Dogfish Head: Old Beer and Stinky Cheese

Dogfish Head Brewing, known for its charismatic leader, Sam Calagione, and its propensity for wacky, weird brewing experiments, came to town as part of an “Old Beer and Stinky Cheese” tasting event held in the Levi’s Photo Workshop space in SoHo.

While there were plenty of distractions to the photography newbie — a photo booth, photo editing areas, pithy quotes on the walls, old cameras in cases — I was there as The Beer Boor, and so I threw myself into my work.

The first pairing was the Burton Baton. At 11% alcohol by volume, it was also the weakest beer on the evening. It’s available from time to time — the website says three times a year — and is arguably the first of its kind. Dogfish Head mixes an Imperial IPA with an Old Ale — so, a really hoppy, big beer with a sweet, toffeeish beer — and puts this mixture in an oak barrel for a month. As a result, since it’s only a month, the beer retains a fairly strong hop profile, citric and raspy and rough in all the good ways, with a a hefty malt backbone that asserts itself rather strongly with flavors of toffee, plum, and a bit of sugar. In essence, the resulting beer is fairly close to a normal American Barleywine (like Dogfish’s own Olde School Barleywine).

Essentially this worked out so well that a lot of other brewers have since decided they should start oak-aging their IPAs, but typically for a longer period of time. In practice, this just wipes out the aroma hops and much of the hop flavor, two of the important aspects of a good IPA, and leaves behind something akin to an Old Ale.

The Burton Baton was paired with a smoked Forgia cheese, many slivers of which were tasted alongside the beer. Sadly, this wasn’t a particularly good pairing, as the taste was drowned out by the beer, and only on its own did the smokiness and delicate flavors remain.

We moved on to the Fort, an 18% beer that combines a run of the mill Belgian-style ale with a ton of raspberries in the fermenter, to create a very strong fruit beer — as they noted at the event, the “World’s Strongest Fruit Beer”. It’s almost certainly the strongest such beer, given that they essentially “ice” the nearly-finished beer, freezing the batch and scraping out the ice to bump the alcohol levels up without trying to find a yeast that can handle such a heavy load.

In essence, the Fort’s alcohol was overwhelming at times. The raspberries imparted a musty berry flavor and aroma, and unsurprisingly dominated the base beer so thoroughly as to leave no trace of it in my mouth. I didn’t sample the cheese offered alongside the Fort, but in keeping with the evening’s theme, it was likely not particularly stinky though that might help if paired with this beer.

Naturally Sam was asked to say a few words about the brewery and the whole concept, and he obliged. (He did not, luckily, start to rap with his group, The Pain Relievahs, though he could be forgiven for throwing his hands in the air and waving them like he just did not care.)

Third up, the 120 Minute IPA. Also 18% in this iteration (and no longer the strongest IPA in the world, but no matter), the 120 has over the years been up into the 20%+ range but has since been toned down a bit in order to rein in the booziness that interfered with the flavor of the beer. While the process to brew this beer hasn’t really changed — the 120 Minutes, like the 60 and 90 Minute IPAs, refers to the number of minutes of continuous hop addition to the initial boiling (same amount of time) of the malts, pre-fermentation, which breaks down the starches into yeast-friendly molecules. While constantly hopping is more gimmick than tried-and-true practice, it is an indicator of the fun Dogfish has brewing their beers.

In this case, unlike its smaller 60 and 90 Minute cousins, the beer is, as is common, more a strong American Barleywine than really big IPA — it just stays too sweet, which, considering all the hops in this beer, is probably necessary to prevent it from getting unbearably astringent. Taken as just a beer without being pegged as any particular style, it’s a warming, boozy drinker, and tastes a bit like a sweet hop tea. But mostly it’s sweet, peppery alcohol with a bit of a rough hop bitterness thrown in for good measure.

The Stilton it was paired with was the only true “stinky cheese” of the evening, and easily cut through the booze to deliver its characteristic funky taste. I think it would have been better served against the Burton Baton, though.

Our final beer, the World Wide Stout, clocks in at, yep, 18% as well. This one, like the 120 Minute IPA, used to be stronger — north of 23% at one point — and used to be the strongest beer in the world, let alone the strongest stout; today it is neither, but who cares? It’s a matter of tasting good, and that is something WWS has in spades. Viscous, more than a bit roasty, chocolatey, rich, and filling, I’ve always been a fan but of course haven’t really had the opportunity to drink very much in one sitting.

The World Wide Stout was paired with dark chocolate, probably the most obvious pairing of beer and food you’ll ever see, because it works so well in practice. The sense of chocolate in the beer itself is heightened by eating chocolate in between sips, so I needed to try this pairing repeatedly.

Wandering through the space, I was especially pleased to see old Leicas on display. These are not exactly inexpensive cameras, and these models are more than just collectible. Such is the completeness of Levi’s’ commitment to continuity in this space.

In all I’d like to thank Dogfish Head and Levi’s for putting on this educational event. I saw lots of people stretching their perceptions of what “beer” can be; anything that educates the hipsters is a win in my book.

Of course, having these rather rare, rather expensive beers available on-demand didn’t hurt. If I had to choose, I would recommend picking up the Burton Baton and World Wide Stout for home use; expect the Burton Baton to set you back about $15-$18 per four-pack, while the World Wide Stout is typically sold per 12-ounce bottle, and for about $10. As always, keep educating your beer palate!

Please note that this event was courtesy of Levi’s. I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about this event, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.