Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Smoked
Marshall, Michigan USA

Have drank this on many occasions, both at the brewery and out of the bottle at home. Out of the tap at the brewery I would rate this a 5. Pours very black and thick. Smoky roasted hops are evident beneath the heavy chocolate and coffee notes. A very complex, easy drinking stout.

12oz. bottle Black in color with a medium tan head. Mild roasted malt aroma with some coffee as well. Flavor was pretty much the same, but with a touch of smoke added in there as well. Smooth and easy drinking stout.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry courtesy of Silphium. Sixth beer of our Dark Horse Brewing tasting. Pours black with a small diminishing brown head. Aroma of roasted malt, mild smoke, a touch of chocolate and some coffee. Flavour of mild smoke, coffee, chocolate, some fruit and a mild hop finish. Medium to full bodied. This is very easy to drink and a very pleasant Stout. I’m pretty impressed with Dark Horse tonight, they’ve all been very good to excellent so far.

Bottle (12oz). Shared with blankboy, his bottle. Poured opaque black with a small dark brown head. Nice, typical roast stout aroma - nutty, light coffee, slightly tart fruit notes - with some cola character, there’s smoke here, but not much - not sweet, but not all that bitter either. Tasted pretty much as it smelled, just more hop and tart fruit bitterness - average at most time spent on the tongue, and fairly minimal smoke character. Mouthfeel quite smooth, lightly carbonated and astringent - simply just a nice classic stout (I really don’t see why this counts as a "smoked" beer - the smoke is minimal)

Pours with a black body topped by a thin head with little lacing. It’s slightly sweet and roasty with a nice malt note and a little coffee and chocolate. The flavor has an added smokiness. Full bodied and smooth.

Thanks Cquiroga! Pours a very thick black color with a small dark tan head and no lasting lacing. Aroma is acidic and fruity with a slightly roasted note to it. Flavor is super smoky like eating a mouthful of hickory chips. It’s very smooth and had a big mouthful. I’m not traditionally a big fan of smoked beers, but the combinatin of the smokiness and the palate feel really made this an enjoyable beer.

(12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with Eyedrinkale, thanks Mike!) Been sitting on this one for almost a year, so it’s had some time to do its thing in the bottle. Hardly a wimper when I pop the cap, and pouring the beer, whoa, this is black, black, black! Looks like used motor oil, with a fairly thick viscosity. The light brown head is about as dark a cap as I’ve seen on a beer, but it’s extremely small, barely cover the beer with a full layer, and completely dissipates in under a minute. But wow, it’s fully black even at the edges when held to a sunlight, so you can’t get any darker and more opaque than this. The piquant, intense nose projects a very earthy and roasty aroma, plenty of decaying wood, and strong hints of delicious, sweet, chocolate-coated cherries. Not getting much in the way of smoke, however. Some differences in the flavor though, with quite a bit more coffee showing up. It’s roasty and fairly bitter, earthy and mushroomy, only slightly sweet, plenty of that cherry and chocolate combination. But again, smoke isn’t really all that noticeable, and that’s probably because the stout shows so much roastiness and ash that smoke wouldn’t really add much. Lightly carbonated, as one would assume given the nearly headless pour. Full bodied, but not thick and heavy, so this makes it a pretty easy drinking beer for one that packs such rich and intense flavor. Extremely flavorful enjoyable beer, one that drank pretty easy for me, and my now-empty glass provokes much sadness.

Thanks to Styles for this beer. Poured black with ruby highlites and a dark brown fizzy head that dissipated quickly. Light aroma of cherries, bitter coffee, some fruity acidity. Taste is light roasted coffee, a bit of funk, some mild fruit essences. Medium slick oily body. Whatever smokiness that was intended to show in the flavor profile seems to be assimilated into the trademark roastiness of stout, and is thus not especially noteworthy. However it is still a pretty nice stout.