DOWNLOAD: ALL BEERS CONSIDERED 26
In this holiday edition of ABC, Slouch and Barley talk:
3 Comments | 
All Beers Considered | Tagged: Boston Beer Company, Cicerone, Dogfish Head, Ohio, RateBeer, White Castle, Yazoo | 
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Posted by Barley McHops
“Plays Well With Others” -Beerford’s Pre-School Teacher
I was merrily shopping away at my local bottle shop when I ran across a new collaboration brew that excited me to an embarrassing level. Turns out that Stone Brewing, Elysian Brewing and The Bruery have collectively created a beer together called La Citrueille Céleste de Citracado. I actually haven’t consumed it yet (I’m saving it for something special), but this beer reminded me that collaboration really seems to be all the rage these days. Though I’m pretty psyched to see these breweries working together, I think we can do better. So, fellow Aleheads, let’s see if we can improve on this near-perfection: Tell us what two breweries would you like to see create a collaboration together? Further, please describe (and, of course, name) the beer you would like to see them create.
No further rules. Go get it. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Beerford's Conundra | Tagged: Bear Republic Brewing, boulevard brewing, Brewery Ommegang, Collaboration, Dogfish Head, Elysian Brewing, Founders Brewing, Jester King Brewing, La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado, Lagunitas Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, Notch Brewing, Port Brewing, Russian River Brewing, Saint Arnold Brewing, Stone Brewing, The Bruery, Toronado San Francisco | Permalink
Posted by Beerford McBrewin'
2011 was a monumental year for craft brewing, which saw overall beer sales down but sales within the craft industry increasing like never before. Craft was like a metaphorical Robin Hood taking money from the deep, evil corporate pockets of the AB InBevs and MillerCoors of the world and putting it back into the brewing community. 2011 also saw more independent breweries opening or being scheduled to open than any other time in recent history. The homebrewing community also became more popular than ever, with people of all ages and walks of life taking a genuine interest in how their beer is made. 2011 was a great time to be an Alehead. All that being said, 2011 was not without its disappointments in the brewing world, from once local hero breweries sidling up to the corporate teat, to marketing campaigns that insulted consumers, to the never ending pissing contest of gadgetry in the light beer world, I give you dear reader, the year in disappointments. Read the rest of this entry »
17 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Industry, Beer Marketing, Best/Worst | Tagged: Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, Stone | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Hoppa
Man am I addicted to these collaboration brews. Whether they’re a mix of styles, mix of cultures, or just a friendly meeting of brewers to create something special, anytime I see a collaboration beer on the shelves it’s going right into my basket. I recently reviewed a beer from De Proef and Port Brewing that took all the great flavors of a West Coast IPA and mixed them in with a distinctly Belgian flare. Beerford and Slouch recently reviewed a White IPA collaboration from domestic brewers Deschutes and Boulevard that more or less created a style out of thin air, combining the contrasting flavors of a Witbier and an IPA. Sometimes odd, sometimes complementary, collaborations are a fantastic exercise in brewing that isn’t going away anytime soon. So, now that I’ve bored even myself with that introduction it’s time to check out another collaboration brew, this time around from Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. Yes, I realize the only collaboration I’ve seen recently from Dogfish is mixing disappointment with regret, but I figure the good folks at Sierra can smack some sense into them. Time to dig into the Life and Limb Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: 3 hop, American Strong Ale, Collaboration Brew, Dogfish Head, Life and Limb, Sierra Nevada | Permalink
Posted by Ripped Van Drinkale
Let’s face it…most brewers are men. While there are some highly-regarded female brewmasters working today (like Carol Stoudt of Stoudt’s Brewing), the industry is still unfortunately dominated by the unfairer sex. On the plus side, the preponderance of male brewers has led to some pretty sweet beer labels over the years.
