While many Belgian breweries have created custom glassware for years, most American breweries glassware was the typical pint glass. Now don't get us wrong, we love the pint glass as much as the next guy, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. Sam Adams really went public with their new glassware a while back, and you'll often see it in their commercials. Now Dogfish Head has decided to come out with their own glassware as well. They were kind enough to send us a glass for us to check out. When we first got it the we liked it, but we were worried the base might be a bit too bulky. We resisted doing an immediate write up and mixed it in to our glassware. This glass has almost become a go to now. Shapes that initially felt bulky now felt sturdy and robust. The shape of the glass always seems to enhance hop aroma. There's some nice subtle styling too, a laser etched logo inside the bottom of the glass and another logo on the base. This is a really cool glass. Even cooler than the glass though is what we hope becomes a trend. We'd like to see more breweries come out with some unique glassware of their own.
If you want to pick up one of your own check them out here: DogfishHead
Gargamel is a limited edition Belgian style ale from Allagash. After primary fermentation Allagash added Brettanomyces yeast and aged it French Oak wine barrels with local raspberries for over 18 months. Sometimes we almost feel bad writing up a beer we know you all can't buy. This is one of those times. This beer is simply incredible but unless you already own a bottle the chance of you trying it are quite low. This beer was available for sale at the brewery only. The beer starts out with an amazing sourness that is immediatly followed up with an incredibly complex Belgian funk with a distinct earthiness. Describing the flavor of brett yeast can sound aweful to those who haven't had it but there's nice notes of earthy hay in the finish (trust us it's a good thing).The fruit adds to the sourness but the beer never feels like a "fruit beer". We got 4 bottles of this (they only allowed each person to buy 2 bottles so that's all we could get). We're down to one bottle left and when that goes it's going to be a sad day. The good news is that this is the first beer in a line of limited release barrel aged beers from Allagashs so we're excited to see what else they come out with.
On a beer run to pick up some beer to have with some BBQ we saw this new beer from Dogfish Head. While the name may imply a totally new beer the actual reality is this is an unfiltered, bottle conditioned version of their 90 Minute IPA. Dogfish Head beers tend to have fairly strong yeast notes to begin with so we weren't sure how this would be. The short answer it's good. It doesn't blow our minds but it's worth a try. The Squall IPA feels a bit hotter than regular 90 min IPA, this may be a product of the bottle conditioning. There is a predictable sweetness that comes with many Dogfish beers but it's not overwhelmingly sweet. A nice balance of hop flavors helps round of the overall flavor of the beer. We're not sure we'd buy this again over regular 90 Minute but it's worth buying a bottle to give it a go.
In celebration of their 35th year of being open, Julio's Liquors in Westborough, MA has worked with De Proef Brewery and SBS Imports to create a Black Saison named L' Ange Tombe (The Fallen Angel).
Pennsylvania Brewery - Penn Pilsner
