Dogfish Head Black and Blue

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

750 ml bottle. Pours a really interesting shade of amber with hues of purple. The first notes that hit the nose are the nice strong boozy malts. Subtle hints of berries liven up the complexity. The berries come more to the forefront in the flavor while the golden ale base and high alcohol hold them together and prevents the beer from becoming your average overly sweet fruit beers. One of Dogfish Head’s finest.

A: It pours a pretty purplish red color with a nice two finger head that settles to one. S: Nothing too special here. There is a definite yeasty maltiness to it with a hint of berry. To be honest the smell is so faint I can’t tell you if I am smelling raspberry or blueberry. T: This one has some spice and fruitiness to it. Nothing really stands out though identifying exactly what it is I taste. It’s not sweet at all in fact it has a nice tartness to it. I wish there was a more pronounced taste from the berries. On a good note it does hide the 10% ABV wonderfully. M: Very nice here. There is a great bit of carbonation; it’s very creamy yet sparkling.

Hazy light brown, amber color. Aroma is full of blackberries, blueberries, malts, citrus, and dried fruit. Taste is mostly of dried fruit. There is some other flavors which include: malty bright berries, yeast, and some hops. Flavor is pretty much the same. Yummy

Pours a very nice golden, ruby/brown color. Three-finger head of slightly pinkish colored foam. Fades to a light skin, covering the surface. Lacing is sporadic, but slightly sticky. Nose is very fruity. (Yay!) Big berry scents. Lots of blueberry. Nice hints of blackberries. I don’t know if they’re in there, or not, but I get a nice scent of raspberries, also. Nice presence of dark fruits, in general. Good level of wheat presence. A very slight hint of some barnyard funk and a touch of spices, not unlike a good belgian brew. Very light in flavor. The fruitiness is still there, but it’s more of a blended taste. It’s harder to distinguish each flavor. The blueberries are the only ones that I can pinpoint, and they are not that dominant, even. The rest of the flavor follows the good belgian characteristics that the nose had. Nice, light body. Very light and clean feeling. Not too crisp, or creamy. Smooth. This would be fantastic on a nice spring afternoon (which is what the weather feels like, here, currently). Sitting on the porch/stoop or at the park/beach, this would be highly enjoyable. I was wanting/expecting just a little bit more from this one, but, all-in-all, this is another good brew from the folks at Dogfish Head. I’d drink this again, anytime.

Bottle from Sammy, thanks! Bottled 2/07. Pinkish amber color. Berries, melon and toffee in the aroma. Alcoholic flavor with butter, toffee, red and black berries and raspberry. Should be quite drinkable, but the balanced is bothered by the abundance of alcohol.

15th June 2008. The fruit is very light and in the background. Very crisp palate and a dry finish. Was expecting something much richer but very good nontheless.

Yet another fine Dogfish Head brew. Poured out into the glass, it produced a nice golden hue with a little red to it. It was translucent and it had little to no head. Being a fruit beer, what I tell you it smelled like is pretty redundant. It smelled like fruit. Duh. It had a very nice clear scent with just bits of hops but it was mostly sweet and smelled like blue and blackberries. Tasting it, I got a nice hit of blueberries. It was a very sweet brew with little to no taste from the alcohol (which is surprising being at almost 8%). There is a little bit of barley at the end to remind you that it is, in fact, brew. The texture was very very smooth. It had a nice gather of carbonation and air to start, flowing nicely into a palate of flavors and it finished off with a handful of hops.

Poured a clear reddish amber with a vanishing head. Sweet berry aroma with a similar tart flavor. Light body. It’s not bad, just not my thing.