Dogfish Head Immort Ale

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Milton, Delaware USA

Appearance: Pours a hazy bronze-colored body with a thin, small white head. Virtually no lacing to speak of. Smell: Alcohol and sugary, sweet caramel teamed up with cardboard and rancid butter to create on of the most putrid aromas ever. Horrendous! This is a bad sign. Taste: Shock and surprise registered in my eyes the moment I tasted it. It’s the surprise of tasting something you knew you wouldn’t like, but then it actually tasted far, far worse. Ugh. There’s just something about this beer that is really a turn off to me. A distressing, unmistakable band-aid flavor. Well, it’s more of an attack on the tongue than a flavor, but still. I went looking for the maple, vanilla, and oak in the flavor and found only band-aids, glue, and rubber. The description on the bottle is completely foreign to anything contained within. All in all, a flavor akin to burning the contents of a medicine cabinet and lapping up the results. Mouthfeel: Thin-bodied, but being so syrupy as to relentlessly cling to the tongue. Drinkability: With no sink nearby to dump this in, it was an absolute struggle to finish. The idea of pouring this out onto the floor was rather tempting. Wow. Just, wow.

Pours hazy reddish brown with a short fizzy head that quickly dissipates into a thin ring around the glass and leaves spotty lacing. Bold sweet and smoky aroma, with some vanilla and fruity, white wine notes. A little bit of all the listed ingredients make an appearance in the flavor profile, which while complex, is exceptionally balanced and smooth. The flavor profile is probably dominated by the maple syrup character (the real, watery stuff), with the smoke probably being the oddest element (though it works well and adds to the complexity). A little bit of alcohol burn on the finish, moderates with successive swills. A touch medicinal. Moderate carbonation with a medium, smooth, slightly syrupy mouthfeel that leaves a tasty film on the gums. I love old ales and this is an totally unique and wonderful version.

bottle: pours a reddish brown colour with a very thin off white head. the aroma is of new tires and wood with some sweet malts. the flavour is sweet and also has the tire new tire taste (not that i have eaten new tires)it also has some smoke and oak in there to round out the flavour. evben though it taste and smells of new tire it is quite enjoyable as it warms up.

Rerate. Deep burgundy red, still flimsy tan head. Been drinking 2007 bottles at three month intervals as an experiment, now this is an 18 month old bottle. Trying this out of a tulip this time instead of the usual snifter (since those are at my other place). Have yet to notice any changes in this beer until this time. Hard to believe but the nose has complexified. The huge peat smoke and rubber has retreated into the background, and the maple sugars are much more to the front. Tantalizing hint of vanilla. There are very few beers that I’ve nosed more than this. Packs some heat which I like a lot. Very long maple finish, reminds me of my favorite erable creme brulees. All in all even more delicious than I remember it. Perhaps this aging experiment is working out after all. I’ve been having trouble giving scores to beers lately. This is clearly amazing shit that’s moreover showing signs of holding up very well. Do I like this better than Fred? Elevator barrel aged barley wine? Not even I know the answer to that, and a side by side tasting is impossible.
9 3 9 4 18

Original rating: Reddish/brown body with an orangish almost pomegranate tint, topped by a thin off-white head. Interesting aroma of oak, rubber and malt. Rubbery taste and texture together with a sweet malty flavor (but not cloying). No significant hop presence, some stiff alcohol notes, slight alcohol burn on finish, all framed in oak with some smoky notes as well. Very smooth palate, minimal carbonation that’s perfect, slightly syrupy, almost like maple syrup. Very futuristic barley wine style ale, as expected from this most forward looking brewery. Curiously, 11% is surely tasted but hardly felt. 9 4 8 4 17

after drinking cloudy and hazy BW prior to this one, the first thing I noticed about Immort Ale is how crystal clear and filtered it appears. up front it has a nice sweet smoky flavor and being a martini drinker, that distinctive juniper bite as well. unfortunately, it all fades rather quickly to a bland alcoholic, dry finish due to the filtration. thanks to styles for the bottle, I’m not sure of the vintage, but knowing Chris, its at least 2 years old.

Bottled 4-29-07. Pours dark amber with a small off white head. Aroma is pretty much everything that it says in the description but I am also getting a good amount of band aid. Flavor is big oak, more band aid, smoke, fermented fruits, and caramel malts. Didn’t get much maple syrup at all. Still pretty good.

Pours a a nice amber brown color with a tan head. Aroma is sweet maple syrup, vanilla, and woody notes. Flavor is maple syrup, vanilla, woody notes, and light alcohol finish.

Poured barely any head with an off-white rim. Color was burnt-leather brown. The aroma is hard to describe. This beer is all taste, which is vast and intriguing.I got huge vanilla, oak, and caramel notes with a powerful aftertaste of English Leather cologne. Medium lacing and huge body. Quite intense and complex. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other beer that tastes like an old leather shoe.