I haven’t posted anything for a while, since I’ve been on vacation (including a two week trip to Berlin and Amsterdam), but I thought I’d review a beer I bought a while ago. I will be having a short break in homebrewing as well, since we are moving our garage brewery to a new location, and we need to do some renovating before it is ready to use. During the summer I’ve though brewed a couple of small batches (IPAs) on my old cooler + 20 liter kettle setup, which I’ll write about later. I also organized a single hop tasting with 9 beers a little over a month ago, which I hopefully will have time to write about at some point. Anyways, to the beer, which has quite a reputation in the craft beer world.
- Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewery
- Country: USA
- Style: American IPA
- ABV: 6 %
- Size: 355 ml
- Bought from: Online
- Beer Advocate
- RateBeer
This is the first time I try a beer from Dogfish Head, which is a brewery I quickly came across during my early days of my ‘beer hobby’. The brewery is one of the larger craft breweries in the USA (founded by Sam Calagione in 1995), is known for their unconventional beer, and it has featured in various TV shows (Brew Masters) and documentaries (Beer Wars) about beer. Their 60 minute IPA was released in 2003, and it is an IPA that has been hopped continuously (i.e. small additions of hops are added throughout the boil, instead of e.g. an addition at the beginning and end of the boil) throughout the 60 minute boil. The beer is 6.0% ABV and has a IBU level of, yes, 60. I don’t have much ‘official’ information on the ingredients in the beer, but from what I’ve gathered from around the internet (homebrew forums), the malt bill consists of pale ale and TF amber malt, the beer is hopped with a mixture of Warrior, Amarillo and Simcoe, and it is fermented with a Ringwood-related yeast strain. My bottle was bottled in the middle of March 2014, so it isn’t super-fresh, but still fresher then many US beers you find around here. The beer sounds interesting on paper, but does it live up to the hype?
[easyreview title=”Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours crystal clear, and it has a deep golden color (with some slight hints of orange). A massive fluffy head is formed during pour, and it collapses slowly, leaving drapes of lacing along the glass. A really nice appearance!” cat1rating=”4.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma is mostly hop-dominated at first, featuring tones of pine resin, mango and candied citrus zest. You can detect a slight maltiness in the background, contributing with tones of caramel and freshly toasted bread. As the beer warms up, the maltiness becomes more and more evident. Not the typical West Coast IPA aroma that one is used to.” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The taste begins with a bready maltiness, with tones of toasted malts and caramel. These are then joined by an earthy, dank, resiny hoppiness. Some citrus and tropical fruits hide in the background, but I assume Amarillo dominated the dry hops, while Simcoe dominates the kettle hops. The finish is semi-dry and during the first sips, the bitterness seems surprisingly low for an IPA. The flavors are quite well balanced, but wished there was slightly more bitterness and a little less of the maltiness present, as it feels more like a hoppy amber ale at the moment. As the beer warms up, the bitterness level seems to increase a bit.” cat3rating=”3.5″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a moderate body and carbonation level, and it is quite easily drinkable. However, the combination of toastiness and bitterness draw away from it slightly. This would not be my first choice for a thirst quencher on a warm summer day.” cat4rating=”3.5″ summary=”Overall a great beer, but it didn’t really live up to the huge expectations. This was a malty IPA that had more focus on toasted malts than caramel. The hop profile (with more weight towards resin, earthiness and dankness) fit the toasty maltiness well though, as I feel really fruity hops tend to clash with toasted (and roasted) malts. I have a bottle of 90 Minute IPA as well, which I will be trying next. Hopefully it impresses me more!”]