Let’s take a look at 10 of the most titillating labels out there. As always, please let us know which ones we missed in the comments (please?!):
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22 Comments | Beer Marketing | Tagged: Atwater, Cantillon, Clown Shoes, Dogfish Head, Middle Ages, Midnight Sun, Sexy Beer Labels, Ska, Southern Star, Upright | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE LATEST EPISODE
The boys are back, talking craft beer industry news and analysis (with the floral notes you love and the sturdy malt backbone you need):
4 Comments | All Beers Considered | Tagged: Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, Beer laws, Goose Island, Ska Brewing, flying dog, Wisconsin, Beer Legislation, Recall, Sofie, SAVOR | Permalink
Posted by Slouch Sixpack
Technology is advancing so rapidly these days that Moore’s law almost seems TOO slow. Today, you can hold a super-computer in the palm of your hand and connect to a seemingly limitless wealth of information through the Cloud. We’re digitizing the libraries of the world. We’re growing working human organs in Petri dishes. We’ve finally solved the “when is my beer cold enough?” conundrum. In short, humans be winning.
So I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when I was sitting at my local watering hole the other day and noticed a strangely familiar looking gentleman staring back at me. The stubbly chin. The slightly deranged glare. The condescending smirk. It was none other than my future self. He was a bit balder and gaunter, with some crow’s feet and a bar code on the back of his neck, but there was no doubt I was staring at my days to come. He bought me a round and sat down in the stool next to me. Here’s a transcript of our conversation: Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Beer Culture, Beer Industry | Tagged: Blue Moon, BrewDog, Craft Beer Revolution, Dogfish Head, Future | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
3 Comments | All Beers Considered | Tagged: Sam Adams, Good People, Dogfish Head, Beer Blogging, Marble City, Marble Brewery, Women Brewers | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Kid Carboy sent around a link to this delightful little parody of Discovery’s “Brew Masters”. The spot-on piece was put together by those rascally lovers of rhythms on the upbeat, the brain-trust at Ska Brewing. It’s a respectful “takedown” of Sam Calagione’s ill-conceived reality series and the mavericky cowboy himself even makes a cameo appearance to show he has a sense of humor about the whole thing.* Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | WTF | Tagged: Brew Masters, Brew Minions, Dogfish Head, Parody, Satire, Ska Brewing | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Mustard beer? Seriously? It didn't even make our Top Ten Strangest Beers list.
Esquire Magazine may not be the “go-to” resource for beer information, but that doesn’t stop them from writing some interesting brew-related articles now and then. Frequent Aleheads-reader and even more frequent Esquire-reader Smiley Brown just sent us an Esquire piece about the world’s “weirdest” beers. I actually think it’s a pretty spot-on list, but I’ve got a few other offerings that should probably be in the discussion. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Best/Worst, WTF | Tagged: Bilk, Blue Beer, BrewDog, Dogfish Head, Kidsbeer, Kwispelbier, Mikkeller, Pizza Beer, Sam Adams, Shampoo Beer, Strange, Weird | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
DOWNLOAD: ALL BEERS CONSIDERED 8
Lots of stories this week. Slouch and Barley discuss the ins and outs of:
2 Comments | All Beers Considered | Tagged: Brooklyn, BrewDog, Dogfish Head, Beer laws, Lagunitas, Wells and Youngs, CAMRA, Kona, Dark Horse, MolsonCoors | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Since the Aleheads began LiveChatting episodes of Brew Masters, the Discovery Channel’s ill-conceived reality series “starring” Sam Calagione, we’ve been thoroughly and unabashedly slamming the Dogfish Head brewery. There are plenty of reasons for this. First, we’re assholes. That just goes without saying. Second, when you sign up for a reality series, you’re basically signing away your dignity and any hope of obtaining or maintaining the public’s respect. Third, Brew Masters is the first show about the craft brewing industry in the US…and frankly, it makes that industry look bad.
