Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Milton, Delaware USA

I had to put down my thoughts on this, just because I find it odd that so few people seem to be as put off by this beer as me. Despite being labeled an IPA, the hop presence can barely claw its way through the intense, syrupy, cloying sweetness. I’m a huge hop lover and was most disappointed by how such a big IPA could have the hops so masked. It was like some sort of perverse beer nectar. I think I might have been a touch less let down if this was labeled a barley wine, but regardless of its category I found it unpleasant to drink. I’m glad I tried it just for the experience, but it was certainly not worth the price, and I’m not sure what’s going to become of the second bottle I have around. I respect Dogfish Head and great stuff like Raison D’etre and 90 minute, but this was a huge miss for me.

Bottled in august 2008 at Oliver Twist. Pours amber with lots of yeast floting in it, no head. Aroma of a barley wine, alcohol, whisky, berries and solvents... Tastes lots of raisins and alcohol. Big bodied. Interesting but not worth its price.

Bottle. Poured thick amber with a thick light brown head. Aroma was sweet and hoppy with caramel and burnt sugar. Flavor was surprisingly sweet with some citrus hops. Flavor reminds me of a burnt sugar or something to that extent/ The beer is very thick on the tongue. Alcohol becomes present throughout the drink. Too much going on at once for me.

This is my 2nd rate of this beer. I am better prepared to review this beer the 2nd time around, now that I know what to expect. What we have here is an absolute gem of a beer. The first time I had this I was too overwhelmed by the beers complexity to convey into words what I had just experienced. This is much more than a DIPA, I can assure you. This is a whole new level of beer, never before equaled in mass production. The sweetness is so intense, this is almost more of a syrup than a beer. It is cloudy and thick like honey that has been sitting in a cupboard for a year. Almost the same consistency, too. The flavor is like a surgary soda, with alcohol mixed in, although the 18% is well hidden. There is not too much hoppiness to be spoken for, although it is slightly bitter. Overall, a good Triple IPA that is well worth a second visit after the first round shocks you.

At one point not all that long ago, it was believed that beer had an ABV glass ceiling that, once reached, could never be breached. Such lofty goals as 14%, 15%, and above were but wistful wishes and thought to be a scientific impossibility. Oh, how the times have changed. Currently, Samuel Adams holds the throne and wears the crown with their Utopias, a special limited release every two years that tops off at around 27% ABV. But, up until the mad scientist known as Jim Koch concocted his mystical potion, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head ruled with an iron fist known as his 120 Minute IPA which tops out at around 21% ABV.

Cloudy amber-orange with a massive voluminous head which threatens to overrun her glassy confines. Obviously in no rush, she lingers and lazes about while leaving graffiti marks of lace during her descent. After a while, all that is left is a soft blanket of foam, but I don’t think even a hazmat suit could keep the pungent nose from seeping into my nostrils, nay, every porous surface of my body. Oh. My. Gawd. Massively salty pickled capers along with a slight burn which threatens to singe the back of my nose. All kinds of soft, wet, cooked greens great me in a dank vegetal assault: celery, scallions, mint leaves, jalapenos, and green peppers. I’m not talking fresh, crispy, and refreshing. I am talking a soggy, half-rotten buffet-line of month old greens. Massively vegetal, a bitter bite of radish braises the finish while oils and earth add a bit of body to her nose. Wow. I can barely stomach her nose. I fear for my palate upon the real test: tasting her. Thick and mouth-coating with an immediate 1-2-3 punch of capers, salt, and pickles. Salty and mouth-coating with cooking oils coating my mouth while all the pungent cooked, soggy veggies in her nose rip through my tongues tastebuds and scream down my gullet to an unhappy recipient: my stomach. I give her a few minutes to warm up a bit, but still no evident change in her palate, and I have stomached about all I can before my body rejects it. Raw, pickled, salty, rotten, vegetal, and hot.

I will say one thing in the defense of the 120 Minute IPA and that is she is a fresh bottling. I’m not sure if time, no matter how many years, will cure her diseased palate, but maybe. I found her to be way too unbalanced, raw, salty, hot, dank, pungent and very earthy with dank, swamp-like veggies abounding. For some, it may be liquid bliss, but for me, I fall solidly upon the side of the fence that says, “Yuck.” Don’t take my word for it though. Life is an adventure meant to be lived, not just taken on someone else’s word. Take a bottle home, let it sit for a few months, and give her a try. You have a 50/50 chance of loving or hating her, and those are better odds then many things in life.

(I was excited to try this, but I am a little disappointed. ) Bottle. Pours nice dark amber, copper color with small white head. Looks a little hazy. Aroma is very nice, though. -- sweet, hoppy with some hints of citrus fruit. Flavor somehow seems off-balance. Very sweet at first (is the sweetness there purely to mask the alcohol?) then the alcohol takes over. Doesn’t seem to have a well-expressed finish, maybe because by that time the alcohol has dulled my sense for the finish. Overall this is not bad stuff considering the ABV, but it just doesn’t compare well to, say, the 90-minute.

Bottle, a few months ago. I think it was important for me to rate this beer because I think there is a hidden factor in user ratings that we don’t totally understand. I am a big DFH fan although I don’t love their beers unconditionally. Raison D’Etre is good, not great, Midas Touch is fine, Sah’Tea which people rave about I found a little blah, Burton Baton is very nice, PSM is good, and Festina Peche I actively dislike. But I really really love the 90-Minute, love the IBA, and 60-Minute is good stuff too. When I drank this, some months ago, I was really excited about it, and saved it for a good day. But it was one of the few beers in my life that I could not finish. It was too syrupy, too everything. Take my 90-Minute review and multiply it by 20. In fact it temporarily wrecked the 90-Minute for me - these flavors being so over the top that I was almost sickened, and prejudiced against the somewhat gentler flavor of the 90-Minute for a time (which passed, I’m glad to say). And I just put my ratings in a corner of my hard drive figuring, I’m out of my depth, or I just don’t get it, but I don’t think that’s it. Some people love this beer and I say great, honestly. But if those of us who don’t like it censor our own ratings, the rating would be skewed toward those who love it. This one vote will not significantly alter the beer’s standing on this site - but if I love DFH overall, and yet I could not stand this drink, I have to believe that at least to some extent I represent a silent group who have been too embarrassed to admit it, or could not allow themselves to be that objective about a company they love to support.

deep copper color...small off white head...tons of caramel sweetness, tons of hops, touch of alcohol, creamy on the palate