Tuesday Afternoon at the Dogfish Head Brew Pub

Heaven

Last night I posted about a new Dogfish Head beer in the musician inspired series of collaborations with Sony Legacy. While I was extremely excited to try and write about Hellhound, I feel like the brew pub exclusives that we enjoyed deserved some attention as well.


I've been lucky enough to make it down to the Rehoboth brew pub a handful of times over that last 5 years. I'm sure some folks will go right for their favorite DFH stand-by, whether it be the 60 Minute IPA, the 90 Minute IPA or something a bit more sessionable like the Shelter Pale Ale or the Lawnmower Light. I went right for the experimental goodies. This is the gold in my opinion. Brew pub exclusives, some of which will never make it to large production. Here we go.

Dogfish Head Noble Rot

Noble Rot is explained to be some what like a saison but with pinot gris grapes. It pours cloudy bright orange with little to no head or lacing. It smells of lightly sour citrus with hints of grape. Huge bright flavors up front that include the pinot gris grapes, some spice and a hint of sour funk. Tastes very much like wine. The beer settles in exactly as it arrived, bold crisp and sweet. It finishes clean and sour. It feels thin to medium thin in body.

I'm very glad that this was a snifter pour. Not counting the relatively high 8.3% ABV, it has a big smack to the palate of flavor. It's very good in my opinion as it blends the good qualities of a saison with a pinot gris wine.

Dogfish Head Ta Henket

Ta Henket is one of Dogfish Head's "ancient ales". It's brewed with emmer wheat, dom-palm fruit, chamomille and zatar. Cloudy clear, thin head that stays at the edge, very loose quick lacing, bright orange in color. The aroma has earthy grassy notes, creamy almost a hint of green onion? Weird.

Immediately I noticed how odd and complex this beer is. Lots of mild spices and earthy notes work very well together. Doesn't taste or feel like a beer at all. But, what is beer really? The middle is mildly sweet and creamy and it finishes clean and easy with little after taste. Most of the ingredients are completely new to me, so I did not know exactly what to expect. They combine to produce a very complex and focused beer. This is one of the most unique beers I've ever encountered as far as flavor. While it does have a lot of "new to me" flavors its fairly easy on the palate as they all work well together to a focused center. This could easily be a session beer. I'm hoping that this one eventually gets bottled.

Dogfish Head Fungus Tea'Mungus

Fungus Tea'Mungus is described as an American wild ale that is "Kombucha tea inspired with leom peel, Assam and Sencha teas and fermented with Kombucha and other wild yeasts". I've been getting in to the wild ales recently so I was happy to try this.

It pours light clear orange with a decent fluffy white head and quick lacing The aroma brings sharp spiced citrus and mild sour notes. Prominent tea flavors take over the beginning of the tasting. As some spice kicks in we begin to lean toward a chai flavor profile. Some nice citrus notes appear towards the middle. Finishes bitter and sour.

Another very unique brew from DFH. I found this to be very enjoyable and easy on the palate. I'd explain this to others as a chai spiced mild sour. I'd order again and would purchase bottles if it ever got that far. 

Dogfish Head Black & Red

The beast of the day was Black & Red which is described as "A dry minted stout with a serious fruit problem" It pours pitch black, huge tan head, sticky thin lacing. It's just plain gorgeous. The first whif is of mint. MINT! Lots of it. Smells of a thin mint cookie as some chocolate notes sneak in behind the mint. This is certainly a first for me. The mint is not nearly as prominent in the flavor, its very mild. This was a relief. The mint gives way to huge fruit flavors. I picked up blueberry, raspberry and cherries. A lot of fruit. Like, a smack in the face of fruit. Mild chocolate roast notes in the middle mellow things out a bit. Finishes tart with a long lingering after taste.

A truly unique brew. At no point was the ABV noticeable, which is surprising at 10.5%. This does not feel like a stout to me at all. This is a flavor bomb and is very heavy on the palate. It took me more than 30 minutes to finish a snifter. This one is definitely not for the average beer drinker. I am very split on this beer. I really enjoyed the experience but I feel that this needs some more work if it were to be produced for distribution. It's almost startling. I wonder how it would age?  

Dogfish Head Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Ale

Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Ale 
A new IPA to the Dogfish Head fleet. This one is a bit more fruity and citrusy. I did a full write up on this one last night, check it out here.

