all the same song

Beer Review 0376: Dogfish Head Sixty-One IPA

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Dogfish Head’s (Milton, Delaware) latest creation, Sixty-One, was created by Sam Calagione mixing something or other together with one of his successful year-round beers.

Yep.

We’re not saying that is a bad thing; obviously, we haven’t had the beer yet, which is the point of this review. But most Dogfish beers seem to come about this way, and some of them are hits…while some, quite frankly, are misses. See Te Henket, the 4.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) beer brewed with chamomile, Za’atar, and dom-palm fruit. Feel free to look those last two up on Wikipedia, because I had to. Stick an $11.99 price tag on that sucker and you’ve got yourself a mess of a beer, which I rated 71 points.

Moving forward…they can’t all be hits. A new year-round offering for 2013, Sixty-One is Dogfish’s 60 Minute IPA (my rating: 95 points) blended with syrah grape must from California. Midas Touch, anyone? (my Midas Touch rating: 83 points)

Perhaps just as interesting as the beer is the label, which was painted by Mr. Calagione himself. Mixing green pigment with beer and red pigment with wine, he came up with the label, and used melted chocolate for the brown colors. Sixty-One comes in at 6.5% ABV.

The pour made an average size, off-white colored head, creamy and sudsy in texture, and with a lasting quality. The beer itself was amber/red in color, with a brilliantly clear body, and no particles or sediment. Lacing was very good, leaving thin but creamy solid sheets on the non-sipping side of my glass.

On the nose, there’s an odd combination of grassy, herbal hops that mix with a touch of jammy grape. Couple that with an almost boozy note, and you’ve got more of a separation than a blend. By that, I mean I could distinctly pick out the wine and beer aspects of this drink moreso than the aromas blending together to make something new or unique. As it warmed, I noticed some of the more classic 60 Minute IPA aromas coming out, like a hint of grapefruit and some grain.

Tasting, and the palate is presented with some watery grape and mild grapefruit up front, with an herbal, tea-like middle that really brings out the vinous syrah grape must, leading to a finish of dry grape, earthy hops and grainy malt backbone. Like the nose, if you allow it to warm, you start to get more of the classic 60 Minute profile, especially on the finish; the solid malts and earthy, grapefruit hops. I found Sixty-One to be light-bodied, with a thin, foamy mouthfeel.

Like all Dogfish beers, this one is interesting, but it doesn’t do much for me. This isn’t really an IPA, and honestly, I expected a lot more flavor than what’s here. This surely is like mixing some wine with a 60 Minute IPA, and I’m disappointed by that. I could do that myself in my own kitchen!

Dogfish Head Sixty-One IPA, 75 points. Price: $2.49 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Beer Review 0326: Dogfish Head Burton Baton Imperial IPA

There haven’t been many Dogfish Head (Milton, Delaware) beers that I haven’t reviewed, but Burton Baton, a 10% ABV (alcohol by volume) Imperial IPA, seems to have slipped through the cracks.

To get to the bottom of Dogfish’s Burton Baton, we must first look to Ballantine Brewery, founded in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey, by Peter Ballantine, an immigrant from Scotland. While Ballantine became known for their Pale Ale, they also had a beer called Burton Ale, which was aged 10-20 years in wooden tanks prior to bottling. Brewed similar to a Barleywine, Burton Ale was never commercially sold; instead, it was given as gifts to Ballantine distributors and VIPs. People are still collecting these bottles today — in fact, some who have tried it say the beer is still complex in flavor, although faded, with up to sixty years of storage.

Today, Pabst Brewing Company owns Ballantine. But Dogfish Head have taken Burton Ale to a new level — naming their beer Burton Baton, a show of respect of the brewing ‘baton’ being passed. The Dogfish brew is a blend; one part is an English-style old ale, while the other part is Imperial IPA. Both threads are fermented in stainless steel tanks, but combined in a 10,000 gallon oak tank, where the liquid sits for one month while being dosed with a massive amount of hops (over one pound per barrel). As previously mentioned, the ABV is 10%, and the IBUs (International Bitterness Units) come in at 70.

Burton Baton pours an average size head, bright white and creamy in texture. The beer is a vibrant golden-amber color, and it’s so hazy that it is opaque. I didn’t notice any substantial particles or sediment, and the lacing was excellent, leaving behind spider webs of suds from top of my glass to base.

The aromatics are interesting on this beer, to say the least — with the bottle being dated June 8, 2102, this one has about eight months of age on it, which has subdued the grapefruit and pine hops to mere background notes to a big refrain of woodsy oak and butterscotch. There are hints of vanilla and a mild alcohol presence, which combine with a large caramel wash to make this nearly creme brûlée. Think of this like a sweet dessert served on a plank of wood, with a side of hops that have been watered down. It’s quite pleasant.

