Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

I had this beer to celebrate the first Vikings preseason game and was not dissapointed. Pours a copper color with an off-white head. Rich hoppy aroma. The taste is complex but is so malty and hoppy it almosts makes you cringe. Nice grassy finish. This beer is top shelf!

Poured from the bottle into a pint glass. Pour produced a dark amber body (with a slight haze) topped by a small head of off-white foam. Fragrant nose of hops, citrus, and floral notes. Crisp carbonation with a slight sweetness at the beginning, ending on a bitter note. The hops lays on your tongue for a while, and is nicely balanced out by the malts, which, as mentioned before in other reviews, is stronger than other IIPAs. I do recommend puring this in a snifter or any other glass that can capture the aroma, as there is quite a profile to sample here.

I think I like this a little better than the 60 minute IPA. The hops are stronger but the general flavor seems a little bit more interesting. Overall, I think the flavors seem unbalanced or unblended. As in, the malts, hops and fruity overtone flavors seemed immediately separate on my tongue. For that reason, it doesn’t get a higher rating. However, I was served this beer very poorly... with a glass at all! (so I resorted to a plastic cup) and at too cold a temperature. I would like to try this again done the right way in the future. Maybe the flavors will be better.

Tasted 15/08/2009. Well worth the mad props. HUGE in all respects while still maintaining integrity and respect for the palate with a fine balancing malt character. Probably too malty for what I’d consider and IPA, with a little toasty melanoidin character lurking in there, but a fine fine beer that I’d love to try fresh. IPAs (and IIPAs especially) can be be all aroma show and not enough palate dough... this is not one of those imposters. Food pairing: the best, big, fresh and delicious burger you can wrap your mouth around. Vegetarian is even better but I’d lower myself to some meat.

How this stands up depends almost entirely on the serving temp. When served warmed up properly, the smell is a blossom of hops, peach, apricot, bubblegum. The taste is complex and unique ~ butterscotch, rum, sugar, hops, more peaches, ghee. The hop balance is pretty strong yet this is quite drinkable. However, this particular IPA has a very "locked in" sort of taste compared to other IPA’s that I like that tend to have a more open, loose, and free kind of taste. I find this kind of flavour profile to be a bit of a trademark with every single DFH brew that I have ever had. It’s a bit hard for me to explain...I do like this beer, but I find it to be a hugely unrepresentative of the traditional IPA style. That is waht DFH does best though, right? So...cheers to this amazing and singular example of an interesting beer done...right? Sure...just be sure to warm it up.

The aroma has molasses, grapefruit and resin. It has a good, off-white head that disappeared quickly. It was clearer than I expected and makes me wish they had left it unfiltered. The flavor was full, acetic, and just delicious. I feel a little bad not absolutely loving this, but I love Dogfish head for existing and making this beer.

12 oz bottle. Copper color, nice white head. Huge amount of malts and hops, but in a good balance. Pine and citrus notes. A really great beer.

Bottled on 6/18/09. I guess I am still to green to get the love for this beer. Maybe I need to try again with dinner instead of a stand alone. It was tasty indeed and complex etc just not at all what i expected .