Day 627: Dogfish Head Chicory Stout

I can't encounter the word chicory without thinking about the time Gary got hickory smoked at a winery outside Nashville. Who could resist views like this, a couple of bottles of wine and a block of cheese? Definitely not us!

If you lean closely, you can still smell the hickory.

Hickory, chicory, here's my segue...

Let's talk Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. It's brewed with roasted chicory and organic Mexican coffee. The label tell me that it's "Goodness beneath a bone white head." It is a very, very deep, dark brown...nearly black color with a tan head. It smells of sweet chocolate and wood and rich coffee beans. The flavor reminds me of cold coffee. There are hints of cola, a touch of wood. It drinks with a thin mouthfeel.

As it warmed a bit and I got closer to the bottom of my glass, it's characteristics changed slightly. First some burnt coffee flavors were becoming more dominant. After a few more sips, the chocolate flavor took over. This is a complex beer that will keep you thinking about exactly what you're drinking.

Beer stats
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.2%
IBUs: 21
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Dogfish Head
Mr. Blog Named Brew's review of the 60 Minute IPA
My review of Raison d'Etre

Beers and Balloons

Beer #309 60 Minute IPA / Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, DE

And so ends another weekend, as Sunday slips quietly away and Monday looms around the corner, like a schoolyard bully.  I did get to enjoy some beautiful fall weather, and managed to get some shopping done - trip to Pinocchio's in Media resulted in another 14 beers for the blog.  You'll hear about them all soon enough, assuming I can find room for all of them in the fridge.  Which is becoming a challenge.

The beer of choice on this beautiful fall afternoon is the 60 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head Brewery.  This beer has a clear copper color with a lingering white head.  Your nose picks up a subtle pine aroma with some caramel sweetness, and the taste gives you a balance of hops and malt, with pine, lemon, and a hint of sweetness along with earthy, dry notes.  Dogfish has long been at the forefront of experimenting with unique ingredients, different brewing techniques, and unusual styles.  They've become one of the leaders in the world of craft beer, having won countless awards for their inventions.  This IPA may be the most "normal" beer they produce in their universe of spiced ales, fruit beers, and beers from ancient recipes.  Which is why it pains me to say that this is..... a good beer, but not the most spectacular IPA I've sampled this year.  Tasty, but nothing that would merit Top 25 conversation.  Yes, the 90 Minute and 120 Minute might have been better choices to sample, but I'll leave that for another day.

The always awesome pic from the phone

In case you were wondering, the name of this beer comes from the fact there are sixty additions of hops completed in a sixty minute boil.  Dogfish opened their doors in 1995 as a brewpub, and have since expanded their brewery operations to help meet an incredibly growing demand.

Thing to Think About Today:
I could make some cute reference to dogs or fish or whatever and tie in a movie clip or song or something entertaining.  But today, I'm not sure what else could entertain you quite like a man piloting a balloon (to be fair, more of a space craft than what you find at the county fair) to a height of 128,000 feet into the atmosphere (Your Southwest flight cruises at about 34,000 feet), opening the door, climbing onto a ledge, and then jumping out into the void.

Nine minutes of falling/parachuting later, Baumgartner and his Red Bull Stratos project team earned world records for the highest balloon flight and for being the first free-falling person to break the sound barrier.  I've been watching the this clip over and over again, mesmerized.  Partially at the genius it takes to orchestrate and engineer a feat like this, and partially at the courage it must take to lift yourself 24 miles above the earth, hoisted by a balloon that was thinner than a plastic sandwich bag.  I'm not sure how this will help advance science, but it will.  Things like this always do, and that is what makes them both amazing and awe inspiring.

You sir, have earned many, many beers.

Marci Rock is in the House!

In the slightly modified words of Ludacris:

It's Friday
Sticky, icky, icky
Sticky, icky, icky, icky

In the immortal words of LMFAO, I'm running through these halls like Drano!  At least in my mind, I'm in happy Friday mode.

But it is Friday at the end of a very long week and I am done, spent, toast, finished.  Time to kick back with Beer #6 -- Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre.  And by #6, I mean the 6th beer in the 365 day brewery challenge.  If I make it to six beers tonight, someone needs to ask Gary to get video because I could very well end up dancing on the coffee table.  And that's not going to end well.  The coffee table was one of those build-it-yourself deals from Target purchased about 13 years ago.  There are days I fear that a strong sneeze may do it in.

Raison D'Etre is a deep mahogany ale brewed with Belgian beer sugars, green raisins and a sense of purpose.  It says so on the label!  Is it weird that I think I taste bleu cheese too?  Maybe it is today's diet of really old granola bars throwing off my taste buds.  Maybe my taste buds are as shot as my brain right now.    Please don't hold my slightly off-kilter taste buds against this beer.

There is something about Belgian beer sugar that just does it for me.  Of course, it also has great malt flavor so that may factor in as well.  I don't know what green raisins taste like but they are definitely working with the beer sugar and malt.

Other beers that I would recommend from Dogfish Head are Midas Touch and Festina Peche.  If Gary were writing this, he would be all over their IPAs.

I should have sampled Hellhound on My Ale and then drawn parallels to Flash (introduced last night).  Today Flash learned after 14 years that he could pull out the drawers and attempt to climb a "drawer ladder" to the counter.  Really, Flash?  You are 14.  Or at the very least, I'm too old for this shit.  Evidently the lure of baked goods and sriracha chex mix was too much for him.  Google sriracha chex mix.  Thank me after you make it and devour the entire bowl.

iTunes just shuffled to our wedding song...Wreckx-N-Effect's Rump Shaker.  Maybe I'll rally after all.  Until tomorrow and #7...