Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 2002 (23%)

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

Thanks to Trappist for sending me a couple bottles of this. First of all, do NOT gulp this beer. It is definitely a sipping beer. I literally coughed after taking a normal drink. Pours pitch black with a very thin beige head and thin lacing. Aroma is sweet with sherry or port wine qualities, along with some malt and alcohol. Flavor really packs a wallop. Sugary sweetness eventually matches stride with the strong malt, dark fruit (raisins), and alcohol flavors with which you start out. With all this, it still manages a somewhat dry and bitter finish. While this beer is complex it is still a little unbalanced, but what can you expect from a 23%ABV beer. It is probably impossible to mask such a high level. A strange but good brew. I look forward to trying the 18% version.

Chocolate, coffee, mocha aroma. Black, darkest big cappuccino head I’ve ever seen, clingling lace. Coffee, hint of mocha flavour, dates are noted. wonderfully bitter aftertaste, like Brazil nuts. Incredibly smooth, oily, sweet, but my goodness it’s well balanced for such high alcohol. It is a work of Art! Good Night Prince of Darkness, and Thanks again Hopscotch!

Holy smokes. They've done it again. I thought the 18% WWS couldn't be beat, but this brew almost did it. The only way you can tell the 18% from the 23% beer is that on the 23% label, the words "vim and vigor" are crossed through with a black marker. Weird. It's like they had additional labels from last year's batch and had to use 'em up. Anyway, the alcohol is incredibly well-hidden. The 23% has a very slight head, while the 18% beer was totally still. Like a fine port wine.

Years ago a friend of mine got married and brought out a 50-year-old port wine. Apparently, it was worth hundreds of dollars, and I was one of the lucky few to be honored with a glass. I have to say, this beer has a striking resemblance. It is super-thick, oily, soft, sweet and sugary with sugar-coated dark fruit flavors exuding. Very warming, but not as alcoholic as I expected -- especially at 23%! Not nearly as "liquor-like" as Utopia, which is only 1% stronger. Completely different from the 18%. Won’t even try to compare because this is an apple and that was an orange. Really good stuff though. Have a few taking a long rest in my basement. Can’t wait to try the 18 and the 23 in a year or four. Cheers to DFH! MAY 2008 tasting: Pours dark and oily. Extremely aromatic; I could smell it from many feet away. Incredible texture. Incredible aromas. Surprisingly, oxidation seemed negligible. Vanilla, dark fruit, molasses, sweet tobacco, intensely rich caramel and toffee. Other than a warm throat, alcohol was hidden very well. Lip-smacking GOODNESS!

This one pours black and oily, with very little head, tiny and tan, leaving just a foamy ring around the top of the glass. The aroma is full of cherries and brownies. Alchohol is slightly present in the aroma, but not as much as I expected. A big full-bodied taste with a very present alchohol burn in the aftertaste. Dark chocolate, maltballs, fudge, some dark fruit tastes are also present. Very sweet on the lips with a style that is much more akin to a barleywine or a belgian strong ale. Candy and sugar tastes in the finish. Definitely something to be experienced, and to try with a friend, but a little to over the top for my tastes.

Drank at cellar temperature. Alcohol is apparent in the nose. It taste like, hmm - Take a quality port, mix with your favorite coffee, and add a touch of dark chocolate. Incidentally, I put the remainder back in the fridge and drank the next day (i.e. right now) and cold seems to mute some of the vinuosness and highlight the malt flavors. Non-playin’ grown up beer here.

There was no question about this one in my mind. Short of the Jacobite Ale, this was one of the best things I’ve ever had to drink. I love port and it had so many port-like elements, but more. No head, red at the margin, but otherwise black. Wonderful aroma, certainly giving off some alcohol, but only beneath a layer of plum, vanilla, raisin, and port. Wine-like/Scotch-like sting in the mouth, but a gentle palate too, rolling through my mouth. Flavors of cherry, chocolate, vanilla, for starters.... Great stuff. First rating: 10-4-9-5-19 (4.7) // Re-rate at GBBF 2003: Oh this is so big, what a lovely port wine. I still love this stuff. 9-4-9-5-18 (4.5) // Re-rate in a blind tasting against the 21%. The winner of the comparison. Big alcohol driving the flavors: vanilla, cream soda, cherry, chocolate. Flatter than the 21%. Very smooth, silky, but a lot of burn. Then a burnt flavor and lots of grape/port coming through. Syrupy. Burn. (8-4-8-5-17: 4.2) // Re-rate in an Imperial Stout tasting (August 2005): So smooth, so sweet, so generous is aroma and flavour. Easily 4.7/4.8 material.

Bottle. (Thanks to Papsoe.) Dark brown allmost black colour with nearly no head. Very alcoholic aroma of port, sweetness and hints of roastedness. Wonderful smooth flavour of alcohol, sweetness roastedness, chocolatevery nice endeed and reminds me a lot of port just with carbonation.