Dogfish Head Brewing Co. - 120 Minute imperial IPA

Today's review is a rather special, rare beer that I admit I have not tried in years. That's because I haven't seen it in years. And it's not because I wasn't looking. I've sought out this beer over the past few years, only to discover that due to some supply issues, it wasn't brewed. That fact, coupled with a very limited production run, means this beer is very hard to find.

My review today is an imperial IPA that's hopped for two full hours. You may be asking yourself "what are hops?" Hops are one of the basic building blocks of beer. Hops are what gives beer a bitter, strong flavor - and all beers have a balance of hops, malt, and water. IPAs, a very common and popular kind of beer, use more hops than malts (usually) to obtain a certain taste and bitterness. Breweries like to play around with the mixture and sometimes come up with really crafty ways to deliver hops in beer.

Today's beer is made by Milton, DE-based Dogfish Head Brewery. Dogfish Head has a line of four IPAs, each hopped for a different amount of time, which affects the strength, gravity and taste of each beer. They have a 60-minute, which means the beer is hopped for a full hour. These are common, produced year-round in 6-packs, for around $11. They also release a 90-minute IPA, having been hopped for an hour and a half, and that's usually sold in 4-packs for around $11 as well. Those are readily available in the store, too. Also, you might find on draft or in bombers the 75-minute, but I think that might just be a mixture of the 60- and the 90-minute.

There's also the 120-minute. This beer, dry-hopped for a full two hours, and as a result, is extraordinarily strong. This beer is between 15% and 20% ABV, which means it's two to three times the normal strength of beer. It's also only released in individual bottles. The first time I had it, I grabbed a bottle on a whim at Whole Foods in Glastonbury, CT. Then, miraculously, they had it on cask  at Plan B Burger Bar (also in Glastonbury.) It was amazing! That was in 2010 and I haven't seen it since. Until now. 

Here it is! The awesome guys at Irving Wines and Spirits in Mount Pleasant have them. I was honestly amazed to see it. So, naturally, I grabbed three bottles. One to drink, two to save for later. It says it "ages well" on the bottle, so I expect to have these two bottles for years to come. There's just one issue about the beer - the cost.

This is expensive beer. Very limited-release, rare beers like this cost a pretty penny. Irving Wines and Spirits charges $10.99 for a single beer, or in this case, $36.99 for three. Want to grab a six-pack? Get ready to shell out $73.98. This isn't a beer to pick up for a night at a friend's - it's a specialty beer that you drink to save or taste. This isn't a session beer, at all - more than one of these and you'll be seeing stars.

So I popped one in the fridge and put the other two in my cellar, behind the wine rack. I waited for a nice day and decided to give this baby a spin. I also made sure I wasn't going anywhere or operating heavy machinery afterward. 

The beer has a deep amber color that's very pleasing. It's cloudy with lots of little bubbles and a thin, white head that dies down quickly.

The nose is very strong, with pungent hop smells and a peculiar smell of alcohol and caramel.

A fancy GIF for you, albeit shaky

After letting it breathe for a few minutes (and occasionally sticking my face in the glass to get that aroma) I eagerly brought the glass to my lips for a taste. Wow! Just as great as I remember. From the first sip, you're hit with a towering wall of warm, polished hops. There's really nothing like it. The flavor develops into a deep, woody taste reminiscent of a single-malt Scotch. The finish is warm and the flavors finish like a Scotch and soda, which is rather nice.

I really like this beer. It's got a Boulevard Smokestack-esque texture to it, thick and powerful, with lots of strong tasty flavors. It doesn't have any real bitterness or bite to it, but the hops flavors are carried well by the strong alcohol content of the beer. It's truly an experience - it's polished, deep, and definitely intoxicating.

A word of caution - while this is an amazing beer definitely worth trying, it's not for the beer novice. I do heartily recommend it for the beer aficionado who wants a unique experience. It's not a session ale, as noted above, and is only something you should consider if you're really into IPAs and really into high-gravity (and expensive) beers. I consider this brew to be the crown jewel of imperial IPAs, and it does not disappoint in power, taste, or alcohol content.

The Great Divide Brewing Company - 20th Anniversary Belgian strong pale ale

Great Divide Brewing Co., based in Denver, Colorado, makes some great stuff. I've had their Oak-Aged Yeti, a stout, which was good. Their Hercules Double IPA is not to be missed. I've been intending on reviewing the Hercules for many months now, and I've never quite gotten around to it.They also release their Old Ruffian Barleywine, which I admit I have not tried (despite having two bottles, a 2013-vintage and a new production 2014-vintage in my cellar.) As you all know, I'm a huge barleywine fan, and I've been saving my vintage bottles for a later date.

I ran across this ale a few weeks ago at Whole Foods on P Street in the Logan Circle neighborhood. It's an 8.2% ABV Belgian strong pale ale brewed with grape juice. That fact alone intrigued me, and couple with the Great Divide label, I figured it would be interesting to try.

Poured it out into my usual tasting glass.

The "eye" (how the beer looks) is pretty basic. It looks like beer. As you can see, it's yellow and thin-looking. It catches the light nicely, and turns a bright yellow. OK, not bad.

The nose is one of pungent fruit and just a hint of spiced yeast. So since I have no real prior knowledge of what's in this glass, both the nose and the eye tell me a little about what's in there. I expect it to be an unfiltered, aged Belgian ale.

The taste proves I was partially right in my assessment. It's got a solid Belgian background, but it's definitely tinged with the sweet and sugary flavor of the grape juice listed on the bottle. Which is rather cool. The mouthfeel (sorry for using a oenophile word) is thinner than a wine. It's sugary and rather nice. The finish is relatively lackluster, smooth but thin, and an aftertaste of yeast.

