Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout

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

On tap at Ashley’s.Very nice blueberry aroma.Pours very dark with little head.Burnt coffee and blueberrys in the flavors.Medium mouthfeel with a sweet finish.

bottle, smells and looks like a thick and creamy chocolate..mocha..coffee drink. Beautiful cool blueberry aroma. Tastes strong chocolate flavors, sweet malts, and light blueberry flavor. A bit of a winey fermented taste...great mouthfeel, and really an excellent beer. A refreshing bitter end, also like a mocha. Will buy again.

Bottled, Nov 2006. Pours dark brown or black with a creamy brown head. Aroma is assertively blueberry with roasty malt backup. Full bodied, syrupy, flavor is richly malty with chocolate & roast malts, black malt or high roasts add a burnt astringency that at least cuts through the cloying natural-tasting blueberry flavor that coats my mouth throughout the finish.

12 oz bottle pours a brown black with a thick tan head. Blueberry malt aromas come to the nose, sweet fruity with chocolate roast and smoke behind it. Creamy full mouthfeel that fades to the sweet chocolate stout with lots of blueberries around the edges. Finishes dry with roast and blueberries. Pretty tasty at first but I grow tired of this beer, it needs a lactic sourness to it, to make this a really good brew.

draft at the brewpub - Pours black with a thin, fading, tan head. The aroma has roasted malts and lots of blueberries. Roasted malt and blueberries carry the flavor with some mild chocolate notes. Full bodied, lightly carbonated, and smoothing going down, this sweet stout is a quality brew.

12 ounce bottle. Pours ink black with a small quickly fading dark brown head. It takes a good swirl, but there are blueberries here. Mostly roast anc chocolate though. The berry flavor goes well with the dry roastiness. Oily on the palate with nice carbonation. Really pretty good.

Bottle. This beer pours super opaque black with a dark brown head and a wall of lacing. I have to admit, the prospect of a stout brewed with blueberries does not sound very good. But the aroma is marvelous. Rich chocolate and earthen notes interwine harmoniously with a subtle hint of blueberries. Now for the true test: the flavor. Wow. It’s rich of drying espresso complete with a smoky finish. Then, a velvety undertone of blueberries mixes with rich chocolate to really smooth everything out. The description of a "surprisingly light palate" is way off base. This is one of the sturdiest 4.5% stouts I’ve had. Maybe they were referencing specifically the blueberry flavor. A few more sips brings the blueberries up front just a bit more, but what really lingers is the smoky finish of espresso and bark. I am especially blown away given my low expectations for this brew and my general aversion to fruit beers in general. Cheers! [an update from my Dark Lord excursion] Had a little taste of this on tap at Rich O’s this time. I was shocked at the large blueberry presence both in the aroma and the taste. This is not at all what I remember nor is it what my notes indicate. I know my first bottle was a few months old at the very least and perhaps that aging allowed the blueberry character to mellow out and the malts to come together. I’m not going to change my rating until I get another taste, but I was a little let down when I had it the second time. Still it was all right.

12 oz bottle

Thanks to artusory for the beer in a recent trade. I’ve had a handful of Dark Horse beers. This is the best so far, beating out the 3 Guys Off the Scale. The blueberry is not overpowering but it is obvious enough where this beer gets its name.

Aroma / Appearance - The nose was an interesting combination of blueberry pie, chocolate, mocha and smoke. It reminds me of a warm blueberry cobbler. The pour was deep black and fluid with just a hint of head. The lacing was muddy brown as it slid down the side of my sample glass.

Flavor / Palate - A bitter combination of blueberries, cherries, smoke and roasted malts comprise the taste. It does not change much over the course of the beer but is very consistant. It feels as if someone liquified blueberry cobbler in a smoky environment. It was very enjoyable, though not quite on par with New Glarus Belgian Red. Still, if this ever makes it to Madison I could easily see picking up some more.