Dark Theory
Odell Brewing Company

Thanks to leftpaw for bringing this 2017 bottle out to March Madness 2018.

Beer with dark in the name pours dark, basically black. Lighter brown head 1/4". Not much in the way of sourness or cherries available in the nose. A bit of roasted malt giving that hit of coffee like aroma. Smelled more like an old world cranberry porter.

Taste was a mild sour porter with some dark fruit and tobacco notes. I think there is just as much cranberry to it as there is dark/black cherry. Carbonation was fine on this. The old world porter feels on it are through the roof. Was it a bad batch transformed into a $20 bottle? I dunno. For a dark beer it finishes pretty dry on the back end, which also makes it more evocative of cranberry than dark cherry. Mild chocolate malt existence.

Old world porter with quad like yeast dark fruit notes throughout. I think most O'Dell's beers are better than this.

 

A: Poured into a Duvel tulip to a black beer topped by a dense and slightly rocky finger of light tan head which fades slowly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing.
S: Smells of cherries, light sourness, chocolate and some acrid burned aromas
T: Taste is cherries mixed with smoky burnedness, dark chocolate, sourness, hint of funk and acetone. Overall once things settle down it's mostly sour cherry and chocolate. On the swallow there's chocolate and roasted malts with some lingering sour cherries along with just a hint of funk.
M: The beer has a slightly velvety body which is on the upper end of medium in heft. Carbonation is adequate and just barely effervescent at times while the beer has a drying finish due to the acidity.
O: Overall this one is pretty solid. The beer has some nice complexity and flavors but some aspects seem to be a little out of place or over the top which makes the execution on this beer come across oddly. It isn't terrible but I feel like it could have been done better.

750ml bottle. Caged and corked bottle. Label is 2017 dated.
Dark brown colored body, with prune colored back lit highlights. One finger of beige head settles back to thin cap and ring. Leaves behind a scattered pattern of lacing spots.
Aroma of porter malts and tart cherry and plum. Dirty and fruity, but not sweet.
Taste of a base of coffee, chocolate, and tobacco flavored roasted malts, and the more sour flavors of cherry and plum. The oak barrel is a minor taste note but does add dryness.
Medium mouth feel. Good carbonation.
An interesting mixture of a barrel aged and wild fermented porter with a tart fruit of cherry and plum. The two main components play back and forth but eventually blend toward a finish. The finish is a brown sour beer. I like the result, and I like how the beer bounces back and forth in the taste profile between the wild porter (brown) and the tart fruit (red). It's like a shimmer in how the beer tastes. This is a taste profile not often encountered.

some cherry. almost stout finish. big head. not so much cherry. licorice.

 

 

 

Pours a dark burgundy that borders on black. There is a finger of khaki head on top. Head retention is okay with no lacing. Aroma is black cherry, and toasted and nutted malts. Not much to the aroma, it just comes off dark with a tinge of sourness. Flavor profile is black cherry, and plum. Toasted, and nutted malts show through as well. Mouth feel is slightly fizzy and grainy, with a medium thickness. Overall, loads of black cherry, but not the cleanest beer. It's a little harsh.

Served in a 12oz snifter from a 750mL bottle.

 

2017 vintage 750ml, split into 4 tulips. Looks like cherry cola, hints of red. Fine bubbled head leaves quickly but leaves small ring around inside of glass.
The nose is vinegar and oak wood. Ripe dark cherry, oak, vanilla. As a sour beginner this beer is delicious but glad to have split.

Such a dark amber in color that it is nearly impossible to see through. There's a fingernail of brown on top that dissipates quickly. I'm left with a fingernail around the rim and most of the top. The aroma is of woodsy oak and dark cherries. I'm tasting dark cherries, woodsy oak, and some faint brettanoymyces. The mouth is moderately carbonated, very dry, and bit thin for the style.

 

this one didnt impress me as much as i hoped it would, i think the sourness is strange with this dark malty base. its real bacterial, vinegar forward, sort of flanders-esque, sharp, acetic, and astringent, and that contrasts a little bit with the smooth dark grain in here, and the bitter roast is amplified by it quite a lot. a more robust cherry profile might serve to bridge the gap between those two elements a little bit, but the cherries dont fill that role here. instead, they taste jammy and cooked down, concentrated and more desserty than natural, which isnt all the way compatible with this particular brand of sourness either i am afraid. some nice malt depth though, coffee and cocoa and caramelized malt sugars, the cherries taste stewed in there, and if this were not soured and just fermented with normal ale yeast, it might be a pretty delicious brew, but all the vinegar acidity busts up a lot of the natural cohesion between the other elements, and it feels disjointed overall to me, but disclaimer here, i have never been huge into that vinegar bacterial sour profile, its not my preference, so if you love that, maybe you will have a different opinion of this one, but for me it was more disrupting than enhancing...`

edit: time has been pretty kind to this, 2017 vintage on tap yesterday down at taphouse for their darkest night event, nowhere near as sour as i remember it being, cleaner tartness that works with the cherries. the fruit is still subtle, maybe even more subtle now, i get raspberry tang in here too with the cherry, some yeastiness in it and its a bit cloudy and thick to look at, but it drinks smooth and not messy at all really. chocolate and tobacco and leather depth, raisin fruitiness setting up the cherry well, red wine, light smoke, deeply earthy, dusty in an appealing way, this has aged real well, improving scores slightly, i like it quite a bit better now...

Quite likely the first sour porter I've ever tasted. Interesting style. Dark color with a sturdy, tan head. Malty with subtle roastiness and acid. Not a ton of cherry however.

 

 

Poured a dark brown, almost black color, with a small, tan head of foam. It smelled of sour black cherry with a hint of toffee. Rich cherry flavor with a strong sour presence.