Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2002 (23%)

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

This is very impressive! The alcohol is so well hidden, it is almost unbelieveable. Lots of sweet caramel and malty notes in the aroma. Burned caramel and roasted malt in the start and middle, with a delicious toffee-like finish combined with burned toast and brown sugar. Very smooth and soft. Brown sugar and burned caramel in the palate. This a very delicious brew!

Bottle courtesy of jhop, thanks again! Part of our six year vertical. Black pour with no head. Aroma of molasses, rubbing alcohol, bready malt and more hot booze. The flavor held some bready malts, chocolate and an onslaught of hot booze. Hot and boozey over the full body with a warming/burning finish. I bet this stuff will be great in 20-30 years.

Very good overall. Beautiful brown/black color, small head. Gorgeous aroma, fruity, striong in alcohol. This beer was VERY sweet, and the alcohol, while well hidden for 23%, was still very noticeable. It had an oily mouthfeel common to the stout. The finish is a little long, and warming, probably due to the alcohol. This beer ran me 8.99 for a 12 oz. bottle!!!!! On the plus side, I am well on my way to being wasted right now. :) This is definitely not the best imperial stout I’ve had (I would put North Coast in that spot), but very enjoyable.

Smells like red wine with hints of chocolate. Looks like any other stout, with a little less head than usual. Tastes just like it smells...very thick mouthfeel with a strong feeling that you are drinking wine with chocolate in it. Alcohol taste is there, but not to the point of taking away from the brew. The aftertaste is very chocolaty, with a portion of it being bitter from the booze. I paid 9$ for one bottle of this as opposed to the 149$ for a case. I can’t say that I’m either thrilled or dissapointed.

This was POTENT among other things. A nice flavor that was a little beaten down by the ABV, but still nice.

Lordy Lordy...what a fiasco I have on my hands. This beer raises about as much contoversy as abortion; if I admit I like this I’m just "following rating trends" but if I say anything contrary I "just don’t appreciate it"...well, I am non-partisan. I think there’s some good flavor in that bottomless pit of barley malt, but I too lost my sinuses as the alchohol burned the space between my throat and forehead, I feel like a block of freakin swiss cheese. This beer suffers from bi-polar disorder; I like the taste but the taste doesn’t like me. This is like standing on the moon: your face and torso are frying but your ass is ice cold. You know how you would always get one kid to sniff the bottle of ammonia or drink the curdled milk because you knew it was a senses shocker but they were clueless? That’s what this beer is, but in a good way.

This just tastes like a holiday ale with a bunch of hard liquor dumped in. Too sweet, too syrupy. I truly believe that the novelty of such an alcoholic ’beer’ has led to its high ranking. That must be it.

This reminded me most of a fine liquer. A Kahlua or something like that. Probably mainly because it is the same ABV. Did not really feel that alcohol was as omnipresent as others did. Dark, less thick than expecting, no head. Bourbon notes, chocolate and delicious sweetness follows. Shared with a whole posse of cowboys. All enjoyed the beer. I particularly thought it was better than the 18%. Maybe the 4 years of aging did something to it. It was quite the powerful brew. After a slew of bitter IPAs, this beer provided the malty sweetness to balance them all.