Dogfish Head Black and Blue

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

Not a big fruit beer fan, but I decided to give it a try as I have been curious about berries in beer (except raspberries which are relatively common). Poured a very dark golder brown with a moderate head that had some staying power. The aroma definitely had the berry smell, but still smelled like a beer. I think in a lot of fruit beers the fruit distracts from the beer aroma and flavor for that matter. The taste was that of a strong ale. There is a little berry flavor on the front end of the taste, and through the taste the berry flavors take over are are most noticeable on the finish. The mouthfeel was as expected for a high alcohol beer brewed on fruit, and for a fruit beer I found it highly drinkable. Overall I am still not a fan of fruit beers, but this was pretty good.

I thought this beer was orgasmic. It was a nice silky malt base with a lovely fruit accent. Flavors of blueberry and blackberry are mixed in perfectly with a soft malt undertone. This beer does not however drift into the common pitfall of fruit beers "cough, Weyerbacher, cough" of becoming sickly sweet and syrupy like a bad icewine. The palate is crisp, yet lingering and not something to cling to your teeth. This beer is better than the Dogfish Head Red and White in my opinion.

POurs a reddish brown. Nose is sour grapes, unripe blueberries, sour berries, butter fruit skin. Flavor is bitter fruit, unripe blurberries, young berries, sweet berries, mild malt and yeast.

Bottle. Pours a rich, hazy amber color with a medium, frothy pure white head. Aromas of blackberries and blueberries abound, with hints of bananas and some hops. Initial fizzy mouthfeel that quickly mellows to a nice slick finish. Flavors of the berries are the strongest with a nice traditional Belgium finish. Very good beer although I think that for 2009 I prefer the Red & White a bit more.

From bottle. Pours hazy purpleish-yellow with a tiny head of tiny bubbles. Mouth feel is medium in body with a lot of carbonation. Flavor has a nice tartness without being overbearing. Blackberry is definitely in front with some funk and alcohol in the background. Finish is fruity with blackberry lingering on the tongue. As far as fruity beer goes, this one is very good.

On Tap at B-dubs Downtown. Pours a hazy golden with a slight purple tint. Nose is belgian, wheat and some dark berry. Taste is highly carbonated with a strong belgian flavor. Some puckery fruit pokes through as well as a very dry hop taste. Spices, wheat, alcohol, and some malt give this a well rounded profile. Interesting to taste once...I think the red and white was more up my alley.

My brother brought a bottle down for our other brother’s wedding. Tastes like a yummy belgian with hints of fruit.

The Black & Blue has, by the good graces of DFH’s marketing team, been paired with the Red & White. Their names follow a similar style, both employ generous amounts of fruit, and both have been given strange labels of painted continental nobility. In my mind, both fail to live up to expectations. I am very often suckered into buying a beer on the premise that it has some sort of beloved ingredient, usually a fruit. DFH’s impressively boasts of blackberries and blueberries in their Black & Blue, at which I was immediately won over. But it fails to offer the kind of raw fruit-in-beer flavor that turns out so well in the tried-and-true Belgium lambics (though I concede that this is NOT a lambic). The aroms comes off funky, like the smell of shriveled and old lemons and peaches. It’s sour, and features moderate notes of blackberry. But I don’t catch any blueberries. I also would have expected the blackberry aroma to dominate everthing else. The flavor suffers the same flaws - the blackberry flavor is slightly sour and has a shallow pungency, and further endures the off-taste of chemicals and the flavor of fruit well past it’s ripe prime. It’s not so bad that I’m making faces, but it’s not good by any means. There are shadows of what I was hoping for, of blackberries paired against a nice, deep maltiness. But these are shadows, and fare poorly against this agitating flavor of neglected fruits.