[Cellar Review] Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (Vintage 2013 - one year later)

Brewed By: Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at ??? in IL; 2013 (bottled on date: 02/??/13)

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA/American Strong Ale, 15.0% ~ 20.0% 
Reported IBUs: 120

It's been a little over exactly one year since I reviewed the 2013 batch of 120 Minute IPA. It seems like we are due for an update. About Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head is a craft brewery based out of Milton, Delaware. The brewery was founded by Sam Calagione back in 1995. The brewery began as a brewpub (the first in Delaware) called Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, and was originally located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The initial brewing setup included three kegs and propane burners. They brewed 12-gallon batches of beer three times a day, five days a week. In 1996 the brewery began bottling their beer, and by 1999 they had distribution to around a dozen different states. In 2002 the company outgrew their Rehoboth location, and moved to Milton, Delaware. More info can be found HERE. You can also check out the brewery's Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, or Google Page. 

I'm not going to introduce the 120...if you care that much, check out my original review. I'm not sure if the bottle I'm opening tonight came from West Lakeview Liquors where I bought the bottle I reviewed back in 2013. This may be from a batch brewed slightly later, possibly purchased from Binny's. The bottled on date is smudged, but what is visible is: "Bottled On: 02/??/13." With that said, let's get this beer into a glass and see what's going on.

[Cellar Review] Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (Vintage 2013)

The appearance is already starting to lighten up a bit, with the beer pouring into a semi-hazy dark orange body. The body has some nice gold tones, with some amber as well. The beer kicks up a finger's worth of amber-tinted head, and the head leaves webs of lacing, followed by glossy alcohol legs. Bright light really reveals the beautiful golden-orange body, but you can see the suspended yeast mucking up the beer in bright light as well. There's nice carbonation and some head retention as well. 

As far as the aroma goes, this has already begun the march towards becoming a full blown Barleywine. Gone are the intense plums and candi sugars. Gone is the boozy apricot and tangerine. I'm getting big pine, toffee, pine sap, maple syrup, marzipan, dark sugars, brown sugar, molasses, and underlying hops. There's still some boozy pine, orange, and lemon on the nose...but this beer is closer to a Barleywine at this point in time than it is a boozy Imperial IPA. It's incredible what one year of aging can do to a beer. 

The taste has held up better than the aroma. While the front end is loaded with pine, pine sap, maple syrup, marzipan, and huge brown sugars, the mids hit you with boozy apricot and guava, orange and tangerine sweetness, sugary Pine-Sol, and boozy raspberries that are inherent to DFH's high gravity lineup. I'm getting a lot of dense, boozy sweetness, with huge raspberries, candied citrus, fruity plums, and big fruity alcohol. The beer has cakey malt sweetness, and there's still some enamel-crushing hop kick. This tastes like it could easily mellow out for another year or two. The finish also cleans up relatively dry, all things considered. 

After a year, this is still full-bodied, dense, and over-the-top. This beer is insanely sweet, and it's boozy. At around 15%-20%, you'd expect that. The beer has a good mouthfeel with lots of carbonation, hop kick, booze, sugar, and a surprisingly dry and slightly bitter finish. The 120 IBUs are hardly noticeable on the huge malty backdrop, but you do pick up some alcohol. Palate depth and duration are outstanding, and complexity is very high as well. While the aroma of this vintage has turned into a Barleywine, the beer still tastes like a mix of an American Barleywine and a super high gravity, overly hoppy IPA. Up front: cakey malts, pine sap, maple syrup, brown sugar, marzipan, big sweetness; the mids roll into huge guava, tangerine, boozy sugars, fusel alcohol, fruity sweetness, Pine-Sol, plums, and boozy raspberries; the back end features trailing raspberries, alcohol, hops, and fade to sticky/dry.

Rating: Divine Brew

This is still an epic sipper, probably a Light Divine Brew. There is nothing else quite like this beer...and it really deserves your attention over an hour or so. It's a sipper, and it's also a great Winter Warmer. It's in that realm of Scotch or Port Wine. This is aging wonderfully, and has a long way to go. Right now I feel like this could easily age for two or three more years. I'll probably pull a bottle in two or three, and then again in five. I also have a bottle of Fort going, which I hope to dig out for a very special occasion. 

Random Thought: I've been seeing the 120 on shelves a lot more these days. Given that fact, definitely think about picking up a few bottles. Try this one fresh, and let it age. It's a fun one, and one of DFH's more interesting releases. 

