Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA



http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/year-round-brews/60-minute-ipa.htm

      Did you like that video?  Did you check out the site?  This company cannot cater to beer lovers any more perfectly.  A video, an explanation, and genuine enthusiasm is what I see.  They even have beer porn!  I gotta say, the cups full of hops...pretty sexy.  So let's get to it shall we?

     In the last entry I talked about Samuel Smith's India Ale as a good base for India Pale Ale's.  This beer seriously smashed through the ceiling.  This was seriously a damn good beer.  But maybe I should save the cocksucking for later.  Last night I tasted this before a party that was going to happen at my house.  Smells of food filled the entire downstairs, so I hid upstairs and locked myself into a room that hasn't been permeated by distractions.  I poured, I smelled, I drank, I enjoyed, and then I went downstairs and had a good time with my peoples.  I bought the 60 min IPA as a six pack from Bevmo! in the craft beer section (for those of you who haven't been to bevmo) at the Torrance location on Hawthorne Blvd.  There's no doubt in my mind that this beer set the mood for the rest of the night.


Appearance

      Sorry for the picture.  It's grainy because it was taken from my phone.  Do you really care?  You better not.  Also, sorry for the lame print on the glass, I really need to stop being lazy and go get something less tacky.  So you can see the nice gold color.  A little darker, deeper amber than the Samuel Smith, but still had that glassy look but with more noticeable streams of carbonation rising to the top--a real classy looking beer.  The head was small but retained well.  It didn't crumble away like Samuel Smith's IPA.  In the words of Akon "...damn you a sexy bitch."


Smell

     Oh the smell was stupendous!  This was hands down the best smelling beer I've had so far.  At first I thought it was just my weak nose that made me review previous beers as light smelling, or something to that effect, which still might be the case except to a lesser degree, but this beer smelled sweet and, oh I don't know, pine like?  Not like Pinesol cleaning agent, but more grassy, to use the words of the man in the video.  It also had a sour twinge, maybe orange or something citrus flavor like that.  It really smelled great, and gathering from how it's made (did you read the blurb on the website?) that's the smell of hops.  It really does smell nice.  It wasn't strong and overwhelming but like a pleasant scent that lingers in the air when you walk through a forest--how fanciful.  Also, I usually lose the smell after drinking it for awhile, but this stayed the course.  I didn't have to aggravate the beer too much to unleash the smell.  It just hung out with me until I finished my session.

Taste

     The taste was yummy.  Super balanced like a high end Le Mans race car.  Many IPAs tend to be bitter throughout the drink.  To me, I don't know if this is consensus, the strong bitter hops taste is a marker of an IPA; but, this beer was very light and sweet which got punctuated by the bitter hops taste rather than the bitter taste taking center stage.  The beer was clean and refreshing with light carbonation.  The taste was less dry than Samuel Smith's IPA and left my palate feeling clean afterward.  I had questions about the Doghead Fish Brewery site claiming it was a "session" beer (that I'll explain at the end), but the lightness helps with making it a session beer.

Mouthfeel

     Again, the brew was dry to the tongue but not so much where it felt like it sucked all the moisture from my tongue.  The carbonation had no sting and really did a good job at aerating the beer to make it fresh and light.  Often too much carbonation ruins drinks (beer and soda) for me because the sting it gives distracts me from what I'm tasting.  Instead of tasting the sugars and whatnot, I feel the bubbles bursting on my tongue and I focus most of my attention on that.  The drink was not at all thick and not too watery.  

Overall
     

     The opinions I heard about this beer and the reviews that I've read are all raving glory for this beer.  I am officially jumping on that wagon because there is nothing bad about this beer.  Sure, I'll try to think of one:  the bottle was too small and a six pack is not enough.  That actually sounded like alcoholic phrases.  Anyway, it is true that this beer is high end and a real prize for American IPAs.  There's nothing bad about it and should, or will, become a regularly bought drink in this household.  The site says that this beer has an ABV (Alcohol by Volume remember?) of 6% and an IBU (International Bitterness Units) of 60.  Sixty is a really high number and if I saw that  before I drank the beer I would have braced myself for a face cringe, but it really was not as strong as 60 IBUs would lead one to anticipate.  The mix of malt with hops is so well put together, despite adding and boiling hops for sixty minutes (yeah that's where the name comes from, but you should've known that after you clicked on the link under the first picture!), that the bitterness shows as a friendly face instead of a punch in one.  Also, if you needed to review the IBU and ABV terms again go to the afterthought of this entry which will also have good links that will lead you to education, or this site.  Also, as a kind of side note, I poured the other five bottles for friends and they loved it.  A good friend of mine, who loves Hefeweizens, really smiled wide when he drank this one.  So go out and have a taste, I really encourage this one.






     Okay here's the educational afterthought.  Two things: what "session beer" means and an explanation on IPA.  First off, when you hear that a beer is a "session beer," that beer is a beer that can be drunk in large quantities without becoming tiresome and/or getting too drunk.  According to Beeradvocate.com's definition of "session beer,"

Any beer that contains no higher than 5 percent ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters (ingredients) and, typically, a clean finish - a combination of which creates a beer with high drinkability. The purpose of a session beer is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication. (Yes, you can drink and enjoy beer without getting drunk.)

  but this is Beeradvocate's definition and, thus, is not accepted by the world, at least not yet.  I personally like this definition.  The Doghead site claims that their 60 Minute IPA to be a session beer, but after drinking one, I had a nice buzz.  Also, since I subscribe to Beeradvocate's definition, the 60 Minute IPA has an ABV of 6%, which really makes a difference albeit is only one percent.  I couldn't drink the whole six pack and be sober.  Click the Beeradvocate for more information, though, there's some history about the term and a better explanation than I care to give at the moment.  See, I like that I have the resources to teach you without saying a damn thing.
     Now, since this is the second IPA, I realized I didn't even explain really the term IPA or India Pale Ale.  I thought it originated in India by the English, but I'm not entirely correct.  If you have time or if you are really interested in IPAs read this article on India Pale Ales.  It gives the history and the characteristics and even some suggestions.  Things I can't really explain because, I mean let's face it, I'm pretty stupid.  Self deprecation is only sad if you let it be, I'm not!  I'll find articles on the other beer styles when I get to them.  Sorry for neglecting to do that in the previous reviews.  Share a drink with friends and make lots of jokes.  Beer is the absolute best when you're laughing with friends.