Conclusions: this is worth trying, but I wouldn't consider this a centerpiece of your collection. It offers a new spin on the Belgian platform, and the beer is drinkable. This would probably be good for a warm summer day, or perhaps stick this beer in the cooler when you head to the beach. But unfortunately, in the realm of tasting and trying specialty beers, this beer is pretty straightforward. It's a Belgian-style ale that's a little thinner and more sour than a Chimay, but generally basic in its taste profile and doesn't really stand out like it should.

I wonder how this might age. I'm probably not going to seek it out again - since there's a whole world of beer out there - but if I am ever motivated to grab one, I might stick in the cellar for a year or two. Aging always changes the taste of a beer, so if I'm so moved I might grab a bottle and stick it in the cellar and see if the taste becomes more refined or sweeter or what.

Fort George Brewery and Public House - "Java the Hop" IPA

My brother Dan sent me this in the last box of beer he sent. It's from Astoria, OR-based Fort George Brewing Co. It's their limted-edition winter seasonal, called "Java the Hop", which is a 6.5% ABV India pale ale brewed with coffee beans sourced from Portland coffee shop Coava Coffee Roasters. Interesting!

Now, I know what you're thinking. Another coffee beer. And normally, you'd be right. Coffee beers are rather common, mostly in stout or porter format. And honestly, while coffee is good, I'm not really intrigued or surprised anymore. I've had too many and a LOT of them are the same, and many of them aren't that great to wit. Coffee's a common ingredient in a lot of craft beers, and a lot of them taste and feel the same.

But my curiosity was piqued when I opened up the latest beer box from Seattle (or, as I like to jokingly refer to it, a Marshall Aid shipment) and I discovered Dan sent me two pint cans of Fort George's "Java the Hop." Fort George makes some good stuff, including stellar beers like the Sunrise OPA, the Cavatica Stout, and the Quick Wit summer seasonal. So I knew that whatever was in those cans was worth trying. But I was even more intrigued when I read on the can that "Java the Hop" was not a stout but an IPA! I've never had coffee IPA before, so I was really looking forward to it. I hoped that it would break the tired mold of your typical coffee stout.

The can is a pint can, so larger than most usual 6-pack cans. I cracked it open and it had a nice hiss to it, so I knew immediately it was well-carbonated...another sign that this wasn't your run-of-the-mill coffee beer. I poured it out into my usual tasting glass:

It's got a surprising color - you don't see this sort of ale-esque orange color with a coffee beer. Usually it's dark brown or black. As you can see, the light hits it nicely and turns it a bright yellow color. I'd expect such a color more from a witbier than an IPA.

One sip told me I was in for a treat. The taste is very deep and delicious, like a smooth cup of Ethiopian Harrar, but matched up with the crispness of an IPA. There's a good, strong coffee taste here that's carried well by the hops. The finish is crisp, very very crisp, and the aftertaste is a very pleasant coffee taste with some complementary alcohol flavors. I must admit I immediately longed for another gulp!

Such a combination is rather unique. It's got the cloudy orange color of a lager, the nose of an hoppy IPA, and the taste of a refined coffee stout. I've never come across a beer like that and I didn't think such a flavor combination would exist. Such a thought was, well...

I do hope to have this beer again. It was a unique flavor combination that was a true pleasure to taste.

Herencia Altés - 2011 Terra Alta garnaxia negra (Spain)

Grenache is one of my favorite grapes. "Garnaxia" is the Spanish spelling of the more widely-known French grenache, so you may have seen them used interchangeably. Anyways, grenache is a great varietal that prefers hot, dry climates. It's low in acid, which is good (in my opinion) and it's is commonly mixed with syrah, tempranillo, or cinsaut varietals. It's a bright, floral wine with a lot of fruit power behind it. It's also relatively inexpensive, so everything in combination makes it a really great everyday wine. I'd drink it everyday, without a doubt.

I like this label.

Today's wine is happens to be a 100% grenache wine made by Catalonian vineyard Herencia Altés. This wine was made at very high altitude in the Terra Altes winemaking region of Cataluna, in northern Spain. The soil there is rich in clay, and has a generally dry climate, which as you know is best suited for this grape. I've had this wine for a few years and decided to enjoy it with some prosciutto-stuffed tortelloni, whole wheat penne, a homemade pasta sauce laced with red California chiles, and some sliced white mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter.

So I did the usual thing - put it in the fridge for a few minutes to bring it down to temp, opened it up, and poured some in my glass to mix with the air. It gives off a nice aroma, mostly floral. There are some muted tannins in there, with a little hint of alcohol smells. Nothing really out of the ordinary. I'm looking forward to this wine opening up though.

Pretty color.

The taste is where this wine shines (and I do admit, I've had this before, but maybe a year or so ago, so the taste may have mellowed and changed a bit.) It's got a nice, refined taste of dark fruit and jam - nothing overbearing (unlike Raymond R+Collection's field blend.) The flavor has a good weight to it, and has a very pleasing smoky finish with a slight alcohol-flavor aftertaste. Fruit is the base element here, no surprise given the varietal, and balance is good between fruit and tannins. Very pleasing indeed!

In conclusion, this is just one delicious variant of the grenache varietal that you could find. It's a good grape, is often in blends, but does appear - as this post demonstrates - in unadulterated form that it can be very tasty. It also probably benefited from aging a bit, since a lot of big, jammy, fruity wines don't have that mellowness to their flavor. I've had some that were good, but still maintained a slight caustic alcohol burn that I could have done without. This Terra Alta grape had none of that, and delivered a strong, delicious flavor that paired well with my dinner and would also be fine for drinking really any time at all.