Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2002 (23%)

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

Pardon my French, but Jesus H. Christ on a broomstick. If you like alcohol, go to town with this thing. It'll knock your socks off. The alcohol flavor is overpowering, making the beer more one dimensional than the 18% version. This isn't a bad thing, but it does put you under. Having water close at hand when drinking this may not be a bad call.

How in the world did this beer get such high ratings from everybody? This isn’t beer, it’s a sugary sweet, over priced, alcohol laden, bottle of swill. It’s really hard to get that sugary sweet taste out of my mouth! At $8.00+ per bottle, I will never drink this swill again. If you’re not a fan of hard liquor, then you won’t be a fan of this so called beer. I hate that alcohol burn. I’m trying like hell to finish this bottle, due to the price, but it is starting to ruin my New Year’s Eve! As I try to finish this, I can only get 1/4 of the way through this slop. I think I’ll feed it to the alligators that are rumored to live in the sewers of New York! Hell, why should I treat them so bad, they never did anything to me. This stuff REALLY SUCKS!!!

Ok how to rate something like this. Let me start off by saying that this beer is in a class all of it’s own. Extremely powerfull, in every aspect. Out of the bottle it’s dark brown/black with just the slightest tinge of red around the edge, no head to speak of. Aroma starts off by burning your nostrils with alcohol, but then you begin to notice some plum and rasin, big malts and sweet brandy lying in the background. The first sip starts the same way with you trying to catch your breath because you feel like you just did a shot, then all of the flavors come flooding in, starting this time with the sweet hotness of brandy, followed with the malt and dark vinuous fruits. This beer is an absolute masterpiece that must be experienced, I assure you that even if you don’t like it you’ll respect it.

Pours unusually thin for an imperial stout. Extremely winey nose with hints of coffee and raisin. Flavor is quite complex; distinctively sweet with very little roastiness and a strong alcohol back. A bit thin and oily, but surprisingly drinkable.

Bottle. Opaque, black motor oil coloring. No head. Grapes, pinot noir hints, tart. Flavorful explosion. Malty, sweet, floral notes. Complexity obvious as is the high alcohol exhale (I could light my breath with a lighter). Overpowering and worth every drop.

Poured out of bottle, bought at Sam's Wine & Spirits in Chicago, 4/27/03. Truly awesome stuff. Perhaps *too* awesome, at least for my tastes. Very rich, very sweet, very full-bodied, almost syrupy beer. No head to speak of (and I dumped the beer vertically into a pint glass), but still a nice looking pour with the deep brown color. Tremendously powerful and complex flavors-- a total palate-shocker. Amazing to behold, and it does a hell of a job masking the 23% (!!) alcohol content. You can still taste the alcohol, of course (and you can certainly feel it by the halfway point of your first bottle), but it doesn't burn of 23%. Kind of steep in price ($7.99 a 12-oz. bottle where I live), but absolutely worth the splurge. A "six-in-one-pack" is what I like to call it, and it's a damn fine beer, but I can only handle it perhaps once every couple of months.

Pours an opaque black colour with no head. Aroma of burnt malt, chocolate and coffee. Heavy body. Thick syrupy mouthfeel with very little, if any, carbonation. Taste is sweet up front but then the rich chocolate and roasted malt flavours come bursting through. Alcohol is noticable but not unpleasent although I did wake up the next day feeling as if I had been on a good bender. I’m glad I tried it but doubt if I’d have another

This would have got a higher rating had I not just sampled the 2003 18.8%.This one pours out with the faintest of a head/no lace.It's black w/ tinges of mohogany.Smells like alcohol w/a sweet chocolate/some roastiness.This is quite remarkable for being 23%(the strongest beer we might ever drink?)The taste is nice but very sweet.It is still quite smooth considering.Sticky palate.Some hops and a tease of carbonation.Does act like a liquer at times.Rugged but worth the trip.This was bottled in the month of october/2002.Could use some more aging.But the 2003 is ready now!As this gets warm it also gets sweeter(not in a good way)This is actually hard to finish!Glad this one is retired(and also improved!)