Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu

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

Opaque dull yellow. Looks like a Wit minus the head. Wheaty aroma with notes of honey and sour orange. Sweet and tart with a funky retronasal quality that reminds me of stomach acid. Subtle hippie fruit bar flavor. Thick body. Interesting beer.

Had this ale on tap. Surprised with all the low ratings I enjoyed it. Fruity and yeasty flavors. Finishes clean, crisp, and fruity.

Pours muted yellow with a thin head. Something akin to mead with a thinner body. Rather sweet, but with raisin and citrus quality. This is a decent beer, but a bit out of my pricing ballpark.

Pours a dark yellow with light white head. Not an extremely exciting aroma, little bit of citrus. Taste is very swet with little to no hops. I get alot of orange in the finish. Overall not extremely impresssive from them, I was hoping for better.

On tap at Hop Devil. Very unusual beer. When the waitress delivered my sampler cups of this and Brooklyn Weissbock, she told me one was the other, and thus my first sips of "weissbock" were even weirder. This had a very complex aroma that was unfortunately not very appealing... lots of ginger, grapes, dry, sharp parmesean cheese, pumello. Flavor was definitely the weirdest part, very ricey, with kiwi, passionfruit/fruit punch, eastern spices. Had a weird kind of tingly palate. I have lots of respect for DFH for making these beers, but charging $13 for a 750 is pretty ridiculous, IMO. They just are not worth that kind of money. Which is why the first (and maybe only) time I tried it was on tap.

Bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy/frothy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy dark yellow. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly yeasty (cobwebs), with notes of lime juice, white wine, coriander, candied pineapple. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, watery/syrupy texture, lively/fizzy carbonation, moderately alcoholic. A gimmicky strong beer with rather vague, unfocused character. See also Midas Touch. Nothing particularly wrong with it other than coming off like a mess of ideas rather than an actual ancient beverage (this could pass for any other strong ale, perhaps somewhat Belgian in style). Even the Heather Ales beers are more exotic and unique than this.

750. Beer is cloudy, medium-hued orange-brown. Head is initially frothy, off-white, small. Mostly lasting.<P> The aroma is curious. Vinous, dry and champagne-like. Malty with light notes of toasted grain; Not sure whether there are hops in this, but there is a light lemony spring floral quality that could be attributed to them; Light note of champagne yeasty dough; Moderate sparkling-wine vinosity, light candy-like vanilla-berry note.<P> The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter, lightly (and roundly) acidic with a longish, lightly acidic, lightly sweet finish.<P> The body is medium, the texture is watery-to-velvety and the carbonation is average.<P> Cool idea and it comes off! Subtle, odd and prettily engaging. Unlike anything else I’ve sampled to-date.

Bottle courtesy of gputty. Cloudy yellow pour with slighty foamy head and sediment throughout. Aroma is predominately white wine, with hints of wheat, honey, and vinegar. Flavor is white wine, vinegar, and honey creeping in the back. Not bad, but not too great.