Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2001/2003-Present (18%)

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Milton, Delaware USA

Good stuff!! Pours a pure black color. Aroma is of barley, coffee, molasses, and alcohol. Taste is similar to a barley wine with coffee in it. Has a nice bite in the end. This was a pleasure to have.

12 oz bottle. Poured a dark black with a thin quickly disappearing head. Nose is sherry, booze, nearly whiskey, some sweet malt and dark fruits. Flavor is huge booziness, sweet malt, some roasty notes, sticky figs, prunes, coffee, hubba bubba and chocolate. Full bodied. Heavy.

12oz bottle into a snifter Pours black even when held to the light. The aroma is oddly like smelling a liqeur, alcoholish and full of fruity esters. It’s almost like a barley wine, and the flavor is close, too. The flavor is dark fruits with a backing of coffee and roasted malts. The beer is thick and syrupy with a very small tan head. This is good, but not for those who are not devoted or used to beer. Also, best shared.

I can’t remember where I got this beer. I think it was the very first Christmas after I took up beer as a hobby, and the good eye of a generous family member. Whatever it’s origin story, I’ve had a World Wide 2003 stout sitting in the basement aging in good company. I decided to drink it the other day to honor the successful end to a trip to D.C. I had some trepidation, though. I had heard the World Wide stout peaked two or three years after it’s manufacture, not six, and half expected a strange, gamey brew. I think it aged fairly elegantly. It pours to a medium brown head, strapped into the glass with a tight head and smooth lacing. This head quickly evaporates leaving a slightly elevated halo above the pitch black brew. A rich and edgy aroma greets my nose. It starts with a soft and sophisticated chocolate truffle, given body by scents of mocha coffee and fig - bright, polished and shining flavors. There’s also an edge of wine with a certain, vorpal “snicker-snack” of alcohol. A first sip tells me the flavors are very well-rounded, which is surprising giving the excessive aging. Then, suddenly, alcohol explodes from the back of the throat outwards, like a slow-motion bomb. It balloons out, touching the tonsils and back of the throat with a slow, pleasing burn, pressing and pushing the flavor into new degrees of subtlety and complexity. It starts innocently enough. Cocoa and mocha mingle elegantly pandering to all kinds of flavor combinations, and then they dwindle down to a quiet simper, before alcohol and a spicy, dark fruit touch combust and explode. It’s an unexpected, unexperienced and incredible sensation, and one that was well worth keeping this beer aging above and beyond it’s so-called prime.

(bottle). Black color. Small tan head. Malt, alcohol, and wood aromas. Heavy malt and alcohol flavor. Avg duration. Alcoholic finish. Slick texture. Soft carbonation. Spare lacing.

Pours a dark brown body and a tan head with legs. Smells hot. Alcohol, barley, bubblegum, coffee, cocoa. Flavor is barley, wine dried fruit, brown sugar. Sticky and hot on the finish. Hopped well.

Bottled. I have no idea what went on with this, but mine was incredibly sour and almost vinegary leading me to believe I had a bad bottle .

Thin layered, espresso-like...beautiful nose, sweet tar, coffee, chocolate and sappy aromas leap from the glass. syrup, molasses, brown sugar are buried in the richness. Giant, almost overwhelming, loads of flavors stampeding over the cowering taste buds fighting for attention. The barley wine shows off the middle and carries the torch alongside port, stewed cherries and delicate anise. creamy, lingering finish ala a veronan coffee shop. Not my style. Perfect for a beer flight. The "once in a while brew." Best if shared with two beer lovers spread out over an hour, outside, in a brisk winter’s early evening. The weight of this beer is substantial. If you could drink six of these, a Bukowski novel is likely.