Dogfish Head Brewery’s Midas Touch

My wife is not a beer drinker. When she was younger she enjoyed it but ever since she quit smoking about 5 years ago, and well before that, she switched to mix drinks or wine. However there are times when I come home with a beer that she will find good enough to cross her lips. No, they are not “girly” beers like Zima or those low carb beers or St. Ides, if you can call that beer. They are the Triples or the Wits, light but flavorful with a decent amount of octane to make it worth drinking. Normally though she doesn’t invade my stash, I still get to enjoy these beers and she is fine with just having a glass or bottle. But when I gave her a sip of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch that comes in a 4 pack, she enjoyed three of them… good thing I love her.

The story behind this “Golden Elixir” is that this is the oldest known fermented beverage in the world. The recipe was discovered in the drinking vessels in King Midas’ tomb. King Midas was an actual king, however he did not have the ability to turn anything he touched into gold, he died by drinking bull’s blood when the Cimmerians conquered his Phrygian kingdom. But the recipe wasn’t just laid out on a scroll or a tablet, it was actually discovered by the use of Molecular Archaeology buy Dr. Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania. Residue that was inside the vessel turned out to include a combination of grape wine, barley beer and honey mead. So, as Dogfish Head usually does, they took what was known and did their best to re-create what was discovered.

This pours a nice orange color that has a bit of carbonation to it, bubbles mostly, no head. The smell is rather sweet and you can notice the grapes and honey. The taste is bubbly but the flavor is nothing too explosive, it says saffron is in the ingredients but I have no idea what that taste like so I will assume I am tasting that, plus the grapes and the honey is prominent but not overwhelming. It is very smooth, the ABV is 9 but you would never know that until the end, I can see myself drinking all 4 of these rather quickly if I am not too careful. This is almost a fruit wine or a mead, I can see this going good with some white meat, I usually do not drink booze while eating unless it is some wine but this might be worth combining with food. I was pleasantly happy with the beer. I like these kinds of beers my wife likes these kinds of beer as well and it gives us a chance to come together as a couple and enjoy the evening. However the second 4 pack I got I did not tell her about it, sorry honey.

Dogfish Head Brewery’s Midas Touch

B+

*Beer of the Month* Town Hall’s Grinch’s Grog

This season Town Hall Brew Pub released 3 holiday ales. Festivus which is a milk stout, Jubilation which is a spicy dark IPA and the best of the three and the best beer I had all month, Grinch’s Grog which is a creamy pale ale made with what tastes like a boat load of simcoe hops. This beer won me over like all hoppy beers do. The appearance is a nice hazy orange color with a great head on it with a lacing that sticks around like a good beer should. The aroma is exquisite, I simply cannot get enough of the smell of this. A great bouquet of pine and citrus. And the taste is right up my alley. Smooth and bitter with a taste that mimics it’s aroma. It has a creamy malt aftertaste but nothing too much, the hops take this over very well. Town Hall has been treating us well lately. Not only have these three come out they have just tapped their famed 1800 and on Monday they had their Christmas party out front where people were treated to their Old Ale which was something spicy boiling in a big pot and poured into a glass with some rum in it. And this Grog tops it all off. I highly suggest you all get out there to get this before it goes like the holiday season will be doing soon.

Town Hall Brew Pub’s Grinch’s Grog

A+

Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA

Ah, the infamous 120 Minute IPA. I thought this would be more illusive to me being that Dogfish Head is not sold in Minnesota but surprisingly my good friend at Bacchus Wines and Spirits gave me one from his personal collection. I was ecstatic, finally I would get my chance to have what I hear is one of the most extreme beers, 20% ABV and 120 IBU, out there for the general public. The color is a hazy orange and the aroma is with pungent with alcohol and orange peel. The taste though I felt was too complex and the high alcohol and hop content almost took each other out and what was left was a potent sweet flavor that to me mimicked the also high octane Old Stock Ale. I believe that this is a case where too much led to a product that had hopes but did not meet its mark. At the end I felt disappointed, to me this was going to be my Holy Grail, the beer I have been searching for all my life but in the end it did not meet my expectations. I could have been expecting something else and maybe that is why this did not appeal to me, I do not know but in my opinion this was a worthy effort and I applaud Dogfish Head for doing this but it was just like taking your favorite spices for a dish and overloading them. I will however get this again when I can. Maybe I need a second try at it. I know there are some brews that need a second try and I am totally willing to try this again. Not much else to say, let the flaming begin.

Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA

C+

Victory Brewery’s Hop Wallop

Being sick sucks. There was a time when I was a kid that being sick meant no school and that kinda bled over to when I was a young adult with work but now it is not the same. Maybe because as a kid I rarely got sick and when I was it really wasn’t that bad. In the last few years though I have been getting sick now more than ever. And not just the sniffles or a tummy ache but down right feeling awful. So bad that I cannot drink beer, and when I cannot drink beer you know I am really not feeling well. So besides my usually bar drinks like Furious and Masala Mama after work I will review the last beer that I drank at home, Victory Brewery’s Hop Wallop.

