Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

12 oz bottle at my 40 y party, thanks a lot to yngwie! Hazy golden/amber color, lovely big white head. Aroma is hoppy!!! Flavor is very sweet with hops and hops again. Hides the alcohol pretty well.

12oz bottle. Pours a hazy amber with an off white frothy head that lasts and leaves excellent lacing. It has a heavy hop aroma of flowers, perfume, herbs and resin. It is heavy, thick and very sweet. Thick and oily, sweet and very bitter. The taste lingers. It is like a hop liqueur.

Orange/Amber in color with a medium off white head. The aroma is of pungent hops, citrus, caramel, alcohol and honey. The flavor is sweet and hoppy with notes of citrus and flowers, a little too sweet for my tastes (I prefer bitter beers.) The texture is syrupy. Overall Id say it’s a good beer, the only drawback is its a little too sweet.

Pours with an amber hue under a small white head that is mostly diminishing. Aroma is of lots of hops, flowers, fruity-citrus, and lots of alcohol. The beer has a sour, warming beginning, with an alcoholic, sweet ending. There is a little citrus flavor as well. Medium texture with lively carbonation! Surprisingly good, considering i am not the biggest fan of IPAs to begin with.

Poured from 12oz bottle to a snifter. A nice coppery orange color with a thin off white lasting head. Off the bat I was expecting quite a bit from this beer based on its reputation, and its price. There are aromas of caramel, orange, grapefruit, baked apple, floral, with other undefinable sweetness, and even a slight hint of cilantro. The flavor is strongly citric, with tangerine and grapefruit notes, along with strong caramelized flavors of butterscotch and almond. The finish on this beer is exceptionally long, leaving the flavor and feeling of a fresh sip on the palate for a good 10-15 minutes. Its remarkable how balanced the beer is considering how heavily hopped it was, but then again to reach 21%abv there would have to be an equally impressive malt addition.

Rating number 100! I had to pick something special for #100 so I decided on the 120. 12 ounce bottle. Poured a very hazy deep orange color with a nice looking tan head. The aroma consisted of a lot of caramel malts, some citrus and hop hints, apricot, and a LOT of booze. The taste was interesting to say the least. Definitely NOT the holy grail for hopheads. It consisted of a lot of suggary malts, caramel malt, citrus, and a slight alcohol warming. There was a lot of yeast that settled at the bottom of my glass. Overall, this was a good beer but did not have the hop character that I would have hoped for. Good, but not great.

Bottle shared with Katie. First off, NOT the Holy Grail for Hopheads. Well, maybe if you are also an avid fan of rum or brandy mixed with orange juice. The aroma is a sweet blend of banana rum, fruitcake and caramel malt. Where the hops are, I do not know. Bronze color with little carbonation. Flavor is a straight slam of cloying sugars and malts with more rum, butterscotch and cinnamon candy. The finish is extremely hot. Again, where the hops are I do not know. More like the 120-Minute Malt Bomb. If you want the Holy Grail for Hopheads, either grab yourself a Pliny or Moylans Hopsickle.

As an admitted IPA purist, I was unfortunately extremely dissatisfied with the 120 Minute. I bought a bottle at Stones River Beverage in TN and the bottle was room temparature at purchase. I chilled the bottle and drank the brew two days later. I do have to confess that I was somewhat skeptical of the brew just based on the ABV number. At 21 percent alcohol, Dogfish brewers must be using some special strain of yeast able to survive the high alcohol environment. The aroma was a miss for me as it screamed of alcohol with little hop detection. I actually had visions of my youth era cough syrup upon sniffing the brew. While the alcohol flavor was masked somwhat, the finish was not what I have been used to in this class.