Dogfish Head Namaste

As our afternoon came to a close I decided to end with a pint of Namaste. This is DFH's interpretation of the Belgian white style that has been mass-marketed bastardized by the people at Blue Moon.
Namaste needs no sliced orange on the rim as it's brewed with dried organic orange slices. Also in the mix is fresh cut lemon grass and toasted coriander. I've enjoyed this brew several times.

It pours cloudy light orange/yellow with a big fluffy white head and sticky thin lacing The smell is of mild citrus and spice notes with a hint of creaminess. The flavor is sharp and crisp lemony citrus, coriander spice with a creamy chewyness. Finishes very clean. It's a very well balanced and enjoyable session beer.

Excellent representation of the style. Does not push the envelope at all but completely nails the style. This is a very good and easy to drink beer. I will keep this one on hand for my friends that always order those mass produced and artificial tasting witbiers

So, that was our afternoon. It was fantastic. In true awesome-wife form, Erin volunteered to be sober driver. I love her. Very much:) Cheers.

Beer Review: Dogfish Head Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Ale

Fresh Snifter Pour

My wife and I are down in Delaware for a few days on vacation. She wanted to surprise me with a trip to the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth for an afternoon of fun. The secret got out a few days before our trip. I was extremely excited for this day. I dutifully did my homework and saw that there were four or five brew pub exclusives on tap this week, all of which I had never had. I was able to enjoy all of them. What really excited me was the beer I had not yet heard of, Hellhound.

From what I've read this is the second in the series of the Sony collaboration, a follow up to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. I had not heard one peep of this brew prior to arriving. I am a music fanatic and was very pleased with Bitches Brew. Being a Miles Davis nut I was like a pig in shit when this one finally came out. Finding out that there's another in the series? Hell yeah. It's on. I feel like I've struck gold. I was quite excited that it was on draft at the brew pub. We were able to leave with two 750ml bottles to take home. We were told that this is a production batch and that we will see it in stores.

Full bottle shot

Hellhound is an imperial India pale ale brewed with lemons. IPA is a style that is not at all new to the folks at Dogfish head. Their sessionable 60 Minute IPA, hop bomb 90 Minute IPA and cellar dweller booze bomb 120 Minute IPA are all regulars in my household. Their Burton Baton is a nice oak aged imperial IPA and their brew pub/ale house exculsive 75 Minute IPA are both very enjoyable. Their Spring seasonal ApriHop is a excellent tart fruit IPA. So, why do we need yet another IPA from Dogfish Head? It appears to be about inspiration here.

When we first arrived it was not yet tapped. About an hour in to our visit the bartender told us that it was on an ready to pour. One please! He poured a fresh one in to a snifter for me. It appears light hazy copper with big off white fluffy head and sticky lacing. The aroma is of sweet sticky non-bitter hop notes, not much else surprisingly.

The flavor is surprisingly mild with earthy hop notes up front. It has a sweet and lemon juicy feel to it. Creamy sweet middle with some grapefruit and bitter lemon notes, with a fading bitter finish. This is not the hop bomb I expected. It feels medium to light-medium bodied and only a hint of alcohol warmth. Very enjoyable and not very heavy on the palate.

Overall I'd have to say that Hellhound is a very good representation of the imperial IPA style. Much more fruity than I expected. This is an excellent alternative to the 90 min IPA if you don't want the overwhelming bitter bops and alcohol feel. This clocks in at a slightly higher ABV than the 90 but you wouldn't know it at all. I really do enjoy (the side effects of) high gravity and high ABV brews, but sometimes it's just not practical or convenient to enjoy them. This one will sneak up on you. It's incredibly easy to drink for 10% alcohol by volume. A full pint will have you feeling warm and fuzzy.

In my opinion, success in brewing is achieved when all ingredients are represented in flavor and aroma and the alcohol content is well hidden.  This one is very close to being perfect for me. The aroma was a tad underwhelming. If it the smell matched the flavor profile they'd have hit a home run. Instead, they hit a triple which subsequently got two runs in.

So, I've got two big bottles to bring home to Baltimore to share. Who want's to come over for a tasting?

I'll be completing a full write up of the brew pub exclusives Noble Rot, Ta Henket, Fungus Tea'Mungus and Black & Red sometime later this week when we get home. Check my Twitter posts (@AleThoughts) for pictures and a few tasting notes.

Here are some close ups of the bottle label.