On the taste, there’s boozy warm caramel that shadows off into shades of grapefruit and general citrus hops. This beer is sweet and confectionary-like, but it has a woodsy balance that gives off a nice edge that stops the sweetness from being cloying. The finish comes on with a big hit of oak and strangely enough, burnt toast. This extra brown toast continues until the beer completely fades from the palate, leaving behind just a raw oak. The alcohol is present, but not overly so, gently warming the body. Burton Baton is full-bodied, with a medium mouthfeel — and a creamy texture.

I’ve had other oak aged Imperial IPAs and haven’t been too impressed with the style. This beer is impressive, and it ages well, becoming a woodsy malt bomb in just eight months. I would love to review this one ultra fresh, to see if those grapefruit and pine hops come out to play. Toss a bottle of this in your next mix-six pack.

Dogfish Head Burton Baton Imperial IPA, 90 points. Price: $3.99 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Redux Review 0008: Dogfish Head World Wide Stout

Exactly one year ago, I reviewed Dogfish Head’s (Milton, Delaware) World Wide Stout, an 18% ABV (alcohol by volume) monster of a beer that was once the strongest beer in the world. The bottle I reviewed last year was produced in December 2010, so the beer already had thirteen months of age on it when I gave it a first sample.

My initial World Wide Stout review looked like this:

Appearance: 13 of 15 points
Aroma: 10 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 35 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 28 of 35 points

Final Score: 86 points, or very good to excellent on my rating scale.

In my first review, I noted the aroma of World Wide Stout took on a heavy solvent note, no doubt thanks to the big ABV. While the flavors were great and almost entirely too complex to describe with words, drinkability suffered due to the alcohol, which was overly present in the taste.

Here we are in 2013, and I have a bottle from the same batch, which has an additional year of age, bringing this beer up to 25 months old. What has changed? Is this still as complex as it was before, and has drinkability improved?

Since my last review, Dogfish Head have announced they will return to brewing this beer after a short hiatus. The next bottles will be released in December 2013.

It’s time to take a visit to one of the harder beers to review, simply because it is so unique, more like port than beer.

The pour produced a murky brown beer that was topped by an average size head, much more head than I got from the last bottle. It hung around for a good while, too, and you could see light bits of particles and sediment floating in the beer. As expected for such a high gravity brew, this one left no lacing, but there were plenty of alcohol legs when the drink was agitated.

Talk about a night and day difference — we have it in the aroma, which sees that solvent note turned way down, almost absent. Shining through are the plentiful dark fruits; prunes, raisins, figs, and fleshy, ripe grape. The raisins aren’t quite to rum-soaked level, but it’s close. And lurking in the background are actual typical Stout aromas — some caramel, and a small note of chocolate. A small whiff of oxidation is present, too. Overall, much improved with the added year of age.

The taste sees a greeting from sweet caramel and raisin up front, mixing wonderfully together, which leads to a big punch from the ever-present alcohol. It’s a nice warming sensation that opens the beer to plenty of those dark fruits found in the aroma, along with notes of pear and sweet molasses. The finish rides out more of the dark fruits, along with a small note of coffee and some chocolate. The exiting flavors seem to go on forever. World Wide Stout is full-bodied just because of the alcohol, but the mouthfeel is on the low side of medium with a creamy texture. At 25 months old, the carbonation is still average.

Without a doubt, this is a much improved beer with more time. Again, the drinkability suffers, but nowhere near as much as it did last year. I think with more age, this beer opens itself up to a wider audience. If you can obtain a bottle, I think you should — and wait at least two years to open it.

We’ll be checking in again once another few months have passed.

In redux:

Appearance: 14 of 15 points
Aroma: 12 of 15 points
Flavor and Palate: 33 of 35 points
Drinkability/Overall Experience: 31 of 35 points

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, 90 points. Price: $9.95 US for one twelve ounce bottle.

Beer Review 0279: Dogfish Head Sah’tea

Sahti is a traditional Finnish beer made with either malted or unmalted grain, juniper berries in the place of hops, and then filtered through juniper twigs in a trough-shaped tun called a kuurna. Sahti has a distinct banana flavor due the production of isoamyl acetate by the yeast. Although mostly homebrewed in the past, many commercial brewers are today producing their own versions of this style of beer.

Dogfish Head (Milton, Delaware) have a Sahti beer, called Sah’tea, which they release once per year as part of their ‘Ancient Ale’ series; all these beers come in 750 ml bottles and are based on recipes that are thousands of years old. Dogfish’s take on the style sees the wort caramelized over white-hot river rocks, and the yeast used is a German weizen. The brew uses natural Finnish juniper berries, and Dogfish put their (as always) unique twist on things by dosing in black tea.

Sah’tea comes in at 9% ABV (alcohol by volume), which is about average for the style, and registers 6 IBUs (International Bitterness Units).

The pour made an average size, quickly diminishing head that was soapy and frothy. The color of the beer was a nice and bright golden-orange, and there was heavy, chunky yeast throughout the body of the drink, which made it quite cloudy. Lacing was fair, offering up a couple of thin pieces here and there.

The aromatics reminded me very much of a Belgian Tripel — straight banana bread up front, enhanced by a doughy, earthen yeast, along with notes of bubblegum and clove. There’s some candied orange here, too; and this drink is sweet to the nose, with an exotic tea note that throws the sniffer for a bit of a loop, but it enhances the overall aromatic picture. Nice.

