitely is an IIPA that ages with grace -- I would have liked to have tried this fresh as well.

Bottled
Cherry red color, not much head. Rye bready, pinewoody hoppy nose. Bready, hoppy (pinewood, resin) flavor, actually suprisingly easy to drink for being 13 %. Pinewood also in the aftertaste.

Bottle shared with jerc & mabel - my bottle obtained from HogTownHarry. Dark orange-amber with a small off-white head and a lot of little floaties. Lots of pine and citrus hops in the aroma, with a pleasant hit of alcohol warmth. Big, smooth body. Flavour is equally big, and surprisingly well balanced, with enough malt to back up with crazy hops. Really nice stuff, but I was glad to split it 3 ways, as a full bottle probably would’ve done my head in.

Bottle shared by GregClow. Orange-amber body witha small creamy tan head. (3+) Aroma is moderately hoppy with light alcohol presence. Fairly bitter throughout the flavour, light citrus and a good amount of resiny hops throughout. Smooth medium palate. Surprisingly nice. Lacks the depth of some other double IPAs, but makes up for it in dangerous drinkability. 7/3+/8+/4/16

Pours a cloudy caramel orange with a ton of visable sediment (I wish I pulled up at the end to prevent this) with a big tangy head that dies pretty quick. Smells piney, big citrus rind and a malty sweetness. Taste is very big on piney rind hops with a malty backbone. Medium in the mouth with a slight ting on the finish. Obscene how drinkable it is, if I were to guess I would say half the ABV. An awesome brew and a must try.

Bottled (thanks heemer77!). Ruby red colour, mediumsized beige head. Aroma is really fruity hops along with some alcohol. Flavour is hops, fruit some slight soap as well as caramel malts. A big, but wellbalanced brew.

Reddish orange body with yeast floaties, lots of them. Also a bubbly off white head. Tons of hops in the aroma, mostly floral and some citrus rinds. Also some subtle caramel malt notes. A buttload of bitter hops, grapefruit rinds, some floral with a finish of more bitter hops. Sticks in the mouth, but very full. Nice and tasty.