Sixpoint Hi-Res

Brewed By: Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz CAN (best before 12 July 2014) from a 4-pack bought at Binny's in Illinois; 2014

Style/ABV: American Strong Ale/Imperial IPA, 11.1%

Reported IBUs: 111

I had no plan to seek out the Hi-Res, but this beer has been getting a ton of hype on Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate. A lot of people are calling the Hi-Res one of the best mainstream Imperial IPAs to come out as of late, so I was curious to see how this beer stacks up. About Sixpoint:

Sixpoint Brewery is relatively new to the world of craft beer, as they were founded in 2004. The brewery was founded by brewer Shance C. Welch, as he began brewing in an 800 square foot garage in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. Wikipedia states that the brewery was co-founded by Andrew Bronstein, who met Welch at the University of Wisconsin. Andrew provided the cash investment needed to lease the facilities and begin brewing. The brewery is known for its boundary-breaking philosophy. More specifically, Sixpoint is all about not defining their beers according to style guidelines. This point is echoed if you visit their Beers page. They state that they have brewed hundreds of different beers, and they have no plans to stop this proliferation of styles. Of final note, Sixpoint began canning their beer in 2011, which is pretty cool, especially for a craft brewer.

There's not a ton of info about the Hi-Res, but this beer is a jacked up version of the brewery's delicious Resin. I love the Resin. It's one of my favorite beers. The Hi-Res dials things up to eleven. Punching in at 11.1% ABV and 111 IBUs, the Hi-Res is brewed with....??? Apparently with science, if you check out the brewery's website. A whole lotta who cares. Anyway...

Sixpoint Hi-Res

The Hi-Res pours into a surprisingly dark orange/amber body, kicking up three-plus fingers of thick, dense, sticky, soapy head. The head is depositing tons of lacing as it drops off, and head retention is really nice. The body is semi-hazy, with big carbonation bubbles popping upwards. The head is off-white, soaking up the orange/amber tones. The head retention/stickiness gives away the hops.

Speaking of hops...you get lots of those on the aroma. Along with TONS of candi sugar. Let's talk about the hops first: I'm getting tropical fruits, citrus, pineapple, guava, tangerine, kumquat, orange, some resinous and dank pine and hemp, and candied dry fruits. I'm also getting a lot of candi sugar, plums, honey, and assertive sugar sweetness. It kind of reminds me of Green Flash's Barleywine. Anyway caramel sweetness or malt character is totally blunted by the hops and sugar; I'm not really getting any malts on the aroma.

Like the Resin, this beer is an enamel crusher. This shit is fucking up my teeth and I can feel it. This is super sweet...really, really sweet. The sweetness gives the impression of malt body. I'm getting hints of grain, strange nuttiness, and coconut. There is some plum sweetness and candi sugar in the mix as well. But mostly, what you get in this beer are layers and layers of sticky, dank, resinous hops. My mouth is being coated with sugary, resinous hop candy, orange, marmalade, plums, tangerine, tropical fruits, mango, guava, pineapple, and coconut. There's booze in here too, sweet, sugary booze. I'm not getting much bitterness at all, which is kind of disconcerting for a beer punching in at 111 IBUs. If this is 111 IBUs and I'm not picking up much bitterness, how much sugar is in here?

This beer is not an Imperial IPA. It just isn't. It reminds me of a 120 Minute IPA or something similar. It's like a super sweet Barleywine without the malts...or I don't even know. There's a lot of sugar in this, and a lot of hops as well. Palate depth is good, complexity is middling, and the mouthfeel is medium-full with tons of residual sweetness. The 11.1% ABV is largely undetectable. Up front: sugar and hops, plums, candi sugar, pineapple, mango, tropical fruits, guava, orange, tangerine; the middle rolls into more bitter and dank hops, some grain and coconut, more bitter sugar, resin; the back end dials up some weird grain/coconut, tons of sugar, more lingering hops. Hoppy, resinous, sweet...tropical...the finish is sticky and dry.

Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

This is a very Light Above-Average beer. I really want to take my pants off and shit all over this beer for being too sweet and for being way over-hyped on Ratebeer and BeerAdvocate, BUT, this beer does have some appeal. It's not a horrible beer....it's just very sweet. It's not cloying, but the sweetness is so overt that you get these weird grain and coconut notes. And the sweetness completely blunts the 111 IBUs of bitterness. I just don't know what to make of this beer, other than I kind of like it and find that it has an interesting appeal, and I kind of dislike the sugary, coercive, saccharine-rapey cumshots of sweetness. I would pair this beer with super spicy foods, dry wings, and spicy things. The overt sweetness begs for a spicy pairing. 

