Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA

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

Strong smell of hops with a malt quality. Floaty things in the beer. Excellent thick mouth feel. Big hop flavor with a caramel backdrop. Almost a butterscotch quality.

This one was also from SoLan’s fridge. Its like a second home to me. Very yeasty cloudy marron/copper color with really no head. The hops are there but not up front and monstrous as you would expect from a double IPA. Kind of a nice surprise. Definitely a grapefruit hops smell. Maltiness is definitely present as well. Wow, 13.6%? Definitely masked well. The hops are I wouldnt say subtle, but subtle for this beer’s description. Very pleasant, nice balance. Pretty good.

on tap at richo’s gravity head 2007. very cloudy milky orange color with a nice lasting white head and good lacing. I thought that the beer might be cloudy because the keg had just been moved or it was the end of it.....but apparently it has been pouring cloudy for a few days now..... nice piney grapefruit aroma. flavor bitter piney grapefruit with a good caramel malt backbone. full thick body. alcohol seems very well hidden for 13.6%. nice IIPA.

After carefully removing the wax, this poured from bottle a very dark amber with a nice 1.5 finger head. Sticky lacing. Aroma is primarily carmel malts. Taste is earthy pine resin with a perfect match of malts to play off the bitters. Exceptional balance here. Long bitter aftertaste. Mouthfeel is creamy with high ABV completely hidden. One of my top 2 or 3 DIPAs. Excellent!

Green wax-topped bottle. After wrestling a bit with the wax, this beer poured a very dark ruby-brown color with a cm thick off-white loose head. A thin layer of head maintained itself for the duration. The aroma presents grapefruit right off, but a rich sweetness and defined malt presence is there as well. The aroma isn’t as intense as other DIPA’s, and this is my only real knock here. The palate is thick and sticky. Heavy citrus in the taste, but the bitter grapefruity notes are most apparent in the finish. The maltiness helps out midway through the taste, but the hop flavor wins out. Very hoppy, but falls short of the absolute hop-bombs. Regardless, this was a pleasure to drink and beware the 13.6%.

Bottle...appears thick in the glass, with some floating particulate. Incredibly hoppy aroma. Taste is just sweet/malty enough to balance out this hop monster. Great combo-

poured a cloudy orangish amber, with a light khaki color head that left some good lacing. aroma, pineapple, light brown sugar , alcohol, hops which were not as strong as I thought they would have been. flavor it was hard to decide if the malts or the hops came out first but I did like the combo. caramel, got some orange , was looking for the pineapple but could not taste any, did get brown sugar and grapefruit. what a way to start off a Friday evening but with a great local beer.

06 Bottle. Pours hazy brownish amber color with a minimal beige colored head. Aroma is citrus, brown sugar, caramel, grapefruit, alcohol. Flavor is caramel malts, pine, floral hops, citrus. Palate is full bodied, sweet, sticky, warming, bitter finish, hides the 13.6% pretty well. Nice stuff.