And Another One...

Another successful weekend at Dogfish! I know, it’s been like a month since we did this...actually more, a month would have been two three days ago, but Dogfish did an awesome beer release in March that I had the GREAT pleasure of attending. “Wrath a Pecant,” a collaboration brew with Dogfish Head and the Beer Advocate bros, was released March 12, 2010. I had to go to this...so I made a weekend out of it!

Conveniently DFH is located about an hour and half south of my hometown AND (also incredibly convenient) my grandmother has a condo at Rehobeth Beach, the city housing the DFH brew pub. Two nights, three days of nothing BUT Dogfish Head.

Friday March 11, 2010

We started early...well I call it early but it was really around cocktail hour, I just knew this was going to be one of those marathon nights - what with the crowd I was with and the sheer fact that the plan was to spend the evening at DFH brew pub. But we did do a pre-game...Burton Baton was in hand and the buzz was solid.

After a few (not a couple...a FEW!) we strolled through deserted Rehobeth in the hazy 45 degree weather. Round one, DING, was a Johnny Cask - not something that is readily available. Johnny Cask is a blend of the 60-minute and 90-minute IPAs supplemented with a bunch of other shit (whole-leaf hops, maple syrup!) that you can read more about HERE. And this beer is really excellent. It’s nice because casked IPAs (and beers in general) open up in a pint glass on a different level then the highly carbonated IPAs from the keg. Every taste becomes so apparent. The extra hops, the sweet highlights against a bitter background, they all become delightfully attention hungry.

Round two DING Life and Limb - another collaboration beer, DFH and Sierra Nevada, which you may recall, caused quite a stir in the craft beer community late last year. It released as a VERY limited edition beer with only something like 4500 cases released in DE in the beginning. People were buying and selling them at a 50 percent markup. My own little anecdote: when all this was happening, my buddy (one of the trifecta of my beer friends) got his hand on two bottles. I begged and begged to buy it from him...thirty bucks? forty? Wouldn’t sell. Well Dec. 25th passes and the next shift we worked together he handed me a box...with a bottle....wrapped in xmas paper....I couldn’t believe it!! I still haven’t drank it yet.

Some food was involved - DUH! An order of ribs...the day’s special, roast beef sandwiches, onion rings. I love Dogfish Head, I love their brew pub, and honestly NOTHING WOULD EVER keep me from going there, BUT! the food isn’t awesome for being such an awesome place. Not sure what I would recommend and maybe it’s just because I high expectations...

What did everyone else order? Well a RANDALLIZED Aprihop passed through our table. What’s RANDALLIZED, you ask? Or maybe you know...in that case READ ABOUT IT AGAIN.

RANDALL the Enamel Animal is an “organoleptic hop transducer module.” A big ass filter stuffed with hops that pipes beer in from the keg and out into YOUR glass.

Final Round DING ....HEAVEN AND HELL! Jesus...the name is totally indicative of the EXPERIENCE of this black and tan, and it IS an experience. First it’s heaven, blissful, delicious. Then you realize it’s 18 + percent and you just strap yourself in for the ride.

Heaven and Hell is World Wide Stout and 120-Minute done in a black and tan style. Comes in a 6oz snifter and two definitely KO’d all four of us, DING.

Saturday March 12, 2010

The adventure continues...

Today was the BIG day, the RELEASE. The release NOT ONLY of Wrath of Pecant but also of the Liquor De Malt, as the name suggests, a malt liquor. The first half of the day, we waited in line at the brew pub to get our ONE bottle we were allowed to buy and then spent another hour scheming on how we could get another. Not because any of us particularly LIKED malt liquor. Not because we wanted to bring some back with us to give to someone we knew who LIKED malt liquor. Simply because we’re four greedy bastards.

Right - so following our stint at the pub, we made our way across slower lower Delaware to the fair city of Milton! Our tour was at three, so we spent some time perusing the newly outfitted store housed under what would otherwise be the brewery. My favorite product (besides their most obvious item), was a rubbery DFH cover for a Macbook. The place was completely different from how I left it three years ago... No longer did the audience enter through the top almost directly into the brewing chamber, but instead, like I suggested, we entered into the large DFH retail store. The tour was literally a two room tour as the flight-attendant stunt double pointed to the silos, brewing vessels, and four of the specialty barrels. Hate to be so snobby, BUT my private tour with the OLD brew master was MUCH superior (not as cute, but...).

Anyway, the day continued with a 20-bottle purchase (collectively) of the Wrath of Pecant and a retreat back to the apartment for a rather quiet evening. The trip concluded with a four hour game of Talisman, the conclusion of one of our eight bottles of the Liquor De Malt, and a general attitude of pleasure (except when I kicked everyone’s ass - specifically that feather boot-wearing Warrior - as the Elf).