Random Thought: This is a really weird and intriguing beer...I'm going to have to revisit it at some point. This is not a everyday beer, that's for sure. I hope Sixpoint brews it again, though. It's like a...super sweet Hopslam.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Brewed By: Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA/American Strong Ale, 15.0% ~ 20.0% 
Reported IBUs: 120

A few months ago, I was walking into my girlfriend's apartment when I took a tumble like a drunken clown. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but at the time I was carrying a 4-pack of BCBS and some bombers of Pumking. By some miracle, the 4-pack of BCBS remained intact. A bomber of Pumking did not. I fucked up my hand pretty badly as well, and scratched my watch too. Walking is hard, man.

Evidently the universe still hates me. Last weekend, as I was walking from my car to my girlfriend's apartment, the 4-pack carrying case I was holding bottomed out on me. The collateral damage included two bottles of 120 Minute IPA. My heart was immediately broken as I watched the bottles drift towards the ground in slow motion. It was like some Max Payne bullet time shit, except I looked like a 5-year-old who just had his Batman action figure stepped on, rather than a badass anti-hero. So here I am with another bottle of the 120...ready to try this again. On the bright side, dear three people who read this shitty blog, my story is a testament to the increased availability of the 120 Minute IPA. It's out there...go get some. About Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head is a craft brewery based out of Milton, Delaware. The brewery was founded by Sam Calagione back in 1995.The brewery began as a brewpub (the first in Delaware) called Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, and was originally located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The initial brewing setup included three kegs and propane burners. They brewed 12-gallon batches of beer three times a day, five days a week. In 1996 the brewery began bottling their beer, and by 1999 they had distribution to around a dozen different states. In 2002 the company outgrew their Rehoboth location, and moved to Milton, Delaware. More info can be found HERE.

If you roll over to Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA page, you can read about this crazy beer. Of course -- you already have -- and I'm just pissing in the wind at this point, as this beer has been subjected to the beer geek hype machine. But nevertheless...

If you're late to the party, then definitely tread lightly. The 120 Minute IPA is an extreme beer, clocking in at a variable ABV that ranges from 15% to 20% from year to year, and packing 120 IBUs. This beer achieves those numbers thanks to a two hour boil, where the beer is continuously hopped the entire time. The beer is then dry-hopped daily during fermentation for a month, and aged for another month on whole-leaf hops. This crazy beer is probably more comparable to a spirit/whisky than beer OR wine, and can easily be aged for many years (like 10+). With that said...let's get this into a glass, and see what's up.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

This one pours a hazy orange color, with a finger's worth of white-orange head. The head is made up of tiny, finely packed bubbles, and hangs around for a surprisingly long time given the massive ABV that's lurking. The head does eventually fall off, leaving a nice cauldron effect of sea foam head. You get so much sticky/residual lacing when you swirl the beer in the glass, that it's hard to see the massive alcohol legs. But they are there. This one looks about the same in bright light: a hazy/cloudy orange color, with a ton of visible carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles rising upwards. 

The aroma....oh my. My initial thought is, "I wonder if this uses the same yeast as the Fort?" There's a ton of resinous, sticky hops jumping off the nose, along with a ton of candi and caramel sugars. Initially, I was getting a lot of burnt plastic and apricot on the nose, but now I'm getting resinous citrus, resinous pine, Pine-Sol, and some raisins. The more I smell...the more tangerines, sweet citrus, boozy sweet bread, and plums I get. The nose is still incredibly resinous, and there is an underlying boozy character. Honestly, for a beer dry-hopped so hard, the nose is somewhat subtle. 

Again...as I taste this, I am reminded of their Fort. This is drinking a lot more boozy than I remember the bottle from last Friday, but I may have already been one or two beers into the night at that point. This is super sweet up front, with fruity plums, fruity alcohol (sweet berries, boozy bread, cake), a blast of resinous, enamel-crushing, citrus hop bitterness, and then the beer hits you up with cake, lemon bars, resinous hop bitterness taken to the 120-IBU-degree, and lots of bitter, super super dry, and woody pine/citrus on the back. This dries out like a champ. 

