Jiahu, Chateau by Dogfish Head - A to Z Blog Challenge

Interesting beer... Once again, like the flemish, it's an ale with huge fruity over tones. I picked this, mostly just because it starts with J, but also because it's a Dogfish Head brew, which I have a great respect for.

Drinking this is an investment. You have to be committed, cause it's a standard beer bottle cap, but the bottle is 1 pint, 9.6 oz. Can't cap it back up once you've opened it, especially if you're like me and crush the cap and drop it into an empty bottle to keep your kids from swallowing it. It's open, you're going to kill it.

It's about the size of a standard wine bottle, and I'm about 1 and a half glasses into it right now. Initial impressions: When I opened it, I could smell that it was heavy on the fruity end of things. It was definitely like a beer / wine. It poured not unlike a regular pale ale, except that there was much less head. (resisting the urge to make a joke). For all intents and purposes, it looks like a pale ale, if only just a little more opaque.

At first taste, I can tell it's an ale... though, it's a little sweet / sour, but it has a wine after taste... In fact, if you sit a moment after swallowing, your belly feels like you just had wine... you know, that sort of burny feeling. It burps like a white wine in my opinion.

So my problem with this brew is that I know it's a beer, but it drinks like a wine... You want to sort of sip this, but I drink beer fast. I haven't eaten anything today either. Now's where I look up the Alcohol content, and hot damn, this stuff is 10%. Each glass is like 2 beers. I'm just getting to the bottom of my second glass, which means, I've had the equivalent of 4 bud lights in the last 10 minutes. My spelling is very likely to take a dive in the next few paragraphs.

...actually IF there are a "few paragraphs" more, you'll know this stuff is doing it's job, because I talk when I'm under the influence. In fact, you may even notice a Boston accent come out, which I don't have when sober. (that's a joke... I don't have one, but it comes out when I'm drinking).

ANYWAY. This is basically and Ale that was brewed with honey, hawthorn (whatever that is) fruits and fermented with grape concentrate.

I just poured the end of the bottle, which makes 2 and a half beer glasses per bottle, by the way.

I just realized that on the side of this bottle, it says 9000 year old... Which I imagine means that it's a replica of something they drank 9000 years ago, or at least we think they did. I wonder if DfH has a 9000 year line of brews, or if this is the brew that one of my commenters was talking about a day or two ago.. I'd look up the comment, but I just had about a 6 pack in a very short amount of time.

I like this stuff... it tastes pretty good, although I admit it wasn't what I was expecting, so I had the "sourface" during the end of my first glass... and it packs a hell of a punch. not bad for twelve bucks.

for more official stuff about this brew, go here.