Dogfish Head Raison D Extra

12oz bottle 7/22/09 (Binny’s Naperville)-Pours a dark amber with a small loose tan head. Aroma of malt, molasses, raisin. beef jerky, and fruits. Taste of the same with a bit of malt, sweetness, alcohol, and fruit. This full bodied brew is very well balanced and I agree is hard to set down.

2007. Dried cherry and dense wood. Heavy. Dense ruby, small tan head. Dense and jammy, slowly builds and climbs high to a strong and heavy boozy finish. Sweet throughout. So sweet that the boozy character isn’t able to bite or sting like it should. Warming throughout, makes me smile. I know I drank it quicker than I should have but it’s hard to set down.

Rusty copper brown with a thin white head. Lovely smells of caramel and toffee. Thick smooth mouthfeel with a full body. Complex flavors of plum, molasses, oak, dried fruit, and raisin. Alcohol fairly apparent but not over the top. Very tasty sipper.

12 oz bottle from 2006 served in tulip glass. Pours a rusty brown, with a light red hue when held to the light, just like a good cup of apple cider. Poured without head, nor any kind of decoration left on the walls of the glass. Nose is raisins, figs, molasses, malt, and an earthy smell of barley storage barn. Taste is malt, molasses, and raisins. A very complex brew that comes up amazingly mellow for 18.5% ABV. This bottle is 3 years old and there isn’t a bite or smell of alcohol at all. It is a great beer to sample, but much too sweet to enjoy in quantity.

12 oz single bottle from Spirits RB. Man is this complex and nice. Pours a very ugly muddy brown with some visible floaties drifting around and a smallish biege head that actually leaves some nice lace. Aroma is great!! Notes of caramel, buttery toffee, raisins, oak, brandy, toffee, molassess, almonds. Fuller bodied that finishes dry and hot from the alcohol but at 18.5% how the hell are you not going to notice it?? Flavor finishes with some raisin sweetness and starts off with a good dose of alcohol, caramel, toffee, sherry, molassess and biscuit. Ok time to grab about five more of these bad boys for an aging experiement!!!

12oz bottle imported from NYC by Nav, aged nearly 4 years, and the strongest beer I’ve ever tasted by several percent (in training for a Scandinavian jaunt). Pours almost burgundy with a yellowish fizz of a head that hisses out in seconds like cola. Languorous spiritous legs wobbling down the sides of the glass. Beer’s got some, too. Sticky fig, sweet sherry and juicy dried fruit aroma with vanilla oaky Bourbon tones, caramel sauce, crushed almonds, toffee, massive bitter wee dram and high alcohol vapours. You can TASTE the alcohol wafting out of the snifter before this gets anywhere near your mouth. Instant heat and sweet Bourbon thickness; smooth but hot like..brandy or barley wine eisbock stirred with a Twiglet. So much alcohol it numbs the tip of the tongue. Sherry, soy, Thomas Hardy and toffee stickiness mingled with the raw spritous glow and bitterness of alcohol. Fat, hot, sticky and humming like the dregs of your Nan’s Xmas trifle. Pleasure and pain; sweetness and bitterness (but overwhelmingly sweetness) teetering on the very edge of beer. Mildly hallucinogenic, sets your ears on fire. Good sessions brew.

Wow. Rich sweet malt aroma with raisins and alcohol. Flavors are big time malt, raisins and strong alcohol flavors. Bitter finish. I’m thinking this would be nice aged, but a recent bottle is just too boozy and one dimensional.

bottle 355ml 14€ shared Pikkulintu, Helsinki, Fruit Weeks 2009. Color: deep amber. Strong raisins flavor from first sip. No any idea about Batch number or age. Tasty full flavor young raisins barley wine or old one. Confusing. Sticky fruity mouth feel totally full body. One part of 100 euros session evening luckily shared bottles