Dogfish Head Golden Era (Shower)

The price and the big bottle lead you to expect more. I liked the old name better. Clear crisp orange with a thick foamy head. Hops rise from the bottle. From the glass the strong sticky caramel malt scent rises to give battle. Strong alcohol flavour with candy sugar caramel and hops. Too strong malt for my taste is not exactly pleasant in large doses.

The definition of golden color with a nice frothy head. Hoppy and smooth. But near the end of the bottle it seams to turn a little and the sweetness and alchol kicks in.

Pours a medium gold with average head. Quite hoppy but also has some malt mixed in. A little bitter and not quite as good as I had hoped. But not bad.

In typical Dogfish Head fashion the beer was remarkably sweet. It was smooth and easy in a candy-like fashion, just not exactly what I would have expected. "American Double Pilsner" can you believe it LOL so many styles. =) Anyway, I had no idea really what to expect from an Impy Pils, but I was expecting twice the hop middle and twice the dry finish. In fact it was more sweet and sugary than any Pilsner, I have ever had. Here’s the break down. Appearance: Pours a beautiful deep Golden color, that actually seemed to glow. It had a nice creamy off-white head. Certainly this is an attractive beer. Smell: The aroma is packed full of raw DFH sugar and lots of sweet caramel. I think a few people said this beer was reserved. I disagree but understand. The hop character is present and shows up as a gentle spicy floral German Hop character, but still it sits as second underneath the heavy blanket of Pilsner malts and sugar. Taste: The flavor was both a big surprise and a revelation. The surprise was the huge, smooth sweetness. The revelation was how typical this big sugar character is in DFH beers. The initial inspection left me hanging on how sweet and caramel this was for a “Pilsner”. After getting over that fact a tremendous amount of complexity did show though the malty blanket. There was some peach or pear and a hint of white grape soaked in a nice helping of Vanilla. It made me think of oak barrels, as there is a hint of wood. The beer is not cloyingly sweet. It is balanced by a nice hop flavor, but it does come in second. Mouthfeel: I was definitely expecting a bigger dryness in the finish, but found it to be exceptionally smooth. Velvety around the edges and slick through the center this is terrific in the mouth. Drinkability: It is remarkably easy to drink! The 9% ABV never showed up. Completely masked making this so approachable. Still, as sweet as it is, you would be hard pressed to call it sessionable. I will stick with the adjective, tremendously quaffable! Hope this is helpful. Cheers!

Bottle courtesty of GregClow. Golden yellow, huge white head. Floral hops and a hint of alcohol in the aroma. Unlike Greg I found the aroma quite muted, perhaps I didn’t let it warm up enough. Dry herbal hops in the flavour, fair dose of alcohol and light bitterness. Mild pale malt foundation does not sufficiently offset the alcohol prominence. Average to medium palate. Interesting but the flavour of the hops just does not do a lot for me.

Bottle from Bello Vino in Ann Arbor. Shared with jerc. I just finished a session of tasting a load of beers with Jer, and I’m about ready to crash, but I wanted to enter at least one rating in order to hit 100 for July. Pours a nice, deep golden colour with a good sized white head that leaves some decent lacing. Aroma is big, with lots of sweet malt, citric hops and tropical fruit notes - very inviting. Flavour is just as big as the aroma - lots of sweet caramel malt to start, turning warm and bitter in the finish. This is a seriously agressive beer that verges on complete chaos, but somehow it all comes together and works.

25 oz bottle. Pours a clear gold colored body under a quickly fading fizzy white head. Lots of visible carbonation. The aroma was pretty hoppy and dry smelling, but there was an underlying grainy malt base that wasn’t really pleasant. Some alcohol notes as well. The flavor was just a sharp bitterness up front with that grainy pale malt base pushing through. The finish featured mostly alcohol and alot of sweetness with a moderate level of bitterness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a thick texture and prickly carbonation. It finishes slightly sticky. Overall, this was not so good really. There was nothing to get excited about and no depth or complexity. Just straightforward bitterness with not enought maly to balance things out.

750 ml bottle. Poured a clear effervescent gold with a tall fluffy white head. Sweet aroma of grapefruit, lemon candy, peppery alcohol, and orange peel. Taste is piney hops with some grapefruit citrus and quite a strong alcohol burn, with a touch of sticky sweetness. Very dry finish with some bitterness to it. Body is definitely larger than most pilsners but not quite as large as most big beers. Amazingly I taste nothing "pilsnerish" in this... no corn, no real grassy hops. It almost has a bit of a European Double IPA feel to it. Didn’t knock me down with hops like Sam Adams, but is a nice dry big beer that has an almost dry champagne-like quality to it. I’m not sure how this label made it through in the state that thought Seriously Bad Elf was "morally questionable", but I’m glad it did. A pleasant experience indeed.