What's up with Dark Horse Brewing? (2021)

Speculation: the competition in Michigan has increased with new breweries opening weekly. Many beer nerds are looking for the next great beer and as such there are less repeat purchasers of the dark horse brand. Dark horse line up of beers has become quite stale with few, if any new beers in distribution. While competitors (Bells, Founders, and Shorts to name a few) have added new beers year over year. Then you have to consider the fact that the more popular styles NEIPAs, pastry stouts, sours and experimentals are not styles that Dark Horse has in distro. Dark horse also has quite a bit of distribution out of state so they may be deciding to grow those markets rather than their michigan market.

Also their marquee event 4 elf has gone down hill and not been as popular the buzz is dying down for dark horse. IMO they need to update their branding and add new and better beers to distribution.

 

What happened to BB Pt5? I thought it was going to see distro this year. I know this was being discussed elsewhere in another DH thread...

 

I used to love Crooked Tree IPA, but yeah the lineup is stale. They used to do a weird sampler pack of Crooked Tree variants with different hops - I'd maybe pick that up if I saw it again. But I haven't seen any new IPAs or pale ales from them in stores recently - besides the Smells Like A Safety Meeting with is a regular seasonal release. Just nothing catching my eye, which is a shame, cos I could really go for some more classic American IPA offerings to break up some of the haze monotony.

 

I stopped at their store a few weeks ago and asked about BBPt5. I was told that some was available in April as was promised after 4 Elf last year, but it was said to be only a small amount. Sounds like the bulk of the batch must have caught a 'bug' and was probably dumped. She said the next availability of BBPt5 would be at this year's 4 Elf party.

 

I have a buddy that lives in Marshall that said they owed money to where they get there grains from so production in general has been very spotty. Probably why crooked tree wasn't on shelves for a couple months. But you wouldn't know if it was fresh crooked tree or not because they dont date their cans.

 

Double Crooked Tree was always a must for me. Then, I sort of forgot about it.

I was recently planning a Michigan trip and considered a stop at Dark Horse. There is nothing on the website that makes me want to stop there. Nothing catches the eye so I am passing, as many other consumers have.

59% ... woof.

 

Also, their social media presence kinda sucks. If you look at their Instagram, they aren’t the kind of place that posts frequently or when they have a new beer available.

Funny side note: their Instagram profile has a link in it from 4 Elf 2016.

 

They have not put any new beer out to distribution that has garnered any hype or acclaim, I don't even know if they have put anything new out to distro to pickup any of those two things. They also seemed late to the game in having all their offerings in cans.

For many years, they put nothing on tap in their own tap room that was any different than what I could get from their various distro offerings. I believe this has been changed within maybe the last year or little farther back. This was the big reason I stopped visiting them.

They seem to be stuck in the same mindset as they have been since the early portion of this decade which in these days and times of the industry is a quick way to get left in the dust at the level they are at.

 

Honestly they're just not that good anymore, relative to all the other options available now. And that stupid tv show they were involved in did them no favors.

 

That is embarrasing. I don't think you any brewery, other than the small neighborhood nano brewery, can survive with a social media presence.

 

They've had a decent presence at the last couple Brewers Guild festivals. Nothing over the top like when they would bring 99 beers to the Summer Fest 5 or 6 years ago. But they had a larger booth than most. So it doesn't feel like they're on the verge of closing their doors.

My speculation is that they ran into the perils of expanding distribution too quickly. It seemed like their profile in Michigan went down as they tried to satisfy other markets. Now, it seems like they toned down production overall to regroup and focus on building the brand back up slowly.

I've seen Rain in Blood in a few places this summer after not seeing it anywhere the last couple years. I love that beer and was happy to see it still around.

 

I will toss in a fact. I scanned the tap lists at 7 Monks TC and GR, Hop Cat Holland, and Hops on 84 Holland. Not a single Dark Horse beer on tap.

 

Unfortunately, I have to agree with all of these other posts. They're just sort of stuck in neutral: the website still prominently touts both their 20th anniversary event (2017) and the launch party for the tv show (when was that? 2014? 2015?). The beer lineup has hardly changed in the last decade. The "compound" as a whole is really nice and the beer garden is a great place to take my dog, but the tap room itself is by far the least enjoyable part of a visit. As far as I know, there was no announcement that they did actually have a BAPt5 drop this spring, so any random small amount in the on-site store is just another example of hit/miss quality and missed commitments.

 

Didn't know there was a show so I had to look it up. Description reads like History Channel was trying to bill it as the Duck Dynasty of craft beer. I may need to watch it a bit for research purposes...

 

A lot of legacy breweries are suffering like this. I'll also add it was next to impossible to get their stuff fresh in IL at least.

 

It was pretty stupid honestly.

 

It seemed like there was a lot of deeply discounted regular Plead the Fifth and Double Crooked Tree around last spring.

 

I kind of wonder if capitalizing the Dark Horse Commons (coffee/bakery/ice cream) part of The Compound and the remodeling of the pub's kitchen may have hurt the cash flow of the brewery and that may be causing some problems.

The special events that they normally have on their schedule at the compound have still been occurring, but I haven't gone to any but one (the employee brew-off), and it was well attended.