Sunday, December 18, 2016

December 18 - Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (2012)



This is a hard pill for me to swallow.  Back in 2012 I purchased a bottle of beer from my local bottle shop, Bottleworks, after finally finding the "holy grail of beers", at least in my own mind.  It was pricey, at $15 for a 12oz bottle, but I had been looking for this beer forever and just couldn't find it unless I wanted to drop over $200 on a case.



Thankfully, just a few weeks ago, PA has passed legislation to allow local distributors to break open cases and sell things in smaller quantities.  I'll definitely try something that is more expensive as long as I can get a bottle or 4 at a time.  No one in their right mind can justify dropping that much on a case.  If you can, you're a better person than me.

Me either...do you man!

In any event, this bottle has been sitting in my beer room and has since made it's way downstairs to cellar at 50-ish degree temperatures in the basement.  My brother-in-law has busted my chops about having this and still not drinking it, especially after 4 years.

Yeah...he feels the same way

Well, tonight is the annual cookie baking extravaganza at our place.  The ladies take care of the cooking baking while my brother-in-law and I sample some beers.  I figure it's time to pop the top and see what 4 years of aging has done to this 18% ABV behemoth.

Funny enough, 2 years ago, while visiting the DFH brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, DE, my wife, her sister and husband (again my brother-in-law) got a chance, sans children, to have dinner together outside on their patio.  When the waitress came to take our order, my brother-in-law asked the waitress "what did Sam have in his secret stash?"  We all kinda looked at him like, "what the hell are you talking about?"  When the waitress told him that she would check and come back to report I looked at him a certain kind of way...

What just happened?????

Sure enough she came back with a vintage bottle of 2014 120 minute IPA.  It was 2015 at the time, so it had some time to develop in the bottle.  Later that week, my wife and I had the opportunity to re-visit the brewpub for IPA day and their release of he 2015 version of 120 minute IPA.  Right off the line and into the keg isn't the way to go for this beer to be honest.  At 18-21% (best part was they weren't too sure!) it was OK, but the flavors in the year-old aged version were soooooo much better.  Very malty and bitter with lack of underlying flavors if I remember correctly.



OK, enough back story and build up.  Onto the beer!

As to be expected, there were some floating yeasties here in this translucent, hazy golden brew.  There was some awesome lacing the entire way through.  I think anyway...I shared 4 ounces with my brother in law and my wife polished off a good chunk of my glass seen below.

The aroma was just simply a sweet caramel that, if possible, smelled super viscous and thick-syrupy.  It almost reminded me of the DFH 75 minute cask IPA that they bottle with almost a maple syrupy sweet smell.  As for the taste, for an IPA, things have considerably mellowed out here and there was a balance of sorts, but there was virtually no hop presence whatsoever.  This was a nice and mellow, 18%+ beer with a mild alcohol bite with a ton of sweetness to go around.  The caramel sweetness punches you in the face!



Definitely worth the wait, but I probably should have enjoyed it a year or two ago to get some of that IPA hop profile that I enjoy.  However, I still rate this as high as possible at a 5 out of 5!  I'd tell you to pick this up, but according to Untappd (for obvious reasons) it's no longer in production.  In the future, pick up the 120 minute IPA and, if possible, do a vertical tasting, year by year.  You may have to invest some money in that, but if you're up for it, have at it!




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