Dogfish Head Black and Blue

750ml Bottle brought back from East Coast by a friend. Pours a nice thick head which is extremely slow to collapse.Beautiful ruby color. Clear as a bell. Aroma is cross between wine/fruit/belgian yeast. My sister told me she thought it was too sweet, but I’m actually liking it a lot. To me the flavor is more along the side of a dry light red wine that has been carbonated (a blush champagne perhaps?). Bitterness rolls off the back of the tongue in the pallate. Fruit is more pronounced in the aftertaste. This one would be on my list to buy again if I was interested in a fruit beer with a character all its own. Hopefully Dogfish will sell this one out here when they start bringing it to California on a regular basis.

Bottle from Butters. I have wanted to taste this one for a while because I thought the red and white was pretty good, and I didnt really want to shell out 18 bucks for a 750 of it. Thankfully Butters does not mind. Brownish colored pour with a white head on it. Smell is fruity and sweet. Black berries and blueberries, (surprising), and some alcohol. Taste is sweet and smooth, a little hint of sourness but not enough to make it actually sour. Pretty good beer really. Its no NG BR or RT, but its good for what it is. Surprisingly low rated. I did not get any alcohol in the taste, it was masked pretty well. Good stuff here.

750, capped. Thanks, BitBucket! Pours a dark amber with a thin dirty-white head. Sharp vinous blueberry nose, but dissipates rather quickly and settles into a mild fruitiness with some rather unexpected red wine overtones. Blueberries and sweet red wine grapes on the mid-palate, and there they are again on the finish, too. This bottle had had several months to mellow, if that’s any comment on the relative mildness of the aromas and flavors. Nice, but nothing special.

Bottle courtesy of Butters. Pours medium amber with and off white head. Aroma of dark wild berries, malt, and a tad amount of alcohol. Medium bodied with a semi- light Belgian texture. Flavor of blueberry, blackberry, and belgian malts. Not much bitterness, but enough to keep it in balance. Honey, candi sugar accents on the finish. Decent

Oxidationfest Tasting at illinsmittys. Pretty pinkish red pour with wispy white head. Aroma has alcohol in the nose. Flavor is fuity. Medium thin body, with some carbonation but not much. Boozy bitter finish. Actually, didn’t enjoy it all that much.

Bottle: Not impressed with this beer at all. I like fruit beers, but this tasted too much like fruit punch. Really no flavor and no finish. Pass

Smells of corn and berries. Reddish-colored. I was actually looking forward to this, but found it disappointing. I wonder if I got a bad bottle.

Bottle from Franklins. Cloudy orange red. Sweet black berry and blue berry aroma and taste with a nice tart crispness.