Dogfish Head Raison D Extra

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Milton, Delaware USA

2005 vintage bottle. Pours a light brown, tea like colour with a small beige head. Aroma of alcohol, dark fruits, brown sugar, and caramel. Strong flavour of alcohol, dates, raisins, figs, plums, caramel, and brown sugar. Intoxicatingly good stuff.

BOTTLED ON: 08-15-2007 Pours a deep ruby, almost burgundy color. One-finger head of loose golden foam. Retention is minimal. Lacing, also, is minimal. You can definitely get raisins, in the nose. Also, a rich butteriness. Good booziness, though not as overpowering as expected. Huge dark fruit presence. Smells truly sweet. Large notes of brown sugar. Slight hint of vanilla. Nice malt presence. The yeast helps this smell, almost, like bread pudding. Smells rich and decadent, and not much like beer, in the traditional sense. Mmmmm, big beautiful raisin presence. Caramel and brown sugar. Dark fruit explosion. Nice, big, malty backbone. Slight hint of smoke. The alcohol presence is definitely big, but not so big as to overpower all of the other taste components. This is not as thick and syrupy as I expected. A good body, but not nearly as full as you’d think. Slightly oily and somewhat creamy. An excellent dessert brew, or cold winter time brew. Sweet and nicely warming. This one fills you and warms you, from the inside out. Probably couldn’t drink more than one, in a sitting, but that one goes down nice and smooth. At a year and a half of age, I think this could cellar for quite a few more years, and continue to get better.

Sampled at The Big Pour beerfest in Scottsdale AZ. Intense sweet aroma of figs, raisins, and cherries with prominant fusels. Sticky, syrupy mouthfeel, very sweet with predominant flavours of port-like stewed fruits and cherry tartness in the finish. Very warming alcohol notes in the swallow, but not harsh (at least, not in the 4oz sample I had!).

12 oz bottle. Pours a clear dark amber with a small off white head that quickly diminishes to nothing. The aroma is a stong spicy malt and alcohol with grain. Thin mouthfeel with a strong malt and caramel with a very overpowering alcohol with a alcohol burn in the finish. Hard to drink with the alcohol very present but still a good brew.

Bottle at Beer Bistro. Pours cloudy red with minimal head. Aroma of raisin and dark cherry. Body is thick and syrup. Taste of more dark cherry, sweet malts, lots or raisin notes, sour finish with bitterness.

Poured out quite cloudy with a dark brown hue in the middle of the glass and a light brown/tan top. There was minimal head with a small foam ring around the top. The aroma came up with a bouquet of sweetness and a slight bit of raisins as well. There was also a very prevalent scent of alcohol. Little note: I didn’t look up the alcohol content of this brew before I tasted and decided to when we noticed how alcoholic is smelled. 18% - hello, hello. The taste was very strong and pretty bitter. There was a slight hint of raisins in the palate and it overall reminded me of the Ruination with the slight citrus taste (which was a good and bad thing). The texture was quite smooth. It stated pretty mellow and then hit me pretty hard with the taste and bitterness and ends with an even harder hit from the alcohol.

Served from a 12 oz bottle that I picked up in Indy. Bottled on 08/31/05. The appearance is a crystal clear deep cranberry or red grape color with no head. The aromas are strong with oak, raisin, and wine notes. The flavors are intense on first sip. They draw strong comparisons to a nice port. A warm sweet dried raisin is the main note with hints of prune, oak, heavy roasted malt, candy sugar. The alcohol is very present but it rides underneath the flavor. It will hit you though! The mouth feel is very smooth and a bit syrupy.

Dark brown with subtle red hints throughout, with a slight white head. Unfortunately I can not pick up much from the smell, only sweet malts and of course alcohol. The taste is initial alcohol but quickly fades into a sweet and mild fruit flavor. The alcohol taste is nice and sharp but not overpowering, and the quickness that the flavor transitions into the sweet malts is quite welcomed.