With a fun story on the bottle to read as you drink this, a story of a man named Horace ‘Hop’ Wallop who did… something… I forget, but anyways it lead him to brew this excellent beer. With a beautiful orange color and a perfect head that also leaves a perfect lacing I really enjoyed every one of these beers. The smell was robust with citrus peels and other hints of almost tropical aromas. This is one hoppy beer my friends and a must for any hop head. Any layman would be turned off by this but for us adventurous beer drinkers it is a perfect example of what god has meant for us to do with the hop flower. You would think that it would be very bitter when you smell it and even in the first taste but it smoothly transitions out to leave just enough on your palate to make the flavor stay and leaves room for more of it. This is maybe of the most hoppiest beers I  have had by initial smell and taste but it is not so overpowering that you get the feeling of “too much” if I have ever thought that, which I cannot recall, but this at the very least gives me the satisfaction that I want but also the balance that makes it good to the last drop. This is a limited release so act fast and get yourself a sixer.

Victory Brewery’s Hop Wallop

A+

Fitgers Brew Pub’s Big Boat Oatmeal Stout and El Nino Double IPA

Fitgers. Now this takes me back. I started my life in the grand city of Duluth, Minnesota and it should be fitting that I started my love of brew pubs in this town as well. My history with Fitgers goes back a long time. I will spare you the deep history of the old brewery and the new brew pub and have you go check that out for yourself, it is a fun place to go and I go there just about every time I go home to visit. My grandfather used to work on the railroad and he would say that every Friday when the rolled past Fitgers they would stop the train and the guys would load up a box car with cases of their brew. Fitgers was one of the thousands of breweries that died after the onslaught that the big three laid when it conquered the United States. After about 10 years Fitgers re-opened to become a hotel with restaurants and shops including a museum with the old kettles still intact. But the beer was long gone and the only thing left were rusty old cans that laid in a dump behind my house in Fredenberg and on the shelves of collectors and the old tin signs that gracefully decorate other long standing Twin Ports restaurants like Grandmas.

Then in 1995 after the founders came back from a ski trip they were inspired to bring a local beer scene to Duluth and low and behold, Fitgers Brew House was born (again). I think I stepped foot in there a couple years before I left for the Twin Cities in 1997-98 and I remember it like it was yesterday. I went to go eat lunch with my mother and we went to the brew house. Now mind you I was not at all familiar with brew pubs and local craft beer was not very huge, not that it really huge now but then, in Duluth, not at all. And I can’t remember what I got to eat, which is not important, but what I got to drink blew my mind. Looking at the beer menu I was expecting the usual suspects because as I said I was not familiar with a brew pub. Hmmm, where’s the Bud? The Miller? The Coors? Not even Heineken or Summit. All the beers had no brand name attached. Well, I had to ask the waitress what was the deal and that is when she explained to me about Fitgers in house brewing. So a pub that brews its own beer? Cool, though I have to admit that I, at the time, was pretty skeptical of this. I was into Guinness and Summit and I had some Red Hook and Flying Dog beers but this sounded kind of weird to me. It sounded like it was going to be cheap. So I went ahead and ordered their Blizzard Blueberry Porter being I was a fan of Summit’s Great Northern Porter. And then it was over, I loved it. I even brought my friends down there that night and got a pitcher but they all thought I was nuts and they wanted to leave for Superior to drink cheap taps and grind with strangers. I went back maybe 10 or so times before I moved but cannot remember what I got but I loved each beer. And when I hit the cities it was back to minor experimentation and I think I only made it back to the Brew House a couple of times over the last 10 years.

Now I make it a commitment to go there every time I go home if anything to get a growler. I got the inspiration to go back when I learned that the brew master at Town Hall had a brother who is the brew master at Fitgers. Fitgers? I said, I’ve been there, years ago, got their Blueberry Porter which the guy at the bar told me, yeah, that is one of their popular seasonals. After all these years I almost forgot about that place. My god what was I thinking? Well now I am going to make up for lost time, I get two growlers and a couple beers each time I go up. This time around I got their El Nino Double IPA and their Big Boat Oatmeal Stout.

The Big Boat is a classic Oatmeal Stout that carries all the characteristics of what one should be. It’s got the hints of coffee, the chocolate malts, a bit of prune fruitiness. It is jet black with a nice brown head and is not very rich but just enough to make it not be a gut buster. I wish I could go on and on about this but there really isn’t nothing special about this. It is good do not get me wrong but noting really stands out here. It is probably something I will not get too often but if you like this kind of brew I recommend it. I had this outside with the cold snap coming in, it was quite a fitting combination.

The El Nino Double IPA though was a treat. I am a sucker for IPA’s so I knew I was going to love this before it even touched my lips. It had a nice orange color to it that poured almost thick and I stuck my nose close to get that fresh hop smell and it was good. It had a pine smell to it with a hint of grapefruit and I could tell this was going to be as I expected. The initial taste had a bite but calmed down after a while leaving me eager for another sip. I could taste the sweet balance of this beer from the bitter beginning to the malty end. I took down this growler like a drunk takes down his first glass of whiskey from a new bottle, ecstatic on the first glass and somber on the last, but at least I didn’t start it a 8 in the morning so that separates me from the drunk… right? Anyways this is a fine IPA and if you are ever in Duluth and you are at Fitgers and you can only have one beer make it this one. Or the Blueberry Porter.

Fitgers Brew Pub’s Big Boat Oatmeal Stout

B

Fitgers Brew Pub’s El Nino Double IPA

A

Where have I been?

Semester is almost done here at the U so I have been busy, busy, busy. But I should be posting some stuff soon. Don’t forget me. I still exist. So for now I will take you to my Senior Beer Analyst Ollie Williams for a review of a 40 oz. of Mickeys Malt Liquor.

It gets you drunk!!

Thanks Ollie.