Session # 105 | Dark Horse | Reserve Special | 7.5% ABV
American Strong Ale | Marshall, MI | Rating: 90/100
Here we are wrapping up another week of craft beer where we focus on a specific brewery. This week was Dark Horse and I chose to focus on a few of their stouts. Though you will notice this beer today is not classified a stout, it is virtually stout-like in every way. This is the brewery’s American Strong Ale called Reserve Special Black Bier. I first became aware of it a couple years ago when Draft Magazine listed it as one of their Top 25 Beers of 2008. Of course I had to purchase a few and enjoyed one last year and held on to the other two until now. Reserve Special is a very interesting beer because it really is a Stout or Porter in my mind. It pours black, has a light tan head, and smells every bit as dark and molasses-y as you’d expect from these two styles. The nose is much more elegant than the other two beers from this week. In fact, I could really smell this beer for a long time. Even though I pull out things like dank leather shoes, smoky malts, caramel, and molasses it tastes better than it sounds. Ultimately it has that signature Dark Horse taste that I’ve come to learn over the last week, but it’s clearly the winner for me and the only one I would recommend going out of your way for. Up Next: Pretty Things Jack D’Or
Others: Dark Horse Fore, Surly Smoke, ØlfabrikkenPorter
Check out all sessions of The Hopry here.
This beer can be found in these states.
On the iPod: Arcade Fire “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
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Posted by theReaper16 on August 27, 2010 at 6:38 PM
I’m a Chiefs fan. Pray for me. And pray that Matt Cassel suddenly becomes a quarterback worth his salary. Or at least a quarterback that isn’t one of the worst in the whole league. Pray for that defensive line too; not having a real nose tackle hurt the team all last year and will hurt them all this year since the team foolishly did nothing to address that position. While we’re at it, pray that Dexter McCluster’s 185-pound self can withstand a punishing NFL schedule; since the team wasted a high 2nd round draft pick on him instead of nabbing a player with real value as a starting player the least he can do is stay healthy. I could go on forever.
Posted by Jon on August 27, 2010 at 9:21 PM
At least you get to play the Raiders twice. Until Al Davis forgets his embalming fluid in the morning and dies that should be two easy wins right there.
Posted by thehopry on August 28, 2010 at 7:26 AM
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is such a thing as “easy wins” for the Chiefs. I’m still not shocked that they lost last night.
Posted by Big Mike on August 28, 2010 at 1:26 PM
I’m a big Tennessee titans fan so I’m looking forward to seeing if Chris Johnson can duplicate his numbers from ’09. I love football season
Posted by Nick Marshall on February 13, 2011 at 8:45 PM
I have this on tap. I just poured one and was making fun of your review some 100 days after last seeing it. Your description of the smell is most note-worthy. “Dank, dark, earthy, man-cave with a leather shoe.”
This stuff is awesome on tap. Went to Marshall, MI in person and bought this and 15.5 gallons of Tres Blueberry.