But there’s another, more specific reason we’ve been skewering Sam and his troops at Dogfish Head…at least as they’ve been represented in the show. They seem to brew every pipe dream that comes into Sam’s head with no testing or quality control…and that strategy just strikes all of us as being, well…pretty fucked up. Read the rest of this entry »
12 Comments | Ale Factories, Tasting Notes | Tagged: Adjuncts, Cigar City, Dogfish Head, Hunaphu's, Imperial Stout, Sam Calagione | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
For reasons beyond my feeble intellectual capacity to understand, we seem to only be successfully posting LiveChats for every other episode of BrewMasters. While we did conduct a LiveChat for Episode 2, Magnus was slated to be the editor for that one and with his departure, we simply haven’t tackled it yet. As for Episode 4…it premiered while most of us were in New York for Magnus’s memorial service. So essentially we missed a show about one of the worst people on Earth while we were celebrating the life of one of the best.
We decided it would dishonor our friend’s memory not to continue traditions that he loved so dearly. And there were few things he enjoyed more in the past few months than mocking that douchiest of douchebags…Mr. Sam Calagione.* Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | LiveChat | Tagged: Ancient Ale, Brew Masters, Discovery Channel, Dogfish Head, Egypt, Episode 5, Sam Calagione, Ta Henket | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Reality TV has tackled Dog Grooming, Ice Road Trucking, and Real Housewifing. If a profession can be video-taped, it’s fair game these days. So it was only a matter of time before some dimwitted TV exec said “Hey! You know what would be endlessly fascinating?!?! A show about craft brewing!!!”
Now, we here at Aleheads are, of course, champions of the craft brewing movement. And anything that shines the spotlight on the industry is OK by me. But can a television show about a small brewery really maintain dramatic tension and interest for an entire hour? After the pilot episode of the Discovery Channel’s Brew Masters, we have our answer.*
*No. No, it can’t. Read the rest of this entry »
15 Comments | LiveChat | Tagged: Brew Masters, Dogfish Head, Live Chat, Sam Calagione | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
After thoroughly enjoying the hoppy, yeasty Goose Island Minx, I was ready to cleanse the palate. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a Dogfish Head malt bomb, aged in Paraguayan wooden barrels. Yes, friends, my next stop at Bodega was to the Palo Santo Marron. On tap.
The Palo Santo has to be one of the more ridiculous beers you’ll ever try. Seriously. Who thought it would be a good idea to put a malty beverage in
barrels (pictured) made out of some of the most bizarre and obscure wood on the planet? The Ryan Howard imitators at DFH, that’s who. When they strike out, they whiff badly. But when they connect, as they have with the Palo Santo Marron, they look like hitting prodigies…and the ball doesn’t stay in the park for very long. Palo Santo (literally “holy wood”) is replete with spicy resin, which gives off a powerful, sometimes overpowering, aroma. Moreover, it’s so dense that it’s one of the few types of wood on the planet that will not float on water.*
*If you have 20 minutes to kill and want to know the whole story, the New Yorker wrote an article about DFH two years back that starts with the story of the Palo Santo. Well worth the read (as is the case with nearly every New Yorker article…except for that goofy-haired Gladwell character). Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Alehouses, Tasting Notes | Tagged: 4 Hops, bodega, Dogfish Head, Lord Copperpot, Palo Santo Marron | Permalink
Posted by Mashtun Copperpot
I hate wine.
Strong statement…I know. But it’s true. I hate wine.
I have sincerely tried to love wine. Failing that, I have simply tried to like wine. But despite all of my valiant, tireless efforts…I hate wine.
I respect wine. I respect it greatly. I understand that it is a wonderfully complex, revered, glorious beverage that has been as important in the annals of human history as my drink of choice, beer. From the Ancient Greeks to modern oenophiles, wine worship is part and parcel with human civilization. I get it…I really do. But that doesn’t change the fact that I simply, unequivocally, inarguably…hate wine. Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Tasting Notes | Tagged: 3 hops, 3.5 Hops, Allagash, Dogfish Head, Grapes, Red & White, Victor, Wine | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
NOTES: Bottle @ Alys Beach w/Slouch Sixpack
STYLE: Imperial IPA
ABV: 9%
APPEARANCE: Clear copper with orange edging
HEAD: A small, but extremely tightly-knit pure white head lasts throughout the drink
LACING: Lofty lacing holds high and tight on the glass
NOSE: A quintessential Imperial IPA nose. Pine and grapefruit followed by grapefruit and pine. Bold, bright, and beautiful. There’s a distinct lack of malt aroma in the nose. That’s not overly unusual with uber-hoppy beers like this one, but considering how well the malt and hops balance in DFH’s 60 Minute, it’s a little surprising.
