Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

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

Pours hazy orangy/brown amber, with a nice thick creamy orange/tan head. Boozy aroma of fermenting fruit, with hints of caramel, lots of hops, and an overall sweetness. Flavor is very sweet overall, lots of fruit, hints of vanilla, and lots of butterscotch/caramel. Light hint of booze in the hoppy finish. Palate is medium, a bit creamy and syrupy, nice warming alcohol that is far from intrusive, lots of lingering sweetness, and a hint of bitterness. Pretty impressive brew.

An excellent beer if you like hops - and I mean really like hops. The heavy alcohol content does well to balance out the extreme hop flavors. An excellent special occasion beer.

This "beer" is 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’s like hop liqeur.

A bottle from 2007. Nice looking cloudy amber to red with little head. Aroma jumps at you. Sweet malts mostly. Flavor is sweet malts with a hop finish. Not as big a hop presence as you might expect. The alcohol is barely noticeable. Nicely balanced but not for the timid.

5/5/08
Bottle. Pours a clear orange with a pale head that creates some really nice lacing. The aroma is really, really interesting. It’s very caramelly with mango, grapefruit, kiwi, and alcohol. It’s very viscous to the tongue. Initially, you can taste the grapefruit and mango (mostly mango) with lots of thick, caramel sweetness. Alcohol is instantly evident, but isn’t overwhelming. As the brew starts to pass the taste buds, a very palpable baked, buttery biscuit flavour emerges. The citrus flavours take a step back as the caramelly sweetness continues strong. Alcohol begins to burst at this point. It becomes quite a nice complement to the flavour. A hoppy bitterness begins to arise. The finish is a mixture of a thick, caramel sweetness with a hoppy bitterness, light mango citrus, a baked buttery biscuit, and a good amount of alcohol. This reminds me more of a barleywine style than an IPA. Now, I’m not much of a fan of sweet beers, but the flavours in this is so well balanced and it also brings some other interesting flavours and combinations in flavours. I’m extremely enjoying this beer.
Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavour: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall Impression: 16/20
Total Score: 4

8/23/08 After a conversation with the waitress, at The Ginger Man (Manhattan, New York) she informed us of a "freak batch" of 120 Minute that ended up being 28% as opposed to the usual 21%. This piqued my interest, but my interest wasn’t high enough to want to fork out 20 dollars for a single bottle. However, a friend graciously purchased the beverage to share as a birthday gift. I try this supposed "28% freak batch," it’s different than my first experience. The hops qualities are actually bursting in this one. Caramelly sweetness with hints of citrus is an initial flavour. As the brew flows off the tongue, alcohol instantly hits. Soon after, though, hops suddenly explodes. Intense grapefruit and lemon citrus completely eclipses the caramel and even the alcohol. Bitterness very commanding, but not unbearable. Pine is also somewhat noticeable. The finish is a citrusy dry and bitter. What surprises me the most is the alcohol is masked better than my first bottle.

I’m still in doubt whether this was a freak 28% batch. However, as well as it’s masked, it doesn’t even seem like it’s 21%. This was very different from my first bottle, and far better. This is what I was expecting to taste when I first bought this beer.
Aroma: 9/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavour: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall Impression: 17/20
Total Score: 4.3

Bottle from mcbackus. Big. Big. Big. Big. Pours a very heavy texture with an orange color. This beer is so heavy that the bubbles look like they are struggling to rise to thetop. Moderate white head that hold to the end. Big fuit andsweet malt on the nose. Alchol is present, and you would think it would be at 21%. Taste is more of a barley wine than an IPA. Fruit, sweet malt, big hops, and alchol on the palate. Finishes sweet, warm and strong. Very good.

The legendary IPA! Pours thick, cloudy, and copper colored with minimal head. Aroma is thick and sweet with hops galore. Taste is smooth and thick, a bit of alcohol and hops all over the place. Slight sweetness in the aftertaste like syrup that I wasn’t crazy about. Besides that, this is a wonderful beer that is a classic, but be careful, it will kick your butt!

Bottled@Marty´s. AMAZING! A Cloud amber color with a nice beige head, aroma is complex, with fruit notes of apple, malt, some light alcohol. Flavor is strong, you can feel the balanced taste between the sweety and bitterness, with very smooth alcohol. Mouth feel is a little bit dry. What a beer!