I finally experienced the joy that is Dogfish Head's Burton Baton the other night. I kept hearing about how good this was and how limited it was, but the funny thing is, there was no shortage of it in Northern Virginia. Every store I went to that sells beer seemed to have it, most notably the Total Wine stores. It's pricey at $14.99 for a 4-pack, but I decided to suck it up and buy a pack because I had to try this stuff for myself. The general gist of this beer is that they brew up an English-style Old Ale and an Imperial IPA. After fermenting the each separately in their stainless tanks, they combine the two in large oak tanks. It then sits on the wood for about a month before it's bottled. The Dogfish Head website says that you should notice citrusy notes from the Northwestern hops melding with vanilla notes from the oak. And that's pretty accurate. The oaky flavor is a nice subtle addition to this smooth ale. I don't taste much of the citrus, as the hops are drowned out somewhat by the oak flavor. But all in all, it's a very smooth beer, not too hoppy (even at 70 IBU) and it has a great finish. I drank my bottle with a steak dinner and it was the perfect compliment. Careful though... this is a 10% ABV beer but does not at all taste like it. Dogfish says this is a good beer to age, so I'm planning on doing just that. I have three left that I'm planning on aging for 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years, respectively. Now let's see if I can wait that long.
I tried a couple of other beers this week as well. I keep seeing this Dogfather Imperial Stout and I see it rated highly so I thought I would try it. I have to say, it's a bit overwhelming. I know stouts are heavy, but this one is very heavy. You can instantly taste the notes of chocolate in this one. I could only have one glass and had to save the rest of the tall bottle. It's good, solid stout though. I had another new one last night, this one from Sierra Nevada. It's their new seasonal Southern Hemisphere Hop Ale. If you're a hop head, get this beer. This beer contains hops imported from New Zealand. See, hops normally ripen in the fall, but it's fall in New Zealand when it's spring in the US. The hops are imported days after the harvest and put in this beer fresh. This is definitely a hop head's beer. The aroma is pure hops and you can smell the freshness. The taste of this one bites you almost instantly. It's a very bitter beer and may even take some getting used to. I personally like that hop bite so this beer was a welcome surprise. And at $4.50 for a tall bottle, it's worth the price.
As for my own beer, I bottled my Nugget Nectar clone last Friday night. I was a little disappointed by the batch size of this one at under two cases (43 bottles). I think I lost a lot in the boil, as it was a 90-minute boil. I also had a lot of trub from secondary due to the dry hopping process. Next batch I make of this will be a 6- or 7-gallon batch. I did sneak a taste of it though and even though it's not carbonated, I think it tastes pretty good. I think I'll crack one tomorrow night to try again and test the carbonation, but the goal is to have this one completely ready for the Harrisburg Brewers Fest on June 18th. I also racked my English Honey Brown to secondary on Friday night. This beer fermented super quick, completing in just 4 days. I gave it an extra day just to be safe, but my thinking is that the yeast went nuts on the honey. It was a fairly aggressive yeast strain as well (Nottingham), but I never expected it to be finished within 5 days. The gravity reading was right on and I'm looking forward to this one as well. I tasted a bit and I think it's going to turn out great. Tasted like a brown ale with just a hint of honey up front. Bottling for this one might happen as early as tomorrow.
That's all for now. The Harrisburg Brewers Fest is taking place in just over a week and I'll be there, sampling beer from up to 40 breweries. I'm also taking the tour of Troeg's Brewery on the same day. I'll take plenty of pictures and post them later!
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