Craft Beer of the Day

Spanishchef.net recommends these products

beer

Occasionally I hear a song and think to myself “Man, why couldn’t I have written that?” This happens a lot when I listen to the Avett Brothers, actually. I think that if I were a home brewer, this is the same exact feeling I’d have while drinking Dogfish Head’s excellent ’90-Minute IPA.’

The brew is strong, hoppy, and sweet. Dogfish Head describes it as a “continually-hopped beer, which is a method of hopping that allows for a pungent, but not crushing hop flavor.”

Pungent is just about right. Unlike a lot of IPA’s out there, 90-Minute IPA has a malty undercurrent which takes a bit of the edge off the hops. The beer has an IBU of 90 – placing way up the bitterness ladder, but the malts keep the flavor remarkably sweet.

Oh, and did I say strong? It’s a 9% beer which puts it neck and shoulders over most mainstream craft brews out there, though there are some Belgian ales and some Barleywines out there that clock in one or two percentage points higher.

The nice thing about 90-Minute, though, is that it’s not overbearing. Dogfish Head gets the mix just right, though for people accustomed to, I dunno, Bud Light, it may take some getting used to.

Men’s Journal placed 90-Minute IPA in its top 25 beers list, noting that “It should be impossible for a beer that’s been hopped for 90 solid minutes (an average IPA gets 60) to be delicious; in fact, each sip should be like snorting aspirin. This, however, is brewmaster Sam Calagione’s specialty, and this confoundingly pleasant “extreme” beer is the purest expression of his skill.”

That’s for damn sure.

Dogfish Head is located in Milton, Delaware. It was founded by Sam Calagione in 1995. You can see if there’s any of Dogfish Head’s many brews sold near you here.