Again...mid-palate, I'm getting a lot of Pineapple Upside-down Cake, and booze. I had my girlfriend sip this, and she thought it was exceedingly bitter (soapy) and boozy. As a trained alcoholic and fan of hops, I find this beer to be neither. And I'm drinking this fresh. Keep in mind...in order to dial this beer up to that 15~20% range, the yeast is fed a fuckton of sugar during fermentation. This is a really sweet beer, and reminds me of a dessert spirit more so than a "spiritual IPA." If you go into this expecting an IPA...meh. Hell, the 90 Minute IPA has a lot of complexities that remind me of a boozy dessert spirit. When in Rome....

This is drying my mouth out worse than my first case of cottonmouth. This is exceedingly sweet, resinous, sticky, and dry. And yet, all the carbonation sort of grounds this in medium-full to light-full mouthfeel range. This beer is carbonated well. Palate depth is good, and complexity is great. This is very complex, and is reminiscent of a spirit. At 15-20% ABV (tonight, this is drinking pretty hot, so rant about this not hitting the quoted ABV AVOIDED), this is obviously a sipper. Also, the 10 dollars +/-ish a bottle makes this a beer to savor, not chug. Up front is big citrus, fruity yeast, alcohol; the middle rolls into heat, cake, sweetness, lemony sweetness, plums; the back fades sweetness with some resinous hop kick, you can feel your enamel peeling back; the finish is warming, SUPER DRY, and slightly resinous/woody.

Rating: Divine Brew

I'm feeling a Decent Divine Brew on this, and fuck the haters. Even at 10 dollars a 12oz bottle, this works for me. It's complex, subtle, and big. Is this an IPA? Nahhh. I don't even think this is comparable to a wine. While the Fort reminded me of a really boozy red wine, this reminds me more of a dessert spirit. And guess what? I would pair this with dessert. This beer would pair wonderfully with any dessert that had citrus: lemon bars, lemon cake. You could also pair this with a cigar, or just drink solo like I am now. Dogfish head suggests pairing this with smoked almonds or smoked meats, grilled lamb, or gingersnaps. I can see that...with the disclaimer that when I'm eating smoked meats, I like to drink lots of beer. Maybe start with another beer, and work up to this? Oh, and this is pretty awesome fresh/hot. I know everyone and their mamma likes to age this shit. And I am. I threw a couple bottles into the cellar to dig out in a few years...because why not? But honestly, this is pretty great fresh, so definitely drink a bottle of this hot before you age it.

Random Thought: At some point in the near future I plan to start Homebrewing, because why the fuck not. There was a great post at HomeBrewTalk, where user scottland brewed a 120 Minte IPA clone. He did a great job documenting the whole process, and the whole process is PRETTY CRAZY. The amount of sugar he has to feed the yeast during fermentation is nuts. Definitely check the post out....

He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

Brewed By: Shmaltz Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at Jewel in Skokie/Niles, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Skokie at 10pm

Bitches love Jewel. Seriously, I was up in Skokie with the girlfriend, and we decided to get some Bdubs. While waiting, I realized I didn't have any particularly hoppy beers on hand...which is a tragedy, because hops + wings = foodvana. Unfortunately, Skokie at 10pm is like...fuuuuck. But they have a Jewel! For those who don't know, Jewel-Osco is a decent chain store that sells groceries. The Chicagoland Jewels have started to pick up on the craft beer craze, and you can actually snag some decent beer at Jewel. I found a bunch of Revolution stuff at the Skokie Jewel, along with the beer I'm drinking tonight. (btw, the Walmart off Touhy is a fucking shithole...please avoid). 

There's some crazy shit going on in Chicago. The Walgreens in Greek Town had Bourbon County Stout, and supposedly had Bourbon County Coffee Stout. I picked up a 4-pack of the regular BCBS at the Greek Town Dominicks (Dominicks is Jewel's competition). The Jewel in Boystown had Madame Rose...and yeah. The elusive and rare beers, coming to your local Jewel.

Anyway...I'm glad to pop open another He'Brew beer. About He'Brew:

He'Brew is part of the Shmaltz Brewing Company. The Shmaltz Brewing Company has two lines of beer: their He'Brew The Chosen Beer, and their Coney Island Craft Lagers. Shmaltz Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeremy Cowan in 1996. The company contract brews most of their beer through the Mendocino Brewing Company, and they operate a brewery in Brooklyn New York. The company is known for its innovative beer, eye-catching bottle artwork, and sense of humor. For more information, check out the Shmaltz website HERE. Don't be a shmuck, and drink good beer!

