Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree IPA

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

Thanks to some fine forgotten RateBeerian for the beer!

Pours a dark shade of rusty amber, very voluptuous ivory head. The aroma is straight out the gate, a massive Barleywine. A mash-ton packed with malts and a freaking freight train hop detonation! Very fruity underneath, apples, plums, and pears, but the extreme pine resin and grapefruit zest hops cloak it that to some degree. As Alan below me described, this beer is "JUICY," chewy, and full of character. A good beer but one that I would consider a barley wine to the extreme degree!

Courtesy sprinkle. Hazy copper/bronze. Small, frothy, light tan cap. Big resinous pine tree hops, tangerines, lightly toasted caramel in the aroma. Flavor adds some floral and spicy notes, strong malt support, some juicyness, and a dry, lightly yeasty finish. Would never guess 13% abv. Full body, balanced, juicy. Great brew.

Bottle. Pours a deep brownish amber with a very nice head and a bunch of floaties swimming in the glass. The floaties are not appealing to me to be honest. Nose is very malty over pine. Flavor is thickly malty, viscous, and the hops actually place second to the malt barage. Sweet with some fruit, this is pretty close to a barleywine. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this but I wouldn’t mind bit more of a hop profile. Still in all, I did enjoy this very much of a sipper brew. Thanks to sprinkle for the bottle.

Early 2006 wax cap bottle from Styles. Very interesting beer. Aroma is pungent hops and a rich malt balance that burns a little as you sniff. Flavor is big malts and hops, loads of caramel and super-bitter pine, bleach. Pours with lots of floaties. This beer is big and evil and real nice.

12 oz. bottle, cellar-aged for 1 year in my buddy Dan’s cellar, poured into an oversized wine glass A: this beer just LOOKS evil, a much darker "burnt" orange, very cloudy and with very little head or lacing, though the first few sips do leave some glass residue. S: I can instantly tell this beer has been aged, the yeast working the sugars have produced a delicious caramelized aroma coupled with some brown sugar scents. I detect not much in the way of hops, but again, that could be from the aging. T: *eyes bug out* Wow, this is an amazing tasting beer. It’s gone from being a DIPA to something, more transcendental and glorious. Never fear those who say aging a DIPA is "terrible," the hoppiness still makes itself known in the lingering finish, but there is so much robust, complex flavor on the nose and body, I can’t even care yet. There is no doubt the malts have taken over the flavoring of this beer (though I cannot be entirely sure, as this was a gift and I’ve never had one fresh), lots of sugary tastes, ranging from sweetbread to honey to caramel. Whatever it is, it’s delicious. You would have NO idea this is a 13.6% ABV brew. M: somewhat thick, not too syrupy though. Very little carbonation makes it pretty easy to take larger-than-normal mouthfuls, a risky descriptor given the high ABV. D: I scored this one down here simply because it’s become very sweet, and as has been mentioned several times has a very high ABV. I could take one of these every so often, it would make a nice after-dinner beer accompanying a tart dessert.

Amber brown pour and a bit hazy. Very sweet palate with a bit citrus and malt. Goes down easy with little carbonation as hoppy as I would expect from a double but enjoyable.

Thanks to Ughsmash for the bottle. Lots of thick caramel malt in the aroma--which flows from a very hazy brownish-orange body. Very thick and sticky palate that coats your mouth and throat. Heavy doses of caramel malt and alcohol dominate the flavor. Tastes more like a barleywine for sure. Not a ton of hops, and very hot.

This one was good but a lot like a barley wine.Aroma was sweet malt and lots of citrus hops.Pours a murky brown with a white head.The flavor was really dominated by alcohol.Mouthfeel was very thick with a very sweet finish.