Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA

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

Bottle. Brilliant but dusky orange under a massive blossom of foam well worthy of the Tripel Karmeliet tulip;festoons of lace like cosmic dust clouds. That’s a 5 then. Unanticipated caramel sweetness on the nose like Brewdog Punk IPA; cinder toffee, digestive biscuit, batter and liquorice as much as Mango Jammy Dodgers (imagine) and juicy satsuma on the edge of moulding. Smells like tangerine cheesecake left in the sun. Spruce, almond and bags of booze as the head subsides. Hops big but tropical and ester-like, with more than a suggestion of pineapple. Fat but supple; hop intensity accelerated to the point it goes backwards and begins to imitate the mellow estery glow of a big Belgian Tripel. Warm but not fierce, alcohol spike cushioned luxuriously in malt, tangerine, walnut, satsumas on buttered toast (?), soapy biscuit..The brilliance of this beer is that it smacks you in the face with hops, and you hardly notice.

Pours an apple juice color. Aroma of mild fruityness with a slight musty smell. Taste of a very distinct hops with a certain bite to the aftertaste. An enjoyable IPA.

12 oz bottle, university market, 2.79. As a hop head, it needs more hops. But it is still very tasty lots of malts, sweet, real light bitter.

12oz. bottle. North Coast snifter. Pours a dirty copper color, hardly noticeable cloudiness present. Aroma is more bready upfront opposed to hoppy. Smells of copper, bread, brown sugar, and light hoppiness (VERY disappointing for an imperial IPA). Extremely sweet. Syrupy texture. Moderately hoppy, slightly bitter, very bread-like. Normally I would have much more to say about a beer, but this is very 2-dimensional. Still enjoyable, but eh.

This beer is simply amazing. Nose is hoppy with a blend of sweet malts and almost citrusy. Pours a deep amber with a small amount of lacing. Taste is wonderful, big on malts, this balances the hoppy flavor you normally get from an IPA with 90 IBU’s. No bitterness on the end from the hops. Low on carbonation, this is pretty easy to swallow. I could drink one every night. Thanks for another wonderful beer DFH.

Not much aroma off this. Color is a muddy brown. Not much hop taste at all. Pretty malty actually. OK as a brown ale but not a west coast IPA.

bottle: pint glass: So this is the famed 90 huh? Pours a deep amber, leaving 1 finger of slightly off white head. Nose is the sweaty hoppy I expected, with lots of floral and fruits, citrus. The initial taste is bitter hops, rush of carbonation... as it moves through the mouth and warms the young fruits and citrus come out... also a surprising high malt level giving this beer a great balance. The finish is bitter but not too dry, and there is a nice warming feel from the esters.

Poured from bottle into Nonic Imperial Pint. Clear amber-orange with nice retained (but small) head and lacing. Smells somewhat like the 60 Minute, but the citrus is more prominent and the toasted malts less so. Also, a slight alcohol smell, especially as it warms. Fairly sweet and fruity, with a very citrusy hop taste. Overall, it has a strong malt and hop taste without the hop bitterness. The 60 Minute is actually more bitter than this, and that is not a very bitter IPA either. Slight taste of alcohol. I was surprised by how malty and sweet this beer is, without much bitterness (despite the supposed 90 IBUs). Basically, this is a different DIPA, but I really like it. Very, very smooth. Low carbonation and medium body. Besides for a slight alcohol taste, this is ridiculously easy to drink - dangerously so.