Dark Horse
Ørbæk Bryggeri

Copenhagen 29/1 2015. 50 cl bottle from Fakta, Frederiksborgvej, Kbh. NV. Horsey silhouette on the red and black label.

Pours hazy dark reddish brown with an off-white head. Bubbly. Head disappears completely leaving flimsy patches of foam.

Aroma is sweet and buttery. Caramel and a little roasted malts. Brown sugar and toffee.

Medium strong carbonation and watery palate. Lively texture.

Flavor is roasted malts, harsh butter with sugary notes. Aftertaste is bitter in a rough kind of way.

Not an especially pleasant experience. Too much butter and sugar for me.

330ml bottle, @ 4.8% ABV. No indication as to the proclaimed style here mentioned on the label.

This beer pours a clear, dark brownish-amber colour, with three fat-ass fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and creamy tan head, which leaves a bit of looming iceberg profile lace around the glass as it quickly sinks away.

It smells of semi-sweet, gently roasted caramel malt, muddled dark orchard fruitiness, a touch of bittersweet cocoa powder, spoiled cream, and an uncertain musty, earthy, and floral hop bitterness. The taste is more of the same - bready and doughy caramel/toffee malt, milk chocolate, indeterminate black fruity notes, a weirdly affected milkiness, some free-agent ash, and a consistently understated noble verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is rather plain in its barely there frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and mostly smooth, just a hint of that strange (but not sour) lactic character mulling about, looking for a place to happen. It finishes on the sweet side, all caramel malt, cocoa, and cream, with barely a whimper from any potential offsets.

Overall, this is fairly simple and unbalanced version of the style, with neither the roast nor the hoppy counterpoint to the big malt flavours, which, by the end of it all, had me reaching for my handy-dandy tongue-scraper. Not something that I'd want to make a habit of, no-sirree, Lars.

 

Poured into an imperial pint glass from a 50cl bottle.

A: Chestnut brown with a nice white foamy head. Not really that dark...more like a nut brown ale appearance than a schwarzbier. Head fizzles out after a few moments leaving a thin white layer of foam. Moderate stickage to the glass.

S: Hard to describe. Rather unremarkable as nothing really stands out. Kind of a generic lager scent. Maybe a faint hint of apricots. I'm grasping for straws here.

T: Better than the smell suggests. Rather mellow with some noticeable malt flavors. Hint of toffy or slight caramel flavors. Has somewhat of a nutty/dried fruit character as well. As I get a little further into this one, it's starting to grow on me somewhat.

M: Very smooth and easy drinking. A plus mouthfeel.

D: Well, not the best, but not the worst either. It's easy drinking. I could easily go for a couple and would order one if available at a bar/restaurant. Probably would not go out of my way to find it. But, overall a quality offering.

50 cl bottle courtesy of Papsoe. Aroma is sweet malts with an off putting stale/dusty note and some cabbage and steamed vegetables. Dark brown/amber...not quite the nearly black of most Schwarzbiers. The head is thin, tan and fades at a medium pace. Tastes a little better than I expected from the aroma. Sweet malt, but it is again slightly vegetal like carrot bread. Fairly smooth malt profile and low bitterness, but the wrong flavor profile for the style and not really a flavor I’d be giddy about in any beer....might make for a good bread mix though.