World Wide Stout (bottle) - 3.8

World Wide Stout
Imperial Stout
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
ABV: 18%

Like the rest of America, we watched the premiere of "Brew Masters" on Sunday. Then, like the rest of America, we got a serious hankerin' for some Dogfish Head. (Watching an entire television program about a beer without having said beer on hand for sampling is NOT advised.) So when Mallory came home with two bottles of World Wide Stout today, we lasted a solid 6 hours before cracking them open. Beer on TV is super awesome, but get ready for Dogfish to be even pricier and harder to find in the months to come.

Mallory & Jon:
Black as night; light doesn't have a chance of getting through this beer. Little carbonation and head, as expected. Big alcohol on the nose, with a nice initial mix of chocolate, coffee, and a fairly hefty fig/prune/port aroma reminiscent of barley wine. Hang on to that chocolate/coffee goodness at the start, because once you get going on this it starts to behave more like a barley wine and less like a stout. Not that that's all bad, but we like our stouts to be smoky and roasty, and that just isn't the avenue that this stout happens to be going down. More flavors open up as it starts to warm up; some hints of spice and oily espresso can be found in the finish. The finish doesn't scream "stout," but then again, the nose doesn't even whisper it. Extra points for making a bad-ass Discovery show; minus points for inflated price and bad categorization. New genre suggestion: Stoutly Wine.

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GABF 2009

The Great American Beer Festival was over a month ago, but I can still taste it like it was yesterday. Here's some of the great stuff I came across:

• I had somehow never tried a brew by Shmaltz Brewing despite the fact that I've passed it by at more than one local liquor store. What a mistake! The Bar Mitzvah 13th Anniversary Ale was great--built like a barley wine with lots of extra hops, very balanced. They also put out a rye IPA that I will definitely be looking for again.
• I finally got to try Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale and it didn't disappoint. It had a sweet maple syrup nose with herby, peppery undertones. Complexity can be good.
• I once drank an awful green chili beer in New Mexico that I thought had ruined me on the concept forever, but CooperSmith's green chili beer won me back. Reminiscent of Twisted Pine's Billy's Chilies, maybe even a tad more flavorful.
• Dogfish Head always brings some crazy stuff to the GABF, but they topped themselves this year with a beer they call Chicha. This selection was brewed in a traditional South American method which apparently involves chewing and spitting out the maize that goes into the beer in order to break down the starches. Brewer saliva? I couldn't pass that up! It was very sweet and floral, heavily dominated by the flavor of strawberries (not sure if the strawberries they used made it into any mouths or not). One of the most interesting beers I've had the pleasure of drinking, at least in terms of back-story.
• I got another taste of Sam Adam's Utopias this year (I somehow missed it last year), which I already wrote about in 2007 so I'm not sure why I'm bringing it up again. Oh right, because it's frickin' epic! Everyone needs to try this stuff. Seriously.

I'll be there again next year, and you should be too. Hurray beer!

-Jon

90 Minute Imperial IPA (bottled) - 4.0

90 Minute Imperial IPA
Imperial India Pale Ale
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
ABV: 9%

Jon:
Grassy nose, clings to the glass well. Sugary on the tongue, but a firmly bitter finish. Intense stuff.

4.0	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 4/5 9/10 3/5 8/10 3/5 5/5 8/10

Mark:
It's like hoppy liquid bread. Mmmm... beer meals. :)

4.2	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 4/5 9/10 4/5 9/10 3/5 5/5 8/10

Jere:
Definitely thick, and my, what a kick! But at $10 for a 4-pack, this one won't be added to the favorites list anytime soon.

3.8	Appearance Aroma Palate Flavor Price Buzz Overall 3/5 8/10 4/5 8/10 3/5 4/5 8/10