Dogfish Head Au Courant

Formerly brewed at Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Milton, Delaware USA

DFH is willing to put out some real experimantal brews. Some hit and some miss. I tend to get the misses, but I liked this much more than the others here. I was shocked by the blood red beer that poured out of the botte like a knife cutting an artery. This beer looked like red cool aid in the glass with a frothy pink head. It is a pretty drink, but it does not look like beer. This is hard to rate against other beers as it is unique, even among fruit beers. My mom makes this raspberry/currant jelly of which this reminds me. It has a tangy sweet and sour flavor like cranberry juice, with some red wine tannins and a dry finish. This is not really beer-like, but I enjoyed it.

Bottle, 2004. Strong lager aroma with a hint of fruit. Artificial red body with a pink head that is mostly diminishing. Looks like New Glarus Raspberry Tart. Very slow and faint visible carbonation. My first sip made my lips pucker and my head shake. Has a tart mouthfeel and some off flavors. I am not overly fond of this. Begs for more sweetness. Salty. They must change the recipe on this one every so often, because the appearance descriptions from Oakes and matta do not fit what I am seeing. They refer to "copper body" or "hazy light tan". The beer I am drinking is clearly bright ruby red with a pink head. They also speak of sweetness, where the one I am drinking is salty and quite dry. Now that I read more reviews, none of the recent ratings are describing a red body. What happened to my Au Courant? Regardless, finally, a beer that proves I don’t carry much brewer bias! This stuff is awful. At least it didn’t turn my tongue red. But thanks anyway, matta, for sending me this brew. It was educational and prevented me from buying a 4 or 6-pack.

Pours a light golden color with a small white foamy head. Nose is fruity and sweet. Currants (surprise!) and orangey lemon. Taste is sweet light malts with a light fruity sweetness. Lightly hoppy, maybe a bit of spicy hops. Fruit beers aren’t my favorites, but this one has a nice balance. Finish is very clean and quite dry. Tasty.

Thanks to joeybgood for this. Pours a hazed amber with a HUGE tan head. Very effervescent carbonation in this! Smells of light fruit, malts, and faint hops. Aroma is lackluster. Taste is light black currants, creamy malts, some wet hops and light buttery notes. Body has huge fizziness and is rather light overall. Finishes with more fruit notes, light hops and buttery malts.

The negative comments I was reading about this brew are IMO a bit unfair…; a) tastes and reeks of fruit, b) appearance was frightening, c) the color of this brew is already stirring my stomach, d) etc… Sorry Nancy, but the people that are afraid of opaque stouts say the same kinds of things… However, as I have read on, I think that many of the ratebeer community have simply been a bit harsh to this particular fruit beer or what the fruit (courant) has done to the beer.

There have been many positive comments as well, but the overall rating has suffered a bit. This brew pours a clear raspberry/courant red/purple. Most interesting, with minimal pink foam. The aroma is sharp and acidic with lemon hints, as well as having jolly rancher cherry (or courant). There is also a bit of sweetness. The flavor stars off with a lite lemon. Summer comes to mind. Mellow body that smoothes the acidity out. Still acidic but nice. Finishes tart with sweet courant hints. Nice and fruity. As with others, I’m not sure I could drink a lot of this, but primarily due to the acidic nature. I like it, and I think I would be a great summer beverage.

Retired? Good riddance.

I was vastly disappointed by this beer. The aroma was reminiscent of old Red Dog or some such swill. The appearance was frightening: cherry cider with little carbonation. The flavor was extremely sour and darn near unpalatable. Granted, I’m not a big fan of geueze or other sour fruit lambics and beers. However, I do like wine and I do like cassis lambic, but this was neither. I really enjoy many of the other Dogfish Head varietals, but damn...this one isn’t any good at all.

a wonderful wine red apparance with small head (similar to a sparkling grape juice)...aroma is nothing special, hard to pick up anything but maybe sour fruit...flavor is a bit better (red wine, sour/tart berries)...not the best beer by any means