Dogfish Head Immort Ale

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Milton, Delaware USA

On tap at the Beer Engine. Nice clear mahogany pour into snifter with a smallish creamy head. Get some nice malts and sticky sweetness in this and some other notes I couldn’t quite place. This one made me think, trying to place the different flavors. The alcohol is pretty well hidden. Surprised by this offering from DFH which is usually not my favorite brewery.

I love beer and I love scotch, speaking of which, I especially love peaty scotch of the finest Islay variety. There is something to be said about the significance of terroir in single-malts and in beer to a certain degree. Terroir doesn’t play as large of a role in the brewing of beer now as it did just decades ago, but there are still certain areas of the world where breweries are built where the water and land is provincial to the type of beer desired. Dogfish Head may not lie along the salty, seaweed stricken shores of Scotland nor near a prized source of fresh spring water, but in the little town of Milton, Delaware, Sam Calagione blesses a most beautiful marriage: peated malt and beer. Called most appropriately Immort Ale, as an avid beer and single-malt enthusiast, I am doubly blessed and feeling maybe just a wee bit worthy, if also a wee bit humbled.

Rich burnished mahogany with copper and amber highlights which shine deeply within her inviting depths. A playful copper-hued head fades in rocky punches, sticking to the sides of my glass before settling into a thin film. That’s ok because it just would have gotten in the way of her massively addictive and swoon-inducing nose. Sweet smoked salmon a touch oily and meaty crumbles between my fingers even as spiced apples and cooked cinnamon sticks simmer atop the stove. Pitted black cherries, nutmeg, applesauce, wood, and vanilla extract mingle amidst her deeply peaty smoky essence. Pears and plums drip juices as I bite through their crisp and slightly bitter skins to the succulent meat inside. A feisty brew, her warmth nibbles at the back of her nose, chewing through further notes of rich earthen wood as more brown spices, plums, pears, red apples, and smoked salmon abound. I could smell this beer all day long; in fact, someone needs to make one of those plug-in aromatizors and capture the heavenly aromas of peat for my humble abode. Licking lips long wet with anticipation, my first sup is deep and heart-stoppingly decadent. Sweet, brisk, dry, and spiced with immediate warmth that slowly starts to work its magic throughout my chest. Wood, fruits, and more warmth which tickles the back of my throat after each quaff. Permeating each quaff and each breath are wood, peat, smoke, salmon, a hint of vanilla root, and nutmeg. There is no real discernable presence of the high ABV within her palate itself, just a gentle pervasive warmth which soothes and says. As I savor the peat, black cherries join black plums and pears which are most significant in the middle of her palate. Extremely quaffable on an almost addictive level, I could easily enjoy more than one Immort Ale. Savoring my last quaff eyes closed, I am transported to the windswept shores of Scotland where behind me rolling fields of electric green lay under a blanket of fog while salt-spray flecks my face and the sea air brings peace to my tired body and soul. Enraptured, I revel in her final moments of peat, sweet smoky and spicy, crisp fruits, vanillin and spices.

Yeasty nose with traces of marigold. Cloudy ochre, headless. Stinging mouthfeel. Juniper berry flavor and otherwise very nondescript, still with a certain yeastiness. Mild chlorophenols appear upon warming. Not a particularly good barleywine, and I’m not at all impressed. Downrated for flaws.

The pour is not thick; it has a dark mahogany color and a reasonably big head, creamy. Malt aroma; I think actually that it’s quite slim. It has medium body strength, quite good malt and caramel flavor, partially sweet; I surely expected a more massive beer, thicker, to start with, and sweeter; the most interesting part is a light smoke flavor; ordinary bitterness; the final is even quite dry. Some alcohol warmth. Not complex as expected; well, last time I had it it was 11 years ago...

This a dirty, dirty beer. If it is in your fridge it might pollute your body with a whole lot of alcohol in a very short period of time. Basically, we start off with a creamy beige head and a cloudy light brown color. Maple syrup and aged wood in the aroma, along with a little bit of booze. The taste is rather heavy on the sweet side of things. Thick and syrupy, with a ton of malts throughout. A bunch of fruity flavors are also really present, along with a smoky undertone throughout. Although this a complex and well put together beer, it is a little bit overkill and not really suitable to my tastes.

12oz bottle, thanks to fata2683, poured into a trappist glass produced a dark amber body and thin, off-white head. Aroma was slightly sweet. Taste of spices, maple syrup, and citrus with a slight alcohol burn.

Bottled. Red/orange with no head. Aroma is sweet caramel malty with notes of alcohol, hops, vanilla, and sugary syrup. Flavor is similar but add molasses, wood, and maple syrup, also resin. Kind of tastes like cough medicine but in the best way possible. Not one of my favorites by dogfish but interesting. Still a good brew

There is a raw aroma in this barley wine. I poured it a little too cold and my first reaction was one of dread. The oakieness has a truly raw character both in the nose and taste. There is a distinct sappy odor in freshly cut red oak that is seldom pleasant even to a woodworker. In oak aged beers, this flavor is usually mitigated or transformed by smokey flavors of roasted grains or by the residue of the barrels’ previous life aging sherry or bourbon. Not so here. The sappy oak flavor was so strong that I at first thought of cumin when I tasted it. So I set this one down for 20 minutes and let it warm a bit.... And that helped some. There is a slightly sweet caramel flavor that is just offset by a yeastieness. A little smokieness helps with the oak as the beer warms up. All in all, I’m a little surprised at how indifferent I am toward this DFH brew, and I will admit that I am drinking a 2009 bottle that is probably less than two or three months old. I will put the remaining three in the cellar and report back in a few years.