TASTE: Could definitely use more of a malt backbone. Imperials are supposed to be hop-forward and while the 90 Minute isn’t ridiculously aggressive, it just doesn’t have the sweet, malt character to balance what is a legitimately great hop profile. If the hops are Simon, then the malt is Garfunkel. Sure the Simon-hops generally take center stage and are the star of the show, but without the Garfunkel-malt, it’s just not the same. Still, the hops are quite tasty…pungent citrus fruits mesh beautifully with a strong, pine resin flavor. A big, bitter finish with a definite, but not overwhelming hit of booze in the end.
MOUTHFEEL: Nice medium body with very good carbonation. A bit astringent on the finish…most Imperials are drying, but the 90 Minute goes a little beyond that.
DRINKABILITY: It’s damn drinkable, but it suffered in a back-to-back taste test with the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. If we hadn’t sampled that other Imperial, it would have fared extremely well, but alas, you can’t drink beer in a vacuum. Context is everything and the truth is that the Hop Stoopid is a nearly perfect Imperial and the 90 Minute is just a hair less balanced. Still a ridiculously good beer though.
RATING: 3.5 Hops
3 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: 90 Minute IPA, Alys Beach, Dogfish Head, Imperial IPA, Slouch Sixpack | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Few breweries get as much pub at Aleheads as Sam Adams. I’ve written extensively about them in the past and just tossed up a quick Boston Lager tasting note yesterday. Our love/hate relationship with the brewery is complicated, and because most of the Aleheads hail from the Northeast, we have a long and varied history with the Boston Beer Company.
Today’s post is going to focus on the negatives. For every Alehead that champions Sam Adams for being a catalyst for the craft beer movement, there is another one waiting in the wings to call Sam a sell-out, a poser, and worst of all…a fake. Do any of these charges have merit? Let’s delve, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Ale Factories, Beer Culture | Tagged: Anchor, Dogfish Head, Jim Koch, Russian River, Sam Adams | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Tasting Notes 3 and 4 (of 7) from Doc and Barley’s Killer Beer Night…
The Baron expounded on the Aleheads’ love-hate relationship with Dogfish Head in an earlier post. To sum up his elegant prose, DFH represents everything we collectively love and loathe about craft brewing. They experiment and push the envelope better than almost any other American ale factory today. That is to be lauded. But DFH also has a maddening inability to self-edit. Not EVERY beer concocted in the fever dreams of a brewer’s imagination need be foisted upon the Aleheads of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Ale Factories, Tasting Notes | Tagged: Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Berliner, Brown Ale, Dogfish Head, Festina Peche, Raison D'Extra, Weissbier | Permalink
Posted by Barley McHops
Founded in 1995 by Sam Calagione, the Dogfish Head Brewery based in Milton, Delaware sits among a small pantheon of craft breweries that have managed to compete, at least on some level, with the big boys while maintaining an allegiance to the experimentation and creativity that makes craft brewing more an exercise in artistry than in bottom-line thinking. From the day that we enjoyed our first sips of Dogfish Head’s IPA line – defined by absurd IBU levels courtesy of a proprietary continual hopping device known as Sir Hops Alot – the brewery earned a place in our hearts as a true go-to outfit. Dogfish’s Indian Brown Ale earned a permanent spot on the top shelf of the castle ‘fridge. All was well with the world. And then things got weird. Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Tasting Notes | Tagged: Burton Baton, Dogfish Head | Permalink
Posted by Sudsy von Brüe
