Review: Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

As you know here at the Cranky Beer Blog, my #1 most hyped brewery is Unibroue, so much so that I'll go out of my way to make trips to specific liquor stores JUST to buy the remaining bottles of seasonals for my hoard. One beer that gets a lot of hype (well, not so much hype as love) from my beer geek friends is Dogfish Head Craft Brewery out of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Dogfish Head is so well raved that they had to stop distributing it to Canada because they couldn't keep up with demand.

I finally get to try a Dogfish Head beer after waiting for a few years.. a 90 Minute Imperial IPA, as tribute to my American friends and today being American Thanksgiving and all (the real Thanksgiving was over a month ago ;))

Appearance: Pours a murky/hazy orange/nutty brown, an off-white layer of foam that quickly diminishes, quite an attractive beer.

Aroma: Floral, hoppy, sweet, pungent - what I expect from anything IPA related. It has a bite to it thanks to the liberal amount of hops, like what you would expect from a solid DIPA or incredibly hoppy (I)PA. Bit citrusy, and a bit caramelly from the malt.

Taste: Here we go.. the bite is immediate. It's sweet, it's bitter, it's hoppy, it's sweet... it's tasty! The bitterness of the hops hit the tongue before any other flavour gets noticed by your senses. Floral hops, a nice abundance of a caramel/citrus sweetness. It's a very solid Imperial IPA/DIPA.. reminds me slightly of such beers as Half Pints' Humulus Ludicrous and Tree's Hop Head DIPA, but sweeter.

Overall Thoughts: I now understand why people rave about Dogfish Head, they make truly delicious beer. As an aficionado of hops and Imperial/Double IPAs, I quite enjoyed this and want more. It may take me another two or more years to have another DFH beer, but it would be worth the wait!

Cheers my American beer geek friends! Happy American Thanksgiving!

www.dogfish.com/