McNeill's Dead Horse IPA
DEAD HORSE INDIA PALE ALE is handmade from the choicest English winter variety barley malt and lots of fresh whole flower hops.
3.3
208 reviews
Brattleboro, United States
Community reviews
I was lucky enough to be at the brewpub and get to have some of their awesome brews. Bought this one at the food coop down the road and it definitely fell short of the other brews i had. I was flat and uninteresting. You could tell it was trying to support some good hoppy quality but just fell off. Finished slightly watery.
Bottle. Copper pour with thick off white head. Sweet, floral, bread, cake, herb. Too sweet for me on the nose. Some bitterness at the end but not enough to balance the sweetness. One dimensional. More depth would be much nicer. Hard to finish the whole bottle...
Dec. 3, 2011; 22 oz. bomber. Well-carbonated, malty, sudsy IPA with a slightly-out-of-control pour. Bready; grassy; a bit sticky. Superior palate & great balance that lets the malt come through. Quite enjoyable.
Bottle: Poured a deep cloudy caramel color ale with a nice thick foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of light bitter hops with light floral undertones with a rich caramel malt base. Taste is also a well balanced mix between some floral and lightly bitter hops with a rich caramel mal bill with just enough sweetness to balance the hops profile. Body is full with limited filtration and good carbonation. I understand this is not an IPA for hophead but the malt bill is quite incredible and I would love to have this more often.
22 oz. bottle shared by Tmoney99. Pours a hazy orange color with a medium sized off white head. The aroma has some floral notes, sweet malt, bubblegum, with a weird cucumber vegetal finsih. The flavor opens with some floral and herbal hops before turning dry and biscuity with general bitterness at the finish.
22 oz bomber from Canal’s Hainesport. Poured a brownish/aber body with an average sized foamy off white head. Flavor and aroma were just plain horrible, old dirty bread, bad vegtables and old dried out caramel. Add this to the list of badly infected just plain horrible beers from McNeills.
Nice crisp, slightly hazy copper coloured body with a nice tan head that fades relatively fast. Aroma of grapefruit, floral hops, light malt and a bit of a grassiness. Medium-bodied; Floral and grassy bite at first from the hops with a bit of grapefruit coming through afterwards and a good balance of malt, but a definite herbal kick from the hops. Aftertaste is a bit one-dimensional, but that’s fairly typical for the style and the tastes are squarely on the hops. Overall, a decent IPA, nothing spectacular, but not a bad example. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Liquor Outlet in Boonton, New Jersey on 08-May-2011 sampled at home in Washington on 05-July-2011.
Bottle shared thanks to Dmac. Pours out a moderate amber color with a moderate white head. Aroma is of some grainy malts...no hops. Taste is of bready malts, light caramel and maybe some grassy hop? Drainpoured by Dmac..
The aroma was fruity sweet with a lot of booze. The flavor had a crisp bread and yeast feel with a bit of bitter at the back. Nice clean and dry finish, quite drinkable. Nice for the hot months
22 oz Bottle. Pours amber golden in color with a pure white creamy head. The aroma is very grassy with a touch of citrus. Flavor is very hoppy with a coppery note to the finish.
22 oz bomber. Pours a deep orange caramel amber with a large foamy light cream colored head. Aroma of V-8 vegetable juice, barley, sour notes and faint floral hops. Taste of vegetables, barley, acidic notes and sourness. I agree with blankboy that this one is infected. Could barely touch this one. Drain pour.
Bottle [22oz]. Pours a hazy orange-amber with an average size lasting off-white head. Mild aroma of vegetal notes, light earthy hops, citrus, caramel malt and plastic -- mildly infected? Flavour’s the same: Vegetal, sour and plastic-ey, also somewhat astringent in the finish, simply not pleasurable to drink. Average bodied. Not good enough to finish drinking, a drainpour for me.
Bottle. Poured clear copper color with a large frothy off-white head that lasted with good lacing. Moderate to heavy earthy hop and vegetables aroma. Medium to full body with a slick texture and soft carbonation. Moderate to heavy bittersweet flavor with a moderate to heavy bittersweet finish of medium duration. Interesting brew.
Nice large fluffy off-white head of varying sized bubbles. Mild hoppy and bitter aroma with some oranges, light toasted malts and a bit of spice. Color ia a dark orangish brown. Mellow and very smooth flavor. Incredibly easy drinking brew that is great for a hot summer day. Mild malts and a tad of sweetness along with a bit of floral hops. Hops are pretty minimal though. Finishes a bit malty with some dry lingering bitterness. A pretty good IPA.
Nice IPA, good hop presence, but not overwhelming, which is a good thing. Would have this again.
Apparently I enjoyed this one a lot more than some other raters here--on cask at the brewpub. Very rich, creamy beer with a nice range of grapefruit and grass hops. Very good.
