Dogfish Head Brewery
Dogfish Head Brewery is one of the most well-known craft breweries of today. Their production brewery is located in Milton, Delaware, but they started in a small brewpub in the summer of 1995 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. They quickly outgrow this place within a couple years requiring the construction of a bigger and better brew house called the Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, which remains in the Rehoboth Beach area today. Sam Calagione founded Dogfish Head Brewery in 1995 with the intention of developing and releasing craft beers that are out of the norm, adopting the motto “Off-centered ales for off-centered people”. Dogfish Head continues to grow rapidly today, and was featured in the Discovery Channel series Brew Masters, which premiered in November, 2010, but unfortunately was taken off the air following its first season.
Noble Rot is one of Dogfish Head’s occasional rarities, typically released in January. The beer was first released in February 2011 at their brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, DE and sold on tap only. This brew was recently released in January 2012 for the first time in 750ml bottles. This brew is a “saison-esque” that obtains it’s fermentable sugars from wine grapes from the Alexandria Nicole Cellars in Prosser, Washington. The first type of grape used is the viognier grape after being infected with the botrytis fungus, which in turn magnifies the sweetness and complexity of the grape. The second grape is a pinot gris, which gets clipped to boast the qualities of the remaining. This is what the founder of Dogfish Head, Sam Calagione, had to say about it, "This is the absolute closest to equal meshing of the wine world and the beer world thats ever been done commercially”.
General Information
ABV: 9.0%
IBUs: 19
Color: Medium yellow with a white foam head
Noble Rot Review
This beer had excellent white foam head around ¼ inch thick that lasted for about 30-45 seconds before slowly dissipating. It is a medium to light yellow color with excellent carbonation and clarity. The aroma has strong citrusy tones similar to a pineapple. There is not any bitterness to the aroma. The taste is a strong grapey sweetness at first, which mellows out into a spicy middle taste and finishes with a dry tartness that lingers for about twenty to thirty seconds. There is not much bitterness noted in the taste either; the bitterness is similar to a hefeweizen style wheat beer. This is an excellent combination between the wine and beer worlds, the dry tart finish leaves you wanting more. This is another well-crafted beer by Dogfish Head, I highly recommend grabbing one of these while you can.
