Saturday, February 25, 2012

that which is new and rare...

HELLLLLOOOOO!!!

It's been over two weeks since my last blog.  (Sorry!  I was in NYC!  I drank DFH World Wide Stout on draft.  And Bear Republic.  And Del Borgo.  And Coniston's Bluebird Bitter.  And Founders Breakfast Stout.  And...you get the picture.)  I'm here for a tossed salad of an update - I'm still playing catch-up so I only got the time to talk about what's new and fun in the store -

This is noble rot.
DFH gluten-free?!?!  YEAH!
Dogfish Head - Namaste is back, but more importantly, we have two new DFH offerings.  Tweason'Ale is DFH's highly anticipated gluten-free beer which is extremely limited.  Barley is replaced with a sorghum base and strawberry and buckwheat honey are added.  Noble Rot, what sounds like a new extreme in beers (and in DFH lore), is just under 50% fermentable sugars coming from grapes, 4,500 gallons of must...botrytis infected viognier-must goes into the hot wort and botrytis infected pinot gris is added after fermentation for aromatics.  French saison yeast will be used; pilsner malt; wheat malt...so without trying it, sounds like the flavor of the wine will be very pronounced.  Video online looks like a clear, crisp beer.  (FYI, noble rot is when wine grapes are infected by botrytis and picked at a very certain point to which the infection creates a concentrated wine.  Some are picked grape by grape!)  Very exciting!

Theoretical?  Yeah.  Delicious?  Quite so.
Mikkeller - they/he is back, ladies and gents.  It's been months since we've carried beers by Mr. Mikkeller Borg and I'm proud to have brought in some of his most interesting offerings, including Draft Bear - an imperial pilsner that's listed as "malt liquor", his Three Floyd collaboration "BooGoop," both Beer Geek and Beer Hop Breakfast, and last but not last, 1,000 IBU's which is very limited and extremely delicious.  1,000 (theoretical) IBU's lead to an extremely hazy and powerfully hoppy beer, but extremely drinkable at just over 9% ABV.

Anchorage - we are lucky to carry Gabe(owner/brewer/sole employee)'s beers and we finally have some more in, i.e. "Tide and Its Taker's."   A beer spiked with Brettanomyces and aged in French oak Chardonnay barrels which doesn't touch stainless steel until bottling.


What is an imperial cream ale?!?!?!
And why does he have four legs?!?!
Last but not least - Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero and Slumbrew's My Better Half.  A chocolate stout with ancho chile and an imperial cream ale.  (?!?!?!?!)     

OK, time for bed.  PEACE!

-Evan G.

1 comment:

Jeff said...

Haven't tried the 1000 IBU yet, but The Tide and It's Takers is incredible. Didn't realize at first it's a Dogfish Head collaboration. Go Gabe!