Category Archives: Rated A-

With Dogfish’s fan loyalty, this Imperial IPA from Dogfish Head can be a challenging bottle to find. The brewing process for this expression in the Dogfish lineup is quite intense, and so goes the flavor and the alcohol content.

120 Minute IPA goes through a unique brewing process that incorporates a massive amount of hops. The boil is continuously hopped for two hours, hence the name, with high-alpha American hops used. It is then dry-hopped daily for a month and finally aged another month with whole-leaf hops.

The nose on 120 Minute is quite strong, with the hoppy aroma slightly masked by the caramel, malt, and hints of vanilla. This Imperial IPA pours a relatively cloudy gold to amber color with a light head. As you first sip it you get a prominent amount of alcohol, and the strength of the brew becomes obvious immediately. The malt and citrus help tone the alcohol down, which accounts for the surprisingly sweet follow-through. The higher the alcohol content in a beer, the more residual sugar is left behind, making the beer sweeter.

The complex brewing process behind 120 Minute ultimately produces a quite delicious yet very strong Imperial IPA. Try holding out and letting this bottle age for a year or two, it will help bring out the complexities in flavor.

Between 15% – 20% abv

A- / $9 per 12 oz. bottle / dogfish.com

This curious Imperial IPA is a collaborative project, the third in the “Life & Limb” series, between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada, though the Dogfish DNA is more prevalent on the bottle and label. From the companies, you’re getting the best of both worlds: “Carolina-grown red fife wheat and Dogfish Head’s continual hopping from the East and Sierra Nevada’s estate-grown caramel malt and Torpedo dry-hopping from the West.”

The hops used here are Bravo (Dogfish Head) and #644 (Sierra Nevada), an experimental strain that has yet to be named.

Continue reading “Review: Dogfish Head Rhizing Bines Imperial IPA” »

Each year Bell’s Brewery releases its version of a double IPA, and luckily for everyone the Michigan-based brewery makes an aggressive effort to get its beers out to as many people as possible.  Even some of Bell’s limited beers are not terribly difficult to track down.

This year’s Hopslam unleashes beautiful aromas of pine, citrus, honey, and lastly hops. The first thing you’ll notice about Hopslam is its nose; with six different hop varieties used, they add a surprisingly earthy aroma to the overall flavor profile. The nose of  this year’s batch starts with the beautiful aroma of pine needles, next is the wonderful accompaniment of grapefruit and citrus, and lastly you get the hops and honey.

The pour is a nice beautiful color of gold to orange/amber and the flavor is all there, right up front, very bitter and hoppy to start.  A very front-loaded beer, you get a ton of grapefruit/citrus notes to start it off then a lot of hops.  Like the name suggests this is not for those that do not enjoy a titular slam of hops and floral tones.

Even with its abv of 10%; it goes down exceptionally smooth, with a nice clean finish. During fermentation honey is added to the batch. This wonderful addition increases the alcohol, yet creates a nice, smooth follow-through.

A- / $3 per 12 oz. bottle / bellsbeer.com