Dogfish’s Sah’tea is tart up front, sort of a sour grape/lemon thing going on, and it quickly changes to bready and banana notes. In my research on the Sahti style, I found that sour notes are an indication that the beer has been stored too long — I had been sitting on this bottle for about nine months. While it did have a decent amount of tartness to it, I didn’t think it impacted the beer negatively.

The brew starts off a bit light but ramps up to full-flavored quickly, delivering a blast of very sweet candied burnt orange, black tea, and juniper. The tartness came back on with more of that underlying sour grape and lemon, then a final hit of sweetness came on the finish, which reminded me of really sugary classic pink bubblegum. Full body here, with a medium mouthfeel that was quite foamy thanks to a lively carbonation.

This is a nice beer very similar to a Belgian Tripel, but with an oddball sourness (thanks to what I now know was my extended aging) and tea note. I thought those two differences added to the flavor profile and this is a highly drinkable beer; however, I don’t think I could finish a bottle of this because it is a little too sweet. Best to have a couple of friends to share this one with — and you better hope they don’t mind large chunky particles of yeast floating in their beer.

Dogfish Head Sah’tea, 89 points. Price: $12.99 US for one 750 ml bottle.

Redux Review 0006: Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

Happy Halloween! Here’s a redux review and a small vertical tasting all-in-one. Last year, I reviewed Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, their autumn seasonal, and gave it 80 points. At 7% ABV (alcohol by volume), this pumpkin beer seemed like it might be a good candidate to hold onto for a year and see how it changes. So, I did — and when the 2012 version recently came out, I picked up a bottle to do a redux review and a vertical tasting.

Punkin was one of the very first pumpkin beers on the market, with roots all the way back to 1994. The beer made its debut at an event held in southern Delaware called ‘Punkin Chunkin,’ where competitors build homemade contraptions to see who can launch a pumpkin the furthest. In addition to the pumpkin throwing, there are a bevy of pumpkin inspired food and drink — and in 1994, Dogfish’s Sam Calagione brought his pumpkin beer to the event. It took home first prize in the pumpkin recipe contest.

Brewed with real pumpkin, organic brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, Punkin is basically a spiced-up Brown Ale. I find that Punkin tends to be one of the more popular pumpkin beers, and people seem to really go after this brew…probably because it’s from Dogfish. Punkin sees release each September 1, and Dogfish is to be applauded for not saturating the market with the early release of a pumpkin seasonal.

For this review, I sampled both the 2011 and 2012 versions of Punkin side-by-side. We’ll start with my take on the fresh 2012 batch:

The pour served up an average size, creamy head that quickly diminished. The liquid was amber-orange in color, had a clear body, and was free of particles and sediment. As I drank, there were a few small bits of lacing that clung to the glass.

The aromatics were fairly basic and good for a pumpkin beer: The pumpkin was up front, and mixed well with the generous helping of allspice and nutmeg. Caramel was a prominent part of the backbone, along with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Other than the sweetness, this didn’t really have much in common with a brown ale other than a sweet bread-like scent.

On the palate, Punkin 2012 offers toasted bread, which picks up the spice component well — there’s ample cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and even some clove. The pumpkin was present, too, but it’s more of a background offering. The finish delivered caramel sweetness with just a touch of bitterness from some burnt toast. Mouthfeel was thin and foamy, with average carbonation.

I thought the fresh batch was a little too generous on the spice and didn’t go enough in with the pumpkin; however, I felt like I could drink a couple of these, which is saying a lot for a pumpkin beer.

Dogfish Head Punkin (2012), 86 points. Price: $7.99 for a four-pack.

Punkin 2011

The pour on the aged version produced the same average sized, creamy head that the new bottle made, only it faded a bit faster. Again, the beer was amber-orange, and the body was clear, free of particles and sediment. There was a small amount of some sparse lacing. Nearly identical to the 2012.

Here’s where things begin to get vastly different: the aroma featured no pumpkin at all, and what we had here was truly a faded Brown Ale — sweet caramel/toffee up front, providing a base for sweet bread notes with just a slight hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. I wouldn’t call it a bad scent, by any means… just faded, and with no pumpkin.

The taste brings on a nice bit of caramel but then a sharp toasted bread; middle of the mouth has some of the pumpkin/yam, but very faint, ushering on a finish that is moderately bitter with a definite taste of alcohol. I didn’t detect any of the spices used in this beer on the palate, which was a shame.

Bottom line: don’t age Punkin. I’m thinking you want to enjoy this within six months of bottling, or better yet, just drink it while its on the shelf.

A brief capsule:

2012: Smoother, more pumpkin flavor, lots (maybe too much) of the spices.
2011: Softer in terms of spice, but lacks pumpkin flavor. Does have a nice caramel flavor, but any advantage is lost here with the alcoholic and bitter finish.

Dogfish Head Punkin (2011), 77 points. No longer available.