4/11/2012

#atozchallenge - (Chateau) Jiahu by Dogfish Head Review


Brew:  IPA
Brewer:   http://www.dogfish.com/ 
ABV: 10%
Opinion: Good Beer! 

I apologize, this is a re-post from last years A to Z reviews...

Interesting beer... 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. 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.

Good beer!

for more official stuff about this brew, go here.

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