Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier

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

Pours motor oil black with thin burgundy rings when held to light. The 2 finger creamy tan head has decent retention and fades to a nice thick skim and ring after a while. Aroma is dark chocolate, roasted almonds, lots of roast, herbal hops, a little char, burnt sugar, coffee, and dry forest earthiness. Flavor is dark roast coffee, rich dark chocolate, loads of roast, an odd nip of blackberry, plums, a hint of fresh cut grass, a little earthy smoke. Toffee, roasted nuts, lighter roast malt, caramel and bitter hops to finish. Palate is medium thickness with a lightly syrupy feel and a slightly too sharp level of carbonation. Finish seems to coat the tongue, feels a little oily.

12 oz. bottle (2009) in a shaker; pours a pitch black w/ a large cinnamon head that rapidly diminishes into nothingness, lending this beer an almost Cola-like appearance; aroma hits you with the chocolate straight up, followed by coffee, hazelnut and sweet roastiness- pretty standard, smokey porter flavors, very nicely defined in this case; flavor is more chocolate, w/ the coffee bitterness a lot more evident than in the nose- this takes over and leads into a long, chicory bitter finish; thin-medium bodied. Quite a tasty brew, but the finish is a little heavy on the coffee. Probably on par with the Edmund Fitzgerald, but nowhere as smooth as the Founders Porter.

2008 btl. Pours inky black with gorgeous mocha head. Very roasty, bitter, loads of coffee. Hints of Bourbon. Palate is lacking a bit, not much complexity or mouth feel. Lingering alcohol presence. Tasty, but not great.

Bottle thanks to northernbrews!
Black with a decent beige head, qoes quickly to a ring with little lacing. Nose is burnt sugar, malt, licorice. More licorice, salt, sugar, and tar in the flavor. Very dry, bitter, moderate bitter with a strong finish. Pretty good, but I don’t find it very enjoyable.

Received in a trade. I don’t recall from whom, but again...thank you. The style here in BP says a schwarzbier. No way in hell is this a schwarzbier. Too sweet, too much body..too much everything to be a lager. But it’s tasty I know that much. The beer pours out a deep black color with a rich, creamy 1/2" tan head. Swirling my glass, the beer has some really nice legs to boot. The aroma is very roasty, with lots of dark chocolate, anise and vanilla. Flavor had almost too much "ash" flavor of black patent malt, but rides the edge of just enough and too much. Black patent can be overused but someone restrained themselves enough not to go completely overboard. Coffee and chocolate round out the flavor with some molassess and subtle boozy vanilla hints creep up. But a very enjoyable beer.

My rating is probably not at all reliable. I don’t like this sort of bier and expected more of a Shwarzbier style. This is so dark and burnt. But I nonetheless sense that it is probably good for its style. It seems to be well formed and made.

very soft nose. plenty of coffee and chocolate in flavor but a nice dose of hops set this apart from the standard fare. hard to believe this is substantial in terms of ABV as it is....comes across as a 5%er.

Really nice porter. Smooth, with more fruitiness than you usually get from a porter like this.