Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA

Tonight's chosen one is a 12oz bottle of Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA.  According to their website, this brew is "inspired by West Coast's IPAs, but brewed with Michigan style."  Also, it notes that "Because of our almost patented 'Intense Transfer Methods' our Crooked Tree has won several medals in the IPA category."  I suppose we'll have to wait until the patent is approved to hear more about these transfer methods. 

The label on the bottle looks like it was applied by a drunk person.  It's shoddy work....it almost has a home-brew quality to it.  Now this isn't an important factor for me, I could care less what the bottle looks like as long as what's inside tastes good.  So I hope the head brewer at Dark Horse pays more attention to detail than the shipping crew!

The beer pours a cloudy deep orange-amber color, with sediment floating around the glass.  About 1 finger of off-white head foams up, with a decently sticky lacing.  The nose brings resiny, fumey notes with a lot of those zesty fruits of orange, grapefruit, tangerine.

The first sip is resoundingly bitter - the hop flavor would be characterized as lemon zest, with a little bit of grapefruit in there.  There is a sweet malt behind it, but nothing big....it just barely holds up the hop zing.  The finish brings more bitterness and a spicy, earthy closing line.  Even though this is only 6%abv, I can still taste a slight singe that isn't entirely pleasant.  The body is relatively thin, with moderate carbonation and a generally smooth mouthfeel. 

Overall Rating:  (3.0 out of 6.0)  This brew wasn't bad, but it didn't really stand out in any way.  It was an average IPA that I probably wouldn't go out and look for again.  I'm going to put this on my "list of beers to try again in 1 year to see if they've improved".