12 oz bottle from a recent trade. Wow, quite a shocking beer in many ways. Firstly the pour is really, really, really good looking. Jet black with with no light penetrating and ome incredibly colored head - literally like a deep, rich espresso. The appearance is so striking that I am almost expecting a coffee-based RIS with twice the alcohol that this thing has. Looks viscous. The next odd thing is that there really is hardly any smoke here at all. Not in the nose or the tastes. It "sort of"...

Notes on beers brewed by
Dark Horse Brewing Company
Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier Ale
Thanks to Beerinator as part of XBIF 39. Pour is jet black with a coffee colored head that is gone pretty quickly. Looks a bit flat to be honest. Aroma and tastes are somewhat befuddled to me with too much going on. There's a fine line between complex and just a bitter, smoky, high alcohol cocktail and this crossed the line several times for me. Lots of important components there withour doubt, but it wasn't very well constructed in my opinion. Certainly in the large department with tastes and...