Dogfish Head: Midas Touch

Part beer, part mead, all good. Dogfish head have been making this one for a while, but it had been years since I had a bottle of it.  A friend of ours in Melbourne brought some to a dinner party one night, it was amazing, I hadn't seen it since.  The Hamilton Wine Company got some in, and was kind enough to hide a couple bottles so I could get them.  It is as good as I remember it.

What kind of beer is it? Hard to say. Honey and spices (saffron, they claim) make it meady, but it packs a punch at 9%, and is very easy to drink.  It has enough going on to keep the most snobbish of beer snobs interested, while not being too harsh for a casual drinker.

Dogfish Head: 90 Minute IPA

From the Dogfish Head website: "Esquire Magazine calls our 90 Minute IPA "perhaps the best IPA in America.""  I can see why.  M had just finished telling me that she was a bit over IIPAs, but a sip of this was completely convincing.

Dogfish Head: Palo Santo Marron

Sometimes you age beer in special casks to make it extra delicious.  Dogfish head has this down.  Of course, they also did it to a sufficiently high alcohol content that the US requires them to call it a 'malt beverage' rather than a beer... because USians are weird about alcohol.  If you like the powerful beers, you should have a try of this.

Dogfish Head: 'Aprihop'

The guy at the Hamilton Wine Company tells me that, while Dogfish Head's Festina Peche has been selling well, people seem wary of the Aprihop.  That is enough to get me to try it, and I don't regret it.  Sure, it is kind of fruity.  There is no chance of not noticing that apricots were involved in this beer.  But it isn't sweet or sickly.  The flavours complement the hops (of which there are a lot. 50 IBUs, according to the Dogfish Head site).  It finishes cleanly, and has a nice after-taste.  I hope we can still get this as our summer arrives, but it is a seasonal release, so I wouldn't be surprised if it disappears from shelves as the US moves into fall/winter.

Oh yes it is.

Nice colour!