Dogfish Head Black and Blue

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Milton, Delaware USA

February 2007 Bottle Date, Sampled December 2007
A vigorous pour yields a three finger thick, light tan colored head that sits on top of a dark, reddish-plum colored brew that shows a lightly hazy, pinkish tinged, full red color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite strange, it smells a bit green, perhaps a bit like completely un-ripened berries, with almost a leaf-like note to it. Behind this is some thin, grain-like character that is a bit grassy but with a touch of toast character to it. Quite a surprising aroma, with a bit of time it almost completely smells like thin malt.

The beer is quite full on the tongue, but does have a substantial carbonation which causes the beer to foam up as it crosses my tongue. The carbonation though does not really counteract the thick, viscous feel of this brew. As one might have guessed the beer is quite sweet, it is quite fruity as well but not in the way I would expect. Reminiscent of green grapes, sweet raisins, and a sort of fruity sharpness that seem most likely derived from the blueberries. The sweetness is not entirely fruit based as there is some substantial sweet malt character here; it is clean, like the sweetness from converted, but unfermented pale malt wort and it couples with lightly toasted grain notes and a soft biscuit character. This is quite a clean tasting brew, while the fruit is not more than a non-distinct berry-like character, both it and the malt are very cleanly expressed without much in the way of yeast or fermentation character.

This certainly hides its alcohol content quite well, other than being from Dogfish head, I never would have guessed it was 10% abv. This is really not all that great. I find it interesting how non-descript the fruit flavors in this beer were; I expected this from the blueberries, but figured I would get a good presence from the black raspberries. The aroma is almost completely devoid of fruit, except for an herbal, green grape character that is noticeable from time to time. I could imagine this being fermented by a characterful yeast and actually being quite good, as it is though it is a bit too bland for my taste buds. It is very well brewed / controlled and there is certainly not anything offensive about this beer (as long as you like sweet things).

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Not terribly tart, just a tiny hint of acidity. Nice fruit flavors, the blueberries really come through. The alcohol is very well integrated. Light on the tongue.

Amber beer out of the big bottle with a moroon tinge to it with very little head. Very inviting nose of raspberry. This is a very winey beer with lots of berry flavors, some light spice, cinnamon, caramel and Belgian candi sugar sweetness. Very tastey beer that hides the 10% ABV very well. Very nice fruit beer.

The bottled date on this one was 2/13/07, so it had almost exactly 4 months aging. It pours a very dark rich red color with no head. There are visible bubbles rising from the bottom of my DFH snifter. The only smell I get off of this is a wine-type aroma and it isn’t very strong. I like that the fruit is fairly subtle, or at least not with the usual accompanying sweetness. The raspberries are up front, and as they fade out the blueberries step to the front. It’s almost hard to think of this as a beer as it tastes and feels more like a wine. I do get a bit of malt flavor in the background, but just a very little bit. I like this beer for what it is and I’m interested to see if aging will change it at all. My guess is that it will probably only hold it’s own or go downward.

Tap at Barcade. What a lame beer. Someone keep the DFH guys away from fruit, they just cant do it right. Aprihop, Red & White, Fort, Au Courant... yuck. Festina Peche is the only one they got right, but that certainly isn’t this. Like most DFH fruits, this tastes like a fizzy, shitty syrup beer you’d get at any random brewpub across the country, albeit with a heavy booziness and a painful thick palate. Almost no complexity. I guess they intend to make it still a little beery, as there is some malt presence still, but it really just never works for them at all. They should take a hint from New Glarus and go all or nothing, because their current trick ain’t workin.

Bottle. Pours a dark amber with a purplish tint to it and a small ring of white head. Aroma is faint and has some belgian like character to it as well as a hint of sweet fruit cocktail. Flavor is surprisingly bland, some faint tartness balanced by a sweet maltiness, no real fruit flavor but the blueberry comes through a shade. All this comes to a dry spicy finish. Amazing how warm this one feels....the strength of it does not come through anywhere else. Thinner in body with active but very light carbonation. Just seems like there’s something missing in this one, it’s an easy drinking strong beer though.

Tap at Barcade: Reddish amber with a creamy off white ring for head. Bright, fruity aroma. Sweet berry presence, accompanied by mild Belgian yeast qualities. The flavor has some Belgian yeast phenolics upfront, which is followed by some berry skin and sweet esters. The later flavor has a mild spicy character. Not a great deal of depth, but fruity, and easy going.

Poured a nice amber hue, with a slight bluish twinge giving it a slight purple hint. Head although quickly fading, was mostly white with some of the purplish notes coming out. Aroma was a mix of fruits, sweet malts and a nice alcohol note, alcohol note seemed to remind me of cognac. Flavor was slightly sweet, slightly bitter with some sour fruit notes. Hop profile was mildly bitter and alcohol was present. All the flavor notes seemed mild separately, but collectively worked into an interesting final product. Good for a fruit beer, but the body could have been fuller.