Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

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

Hazy dirty orange in color with a thick and dense head. Sticky lacing clings to the glass. A pretty solid looking ale. Not the most pleasant aroma. Suprisingly weak for what i was expecting. Old lemons, apricot, alcohol, tropical juice and grapefruit were easy to inhale. Like a BIG sweet barley wine. Thick and warming mouthfeel. Felt very heavy in the mouth and certainly not for the timid. I cannot stress enough how well the alcohol is hidden. This can sneek up on you...fast! If I were to have guessed without knowing the ABV beforehand I would have said 11-12%.

This is my idea of a session beer. Winey texture to this BIG beer, and oh, so bitter... Come to think of it, I don’t mind if I do. PARTY TIP: Try serving this to your unsuspecting guests at the next winter get-together, and then just sit back and watch the fun as they try to drive away on the icy pavement.

12 oz, bottled 04/17/08. Bleary orange-copper with a diminutive head that doesn’t last. Woody, citrus aroma has a hint of tomcat spray. Flavor is orange wood with catspray , your grandma’s perfume, and alcohol. Light-medium body is tingly with alcohol and dry. Bleahhh!!! What a waste of money! Give me a Duff to cleanse my palate please!!!

2004. Rufescent ambered gold pour, with edges of honey and a silky smooth creamy head of ivory. Surprisingly pungent rich aroma of cherries, cran, toasted pine nuts and light wafts of red cedar. Heavy on the malt. Flavor is an alcoholically biting creme and berries, flowing downstream to a state of vegetal conciousness with hearty pine resin, grapefruit skin and light tiger balm. Heather dances with diamonds on the fruited plain of smoky breezes. This amalgam of alcohol, hops and grain has moved into a phenolic flow of biting esters and sweet currant juice, running from the edge of stone ground cracker slather with pineapple cream cheese. It’s a delectable dance, but too grindingly harsh as Jesus and the Mary Chain can sometimes be. Lay off the ether, someone glances at me. It’s a slippery slope to the world of overdoneness and 120 minutes can be 20 too many. Way too alcoholic hot. A touch of ergot and grain in the end. Holy crap! This is twenty one percent? What was I thinking. Well done, Chap. An earthy complexion yields from the abusive hop history. It’s transformed to another level, all together. With new dimensions, flavors and character. In the end, though, I miss the standard hop behavior.

I loved the 60 and 90 but what the heck happened here?The aroma was all alcohol with some hop. When I took the first drink I was expecting a wild hop adventure but instead I got a thick malt syrup. Hops were in there, sure, but not as I was expecting. I never look at the alcohol content before I drink a beer (an o.c.d. of mine- I like to guess what it is). When I saw it was 21% it all made sense. And after the Raison d’extra last night I just had it with these ultra strong beers. This isn’t bad but didn’t taste like an IPA let alone an imperial.

Pours a nice amber color not much head on mine. Hop and fruit aromas are the most prevelant, some spices back that up. Very sweet flavors of malt and hops. Not too much alcohol in the flavor, thought I can feel it more on the way down and in my belly. While a good beer, one thing I have to say, as a hop head, this is not the holy grail.

Poured thickly, a hazy orangey-amber color with a moderate off-white head that diminished fairly quickly. Aroma is sweet, but with a nice full cascade hop smell. Flavor is very sweet - almost citrus liquer-like and a little cloying for me. Definite hop finish and though the alcohol is noticible it's well balanced for a 20% monster. Thick, syrupy body and minimal carbonation. Certainly one that I wanted to experience, but combining price, sweetness and alcohol level, not one that I'll seek out again soon.

Fought to get a decent head on this "beer". Minimal carbonation. Great aroma dominated by hops and oranges. Color is a medium orange/amber. Wow big alcohol kick but not a dominating hops presence in the flavor. Quite thick and syrupy with a big amount of malt to balance the hops. Little bitterness in the finish. Burns as it goes down and warms very nicely. Where are the hops? With all the bragging going on I expected this to be stronger and hoppier than the Stone Ruination IPA which puts this to shame. I would not even consider this an IPA. More like a barleywine without the complexity. A good beer for sipping to warm you up. For the price, not a beer that I would buy again.