Tonight's beer is described as a Double IPA brewed with Rye Malts. Truthfully, based on the other three bottles I've had, this shit drinks a lot like Founders' Devil Dancer. This beer kind of gets into that "Triple IPA," super malty/hoppy range. At 10.0% ABV, this is on the upper echelon of the Imperial IPA style, and as it touts big malts, it tends to lean away from the usual styling. If you roll over to the Lenny's R.I.P.A. page, you can get a lot of info on this beer (including how the thing is brewed). This beer uses 2-row, Rye Ale Malt, Torrified Rye, Crystal Rye 75, Crystal Malt 80, Wheat, Kiln Amber, and CaraMunich 60 malts; it uses Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, and Centennial hops. This beer is also dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, and Crystal hops. It's unclear how bitter this is, but at 10.0% ABV, and with all the hops...yeah. Into the glass!

Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. 

My pour was kind of amateur hour, but maybe not. When I popped the top, this started to gush like a prison break or something. I rushed to get this into a glass, and the end result was 4-fingers of big, foamy head. The head is slightly off-white. /cue prison break joke about off-white inmates. The head picks up some amber; the body of the beer is a hazy amber/orange in low light, with lots of carbonation. Honestly, I don't feel too bad about my pour. This pours like the Devil Dancer or the 1000 IBUs. In bright light, this beer is a murky orange, with slightly latent/lazy mid-sized carb bubbles. The head has mad orange tones, and leaves spunky lacing. It's like an STD tiger. 

The aroma on this beer is crazy. You get fat candy oranges, maple/pine sap, caramel, toffee, and rye. I'm getting some slight floral aromas, and maybe a dash of honey/maple syrup as well. Imperial IPA? Har. 

The taste is like the nose...only with immense hop bitterness. This really reminds me more of the Devil Dancer/1000 IBUs than a straight up Imperial IPA. This is riding that Barleywine-Triple IPA-style-guidelines-don't-real line. And it's fucking awesome. You get a blast of maple-citrus-rye hops up front, with some sap and pine; this rolls into immense bitterness, with woody citrus, grapefruit rind; and the finish hits rye spice, rye bread, and lingering bitterness. Dry. Oh man. This is smooth and creamy as well. I'm getting oranges, lemons, grapefruit, huge sweetness, toffee, caramel, and boozy bite that is well masked but known at the same time. You actually get some booze on the finish with the rye. Nice.

Oh He'Brew. You make such insane...complex beers. At 10.0%, this is very smooth, with a full-bodied mouthfeel, and just a dash of alcohol heat. This is bitter, but I'm not sure how bitter this is. It's hard to tell with all the malt sweetness. Yup, this beer is sugary as fuck. They might as well call it the Diabetes IPA. Palate depth is outstanding, complexity is outstanding, and this is fairly drinkable for such a big beer. Up front you get caramel, toffee, maple, echoes of an aged Barleywine, candied hops, citrus; this rolls into a dash of rye spice, assertive hop bitterness, woody hops, pine, sap, lemon rind, grapefruit rind; the back end features rye bread, a dash of malt sweetness, dryness, and lingering citrus/rye. There's slight booze on the end, and this warms you up.

Rating: Divine Brew

As a standalone beer (without food)...I gotta go with a Light Divine Brew. I'm not okay calling this an Imperial IPA, so there's that too. For my money, this is kind of like a hopped up Barleywine thing...or a Strong Ale. I mean, fuck it. Who cares? This stuff is delicious, and a 4-pack of this will only set you back 10 or 11 bucks. Totes worth it, and then totes worth it some more. This is super aggressive, complex, smooth, and drinkable. And it goes pretty well with wings. The extreme dryness/bitterness mingles well with everything up to Blazin'. At that point, you just want water, and the beer just piles on the hurt. So yeah, I suggest pairing this beer with wings, or a burger, or some nachos. I like this beer so much I could see it becoming part of my usual rotation...recommended. 

Random Thought: Seriously, the Walmart on Touhy is disgusting, it's overcrowded, and it's the epitome of everything "fuck Walmart." Unfortunately...when you need groceries, and you live in a big city, you gotta do what you gotta do. Oh well.