Beer Review: Dogfish Head Brewpub visit June 18, 2009
My last few trips to the DFH brewpub have resulted in poor timed “between good stuff” visits. Last night was a different story; I tried 3 brews that were “new to me!”.
Sah’tea
“Trained in the ancient art of Sah’tea…….”
Catherine decided to give this one a whirl with very little knowledge of the brew. Our waitress was not very knowledgeable, pleasant – but read the descriptions from notes. When it arrived in a small, thin challis style glass the first sip was a little confusing. Catherine defined it well “I am not sure this beer knows what it wants to be”. I headed to the rest room and on the way back saw the promo flyer for Sah’tea on the wall and brought it back to the table. The description there was much more helpful trying to pin down the brew. The brew is “confused” but I think a better word is complex. REALLY complex. Catherine felt better about her pallet when she read the description with the combo of rye, German Weizen yeast, juniper berries foraged directly from the Finnish country-side along with a sort of tea made with black tea, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and black pepper. CRAZY! On top of it, the wort is hot rock boiled. You say “what?!” I say “They’ve got video!”
Catherine liked it enough to order another.
75 Minutes IPA – from Johnny Cask
I heard about this infamous “blend” of the 60 and 90 minutes IPA a little while ago. When I saw it was on Cask for the evening – I was already ordering! The sticky sweet IPA was a delight! Served at “cellar” temperature in a pub glass this brew was amber in color with a 2 finger-thick head. It was a great match for the 60-minute IPA battered Fish & Chips I had. The hops on this was up front and strong but mellow and sweet. The balance was there and enough alc. to warm but not take away from the smooth mouth feel. WIN!
Altar Boy
After having the waitress go ask the bartender what this was, I decided to try one. This was a complete surprise and a very nice brew. To give you a description, I will rip off some copy here from DFH:
Alter Boy is a Belgian Dubbel that is being aged in Bourbon barrels, it will be 7% alc. when finished. It’s a very balanced malty beer that uses Belgian Pilsner, Biscuit, Munich, Special B, and Vienna malts, as well as Belgian Candi Sugar in the recipe. The Bourbon barrels will add notes of oak, bourbon, vanilla and caramel that will really complent the the maltiness of the beer. The beer has been aging in the barrels for over a month and has really come together nicely.
I dig Dubbels and the bourbon barrel aging adds a real upfront “bourbon” blast. This one grew on me as I worked through it discovering the malty sweetness and bourbon hints and alc. combination making a nice sipper. I almost would see this as a cool weather brew verses a summer one, but good is good. I can see this being enjoyed in October on a cold rainy day. That would rule.
More at DFH’s site about the Altar Boy
With all the fun that is the internet, the birth of the prequels and the reedits and readds and repackage and well too much really, Star Wars was gotten tarnished. Think of a time when there was such joy in an x-wing fighter, or “using the force” with magnets.
