Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2002 (23%)

Formerly brewed at Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Milton, Delaware USA

12 oz bottle - I believe this came via trade with Firemoose15 - Thanks Mel! - Pours black with no head at all. Aroma of alcohol, sawdust, and molasses and a bit of chocolate. Flavor is bourbon-like. Some strong alcohol flavor, behind that notes of chocolate, grapes, prunes, a little vanilla.. The flavor is quite complex, but the finish is straight up alcoholic. This is powerful stuff. On the palate this is very smooth except for that alcohol burn that comes at the back. Sticky thick and a real sipper... Anything more would put you on your back in a hurry.. Very unique..

Pours an almost black color, with very little head. Sweet chocolate aroma, with a bit of toffee, and some alcohol. Sweet date cookie taste and goes down smooth. Really smooth. Ends sweet, Not as enjoyable as the 18% version but that may change with a decade or two of aging.

12oz bottle, tasted alongside 2001-2006 versions. Pours a dark, reddish-brown color; off-white head that quickly fades. Lots of raisins and nougat and dried fruits in the aroma; quite boozy and sweeter than the 18% variety. Enormously boozy and sweet mouthfeel, almost overwhelming: dense maple syrup and dried dark fruits; alcohol very present. Lengthy, raisin and dried fruit finish. Quite different from the others; significantly sweeter.

12 oz bottle. Pours a pitch black body with some light passing thru on the edges, minimal fizzy large bubbled head that completely vanished, Some light visible carbonation. The nose is huge roasty malt and alcohol battling for supremacy. Some oxidation coming out, a little nail polish, espresso, dark fruits, almost a bourbon like quality. The alcohol on this is as big as I remembered, it actually burns my gumline. The malt has mellowed out quite a bit though from when it was fresh. The heavy roast has melted away some into some fruity madeira like oxidation yielding some sweet candied plum fruitiness. Finishes with a little soy and worcestershire sauce and that ever present alcohol. Mouthfeel is as thick and viscous as ever with a mouth coating clingy finish. Big alcohol heat all the way down the chest. Still has nice slightly fizzy carbonation that cuts through the sweetness pretty well. As good as this is, I still have to knock this guy down a few points because it’s still really hard to finish a 12 ounce bottle of this.

Hated it to split the bottle with the two pivo brothers, but Thanksgiving man, Thanksgiving...be nice! Chocolate and strong Jaegermeister Nose. Black, brown, no head. Brandy, Chocolate, bitter flavor. Thick, like syrup, great!

Dark brown leather color - translucent at the edges, bit of fizz on top, almost clear lacing. Big sweet maple aroma with very little alcohol. This is very malty sweet - plums/Mrs. Butterworth's maple syrup/a littl bit of Brach's butterscotch disks. The palate, though, wasn't as thick and syrupy as I expected it to be and that's a good thing - this could easilly get cloying over the course of 2 hours (how long it took me to drink it). The only time the alcohol was noticeable was at the finish it left a rough patch down the middle of my tongue. The 18% seemed a lot smoother and stout-like. This was more of a liquer. I'll try to hold on to my other bottle for a while and see how it changes.

Opaque dark brown color with a thin soda like head and little lace. Sweet malty aroma with a strong alcohol presence similar to a good whiskey. Very sweet malt flavor at first turning less sweet and fulll of alcohol with a slightly nutty coffeeish finish. Full bodied, very warming and tingling on the tongue.

Black but not completely opaque with no head. The aroma is burnt wood, chocolate, coffee (hints) and fruit in the first stages of rot all riding an alcoholic wave. The flavor is less rotten, surprisingly smooth despite the aroma, but too sweet. Comes across really cloying. I tasted this with gthank and he described it as a chocolate port and I can see that. The mouthfeel is thick and oily with a mild burn going down. Have a bottle of this is all I can handle, which is good because the full bottle would have me a little too buzzed.