Dogfish Head Burton Baton

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

Pours a heavy dark amber with an inch tall cream colored head. Smells like citrus and pear. Maybe some vanilla. Taste is similar to the aroma. Amazing. Very different. The oak aging is highly noticeable and very complementary. This is a lot of complexity crammed into this little bottle i just poured. It’s hard to describe. Just try to experience it for yourself. You won’t be sorry.

Oaky, with alcohol notes, with subtle citrus notes on the nose. Pours amber with a thin white head. Smooth oak right up front, bitter hops, citrus, grapefruit skins, with some pine resin in the flavor, finishes oaky with a lot of hop flavor still. This finish is a little sticky. Very nice!

Pours orangish brown with big off white head. Big pine aroma with some oak. Sweet flavor with lots of hops and some oak and vanilla. A good DIPA, but not as good as their 90 minute. Medium to full body with average carbonation and an oily mouthfeel. Alcohol comes through slightly. A pretty good beer.

12 oz. Bottle. I was pleasantly surprised by this beer. I have yet to try a Dogfish Head brew that didn’t impress, but a number of beer loving friends had dismissed this one. It poured a deep red with a nice tannish head that laced my glass nicely. Strong initial hop aroma along with aroma of a heavy caramel malt, bordering a burnt sugar sensation. The flavor, as Dogfish Head does so well and unlike anyone else, is completely balanced hoppiness. Sure, it is malty, it needs to be to carry the hops, but DFH has a balance of hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma that is totally unique to them. It is bitter, without being too bitter. The bitterness never infringes on the flavor of the malt, and never overpowers the hop flavor. All the while there is a wonderful hop aroma complimenting both hop and malt flavors. There is a smoothness to this beer that I would expect is due to the oak. There is a flavor/aroma lurking beneath the hops and malt that I would describe as vanilla, but just a slight presence, never really coming to the front of things, just lurking. While this is no substitute for what is in my opinion the king of all beers IPA, 90 minute, it is solid and enjoyable on its own merit.

Bottle. Poured a reddish copper color with an off-white head. Decent hop aroma with a malt background. Sweet malt flavor backed with vanilla. Bitter beginning but ends sweet. Medium body. Slight roast aftertaste. (Rating from March ’08)

Bottle pours a clear dark amber color with a dense white head. Very nice lacing on the glass. Aroma instantly reminds me of pineapple upside down cake, followed by notes of citrus, piney hops, and simple syrup. Flavor is noticeably sweet at first, caramel and sweet malts. Then picks up additional flavors of the hops. As it warms oak and vanilla flavors appear as well. Nice bitterness in the finish. I think the 10% is fairly well hidden. Delicious beer with a very unique flavor.

Hop nose all the way. Totally unbalanced in taste with extreme hops, alcohol, and burnt sugar/syrup. The particular flavors are there, and they work by themselves, but it’s a sum of parts. An example of what Dogfish Head’s extreme brewing can sometimes do, and the mixing is evident here.

This was actually a lot better then I thought it would be. Pours a nice clear copper color with an off white head. Nice floral, piney aroma. The beer had a very nice hop profile, but it was a lot sweeter than the 90 Minute IPA. I thought it had just the right amount of oak flavor/aroma in there as well. Very solid, glad I gave it a try.