Fairly sweet and lightly cheesy aroma, with some yeast present too. Light brown pour with a nice head. The unexcitingly named Dead Horse - why beat a dead horse? What are they referring to? - the oddly named DH is an amber-like IPA with some odd flavor notes: ginger, wheat, marmalade. It is moderately sharp, with a touch of honey. This is definitely not a hop bomb, and I can see from looking at the other review that I was not the only one scratching my head over how this got into the IPA category. Still, it is a pretty interesting ale, even if it is a horse of a different color.
Nice surprise today at the store 3 new bombers to try.
Pours a slightly cloudy amber color with a creamy white head that dissipates quickly. Smells of malt and butter, caramel and maybe some floral hops if I squint, close my eyes and inhale. Taste is sweet malts, caramel, toffee and butter. Very little hops in the aroma or flavor. I had to call my wife over to verify that I wasn’t nuts, but there is very little hops to be found. Medium body and carbonation, sticky mouthfeel. If they had called this a bitter I would have scored it much higher. An IPA this is not. Maybe there was some mix up at bottling time, but I have to assume that this is supposed to be an IPA. If I try this again I will re rate.
22 oz bottle from my 2010 Winter Secret Santa. Best before last day of J(anuary) notched on label. Pour is a slight haze copper golden with a thick three inch off white head. Head holds for a long time. Aroma is dry straw, and a bit of resin. Touch of toasty malt present in the back. Taste is the dusty resin and straw, balanced decently with the toasted malt. The finish has a bit of dirtiness, along with a sharp mineral. Palate is medium to light bodied, light carbonation and the dirty finish. Nice, though was likely past the prime for the hops. Thanks Santa, great box!
Bottle. Pours orange amber with a big and lasting off white head. Floral citric aroma with some malty sweetness. The flavor has some green apple sweetness, malty caramel sweetness, and floral hops. Maybe a bit infected, but still not bad.
Sampled at Knoxville Brewers Jam 2010. Hazy orange in the glass with a frothy off-white head. Aroma of grass and citrus. The flavor found grass and a hoppy background. Medium body.
Every McNeills beer I’ve had over the past 6 or 7 years (all bottled) have been infected. They obviously want to sell infected beer so I’m going to rate infected beer. Nose is caramel, earthy hops, plastic & green apple. Flavor is bitter, plastic & astringent. Some toffee in the finish.
Probably not fresh.
Pour is a murky brown amber. Aroma is a mixture of hay, yeast, pine, grassy wet leaf and a bit of caramel malt. Flavor is a resin, wet hay, bitter pine needle, leaf. Really not bad at all for being over 6 months old, I would love to try this really fresh on tap, I bet its pretty damn good
bottle: very malty, piney and dry. huge head, bready malts. not really all that bitter. Decent, but underattenuated and under hopped to be in style.
has a very soft feel to it with hop that has a mint like flavor. the malts are rich with a very mellow after taste to it.
The aroma is malty and yeasty with some hay like hops. The appearance is hazy amber with lots of particles. The taste is like the aroma with a touch of bread and a lightly bitter finish. The palate is thin but smooth. Overall this is drinkable but not outstanding by any standard.
an english ale with whole fower hops. it is hoppy and abit woody and that’s about that
Nicely done IPA. Tried this on draft at Canal St. in Reading. The beer pours a copper color with a generous, thick and sticky off-white head. The nose contains notes of spicy and floral hops, hints of citrus and a bready malt. The body is extremely smooth and drinkable. The flavors are well-balanced, with a spicy, bitter and dry hop flavor combined with a substantial bready and somewhat earthy malt profile. The finish is smooth also, containing some flowery and spicy hops.
Bomber. Pours a hazy copper with small offwhite head. The aroma is juicy grapefruit with a bit of light caramel sweetness, a hint of toast, and some hoppy wafts of lemon, tangerine, and pine. The flavor is grapefruit and pine hops up front, with a little bit of alcohol burn (surprising at 5%). Toasty malt lies beneath and leads to a moderately bitter, somewhat earthy and nutty finish. Not bad.
A bomber (labelled "bottle-conditioned") into a snifter. Drank this one on the heels of Bear Republic’s Racer 5. Dead Horse is clearly a different animal than the west Coast IPAs I usually enjoy. It’s darker, maltier, and has a greatly lessened hop presence. But I enjoyed it, really. The strength is manageable and the bottle only cost me four bucks. So long as you don’t expect a hop bomb, you probably won’t be disappointed. As an aside, this particular brew was recommended in one of Michael Jackson’s books, which is probably the reason I bought it at all.
UPDATED: 30 Minutes Later...
The second half of the bottle, complete with all the sentiment and dander, was even tastier than the first, prompting me to re-rate by a couple tenths of a point. There’s definitely a lingering bitterness this go-round, that is very enjoyable. Obviously I’m a beer tightwad (I went into the store for a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog that turned out to be $15 dollars and reached for this one instead), but for four bones, this can’t be beat. Drink this, dammit!