Dogfish Head Burton Baton

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Milton, Delaware USA

Dark amber with a creamy, off-white head. Sweet, complex aroma of hops, sugar and oak. Full mouthfeel with caramel, toffee and roasted malts. Alcoholic strong throughout. Hops on the finish, drying out some of the residual sweetness.

Pours a dark amber hue with fair clarity, huge foamy offwhite head sustains, thick lacing on the glass. Nose is dominated by the unique (almost medicinal-phenol) glacier hop aroma with a hefty dose of French Oak and alcohol strength, solid underlying bread and caramel aromas. Flavor is unsurprisingly complex; initially the palate is hit with a high hop bitterness and yeasty crispness, followed by DFHs typical bready-caramel malt profile with those glacier hops in tow, very faint hints of oak, biscuit, pine, finishes rather quickly with a slight alcohol warmth. Medium-full body, thick texture, moderate carbonation. I’m a bit confused by this one, I don’t think the range of ingredients integrate well here.... first off, I think Glacier is a poor hop choice for a beer of this style due to its medicinal/phenol flavors that get overwhelmed by the strong DFH malts; the flavor is not as full as the aroma would have you believe; and the flavor quickly fades from the palate. I wouldn’t peg this as very competitive in the DIPA category, but think it fairs well as a malt-forward strong-ale.

12oz bottle pours amber in the glass with a decent white head, keeps a nice cap, a little spotty lacing. Aroma is quite nice, citrus hops up front, grapefruit, some orange, followed by a caramel malt sweetness, as well as a little vanilla, banana, and butterscotch. Flavor is sweet caramel malts up front with a bitter hoppy finish. Nice balance of sweet and bitter. Creamy, slightly sticky mouthfeel. Medium to high carbonation. Alcohol is well hidden. Very, very nice, glad I got a chance to try this.

Dark amber pour with an off-white head. Aroma of wood, hops, sweetness. The sweetness is stronger in the aroma than in the taste. Taste is wee balanced. Woody, hops, semi-sweet. The alcohol is well checked by the rest of the flavors. Well balanced, good tasting. Nice aftertaste. Ok lacing..

Clear copper with a slowly fading medium beige head and sheet lacing. Aroma of citrus, alcohol, caramel, oak and a touch of vanilla. Taste of caramel, citrus, alcohol, orange and light vanilla. I didn’t pick up much wood, there’s some alcohol bite and light bitter finish. Decent.

12 oz. bottle. Shared with Gabe. Pours a lasting white head, with attractive lacing, over a clear amber (SRM 10( body......nose is slightly sweet (caramel) to start, with light pine,resin, vanilla drifting in with a floral finish......taste is caramel, floral, bitter pine, licorice toward the end, which lingers, rather sweet throughout......mouth feel is medium to heavy, carbonation low. This is very rich, but really too sweet overall, I would have preferred better attenuation and more hop bitterness (as opposed to the spice and florality that is here). Tasting of 11/25/09.

Nice hops and cherry in the nose. Great viscosity and balanced bitters on the pallete, the oak aging gives some dry stone fruit notes. Beautifull color. enjoyable 4/5 -DM This beer could be an everyday one for me. I think it has the prittiest color I’ve ever seen. It was a little less than I expected, which is good considering Dogfishhead’s tendancy to over-do things. 4/5 -JB

12 oz bottle. This has got to be the most mild imperial ipa I have ever had, but then again, its really only half standard imperial ipa. That aspect of the beer makes it quite pleasant and unique, but still in the end, I was left wanting a little bit more from it. Definitely light oak wood in the aroma along with a interesting variety of mild notes such as white wine, dates, burnt grass, light herb, almost pumpkin-like spiced fruits, and pie crust. Some thicker, soapy white head on the pour, minor lacing, little retention, medium opacity and a unique shade of autumn orange with the color. As mentioned earlier, there’s not much pop on the palate here, or at least not as much as expected. Smooth, almost creamy mostly throughout, with just a touch of alcohol in the finish. As I drank this one, I definitely started to pick out some more subtleties than I did before. Notes here are mostly balanced with light spiced fruits, thick grass, oak bark, earth, light resin through the finish, white grape juice, and a lingering herbal hop. At times I wanted to love this beer and at other times I was slightly disappointed in the lack of punch. I ended up just really liking it.