# Dog fish head 90 min IPA



## Captain Kimbo (9/2/15)

Yesterday I tried for the first time Dog fish Head 90 min IPA. It was so different to what I thought it would be, I'm not sure if it was the batch I tried but it was unlike any IPA I had tried before. I was expecting a huge hop hit on the nose but instead there was the most amazing barley malt smell. The taste was sweet and totally dominated by the malt.

I'v had beers before like Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere IPA when the beer is hopped so much it taste like fruit juice and there's no malt to talk of.

Does anyone know if there is any crystal malt in the grain bill? because to me it tasted like it was 100% 2 row malted barley. 

A friend had a bottle at the same time and really didn't like it, I guess because he was looking for the hops


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## paulyman (9/2/15)

The one I tried definitely had a shed load of hop flavour and aroma, but it is the depth of the malt bill I remember as well.


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## yum beer (9/2/15)

Can't comment, I have a bottle sitting in the fridge I bought at Plonk on the weekend....there has to be some positives to travelling to Canberra for the wife's cancer treatments.

Gonna crack it Wednesday or Thursday on days off, really looking forward to it.


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## roastinrich (9/2/15)

Yeah I had a couple recently on an American cruise ship. First one had a nice balance of hops and malt. But the second one from a different bar and potentially different storage conditions had lost the hops aroma and tasted sweet like raisons and didn't show any signs of being hopped continuously for 90 minutes. At $13US a bottle (plus 15% tip) I was a bit miffed and asked for an Alaskan Pale Ale to replace it. At least I could taste the hops in that. I love the DFH60min but have yet to try the 75min and 120min.


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## Brewman_ (9/2/15)

Captain Kimbo said:


> Yesterday I tried for the first time Dog fish Head 90 min IPA. It was so different to what I thought it would be, I'm not sure if it was the batch I tried but it was unlike any IPA I had tried before. I was expecting a huge hop hit on the nose but instead there was the most amazing barley malt smell. The taste was sweet and totally dominated by the malt.


Captain Kimbo, That beer is a big beer. First of all it falls into the BJCP class of Imperial IPA. So it is not really comparable to an IPA, except to expect it is bigger in every way. The Hop character that is not there I suspect is a result of age and transport. Hop character fades fast even in big beers. So I expect it may not have tasted in the hop sense at the brewery like it did in your bottle, not sure as I've never tasted it in the US. This is even noticeable in bottled Australian craft / hoppy beers, and these have not been freighted across the world, get an older one and the hop has gone.

I believe the beer is up around 90 IBU's so it would have a solid Malt backbone to support / balance that. But that doesn't mean it has any crystal malt. I suspect it has none or very little. Mainly a good base Malt and a little something for colour and flavour like an Amber Malt.

I wish I had one.


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## Phoney (10/2/15)

I've had it a few times both in bottle and on tap at various places in the US. As mentioned above, it's a DIPA so expect it to be higher in ABV and in the "sweetness".

I don't remember it being particularly cloyey though. When is the next time you can taste the real deal?


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## skb (10/2/15)

roastin said:


> At least I could taste the hops in that. I love the DFH60min but have yet to try the 75min and 120min.


. I have had a fair few of the 90s luckily relatively fresh and there is a massive hop flavour. A related topic the 75 for me is the best ..


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## Liam_snorkel (10/2/15)

recipe from BYO magazine:

https://byo.com/hops/item/153-attack-of-the-hop-clones

with the amber malt - apparently DFH use thomas faucett amber malt. 
I haven't brewed this, but it's on my list.


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## Dave70 (10/2/15)

Brewman_ said:


> Captain Kimbo, That beer is a big beer. First of all it falls into the BJCP class of Imperial IPA. So it is not really comparable to an IPA, except to expect it is bigger in every way. The Hop character that is not there I suspect is a result of age and transport. *Hop character fades fast even in big beer*s. So I expect it may not have tasted in the hop sense at the brewery like it did in your bottle, not sure as I've never tasted it in the US. This is even noticeable in bottled Australian craft / hoppy beers, and these have not been freighted across the world, get an older one and the hop has gone.
> 
> I believe the beer is up around 90 IBU's so it would have a solid Malt backbone to support / balance that. But that doesn't mean it has any crystal malt. I suspect it has none or very little. Mainly a good base Malt and a little something for colour and flavour like an Amber Malt.
> 
> I wish I had one.


Is there any evidence to suggest the ABV itself has a positive or negative effect on the longevity of hop character? 
Probably no surprises here, but of a recent batch of hoppy (ish) APA I bottled, some stayed on the shelf, some I crammed into the keezer as soon as they carbed up. Even after a month, the hop aroma on the cold stored bottles shone much brighter than the bottles stored at ambient temps. 
Just sayin.


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## Weizguy (10/2/15)

Dave70 said:


> Is there any evidence to suggest the ABV itself has a positive or negative effect on the longevity of hop character?
> Probably no surprises here, but of a recent batch of hoppy (ish) APA I bottled, some stayed on the shelf, some I crammed into the keezer as soon as they carbed up. Even after a month, the hop aroma on the cold stored bottles shone much brighter than the bottles stored at ambient temps.
> Just sayin.


That would be why Stone insist on cold storage all the way from Brewery to retailer, especially for overseas sales.


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## BrewedCrudeandBitter (10/2/15)

For about a week or late last year South Side Tea Room in Brisbane had a carton of these they were selling for $7 each! But it wasn't advertised so I may or may not have had the lions share of them.


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## Brewman_ (10/2/15)

Liam_snorkel said:


> recipe from BYO magazine:
> 
> https://byo.com/hops/item/153-attack-of-the-hop-clones
> 
> ...


The Thomas Fawcett Amber is very nice.

This brew is on my personal list of things to do.

Steve


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## Brewman_ (10/2/15)

Dave70 said:


> Is there any evidence to suggest the ABV itself has a positive or negative effect on the longevity of hop character?
> Probably no surprises here, but of a recent batch of hoppy (ish) APA I bottled, some stayed on the shelf, some I crammed into the keezer as soon as they carbed up. Even after a month, the hop aroma on the cold stored bottles shone much brighter than the bottles stored at ambient temps.
> Just sayin.


Dave70,
I am not sure about the ABV on Hop aroma / flavour retention.

As you expected the cold storage seems to preserve some of those more delicate flavours and aromas that make good beers great.


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## takai (10/2/15)

roastin said:


> Yeah I had a couple recently on an American cruise ship. First one had a nice balance of hops and malt. But the second one from a different bar and potentially different storage conditions had lost the hops aroma and tasted sweet like raisons and didn't show any signs of being hopped continuously for 90 minutes. At $13US a bottle (plus 15% tip) I was a bit miffed and asked for an Alaskan Pale Ale to replace it. At least I could taste the hops in that. I love the DFH60min but have yet to try the 75min and 120min.


DFH 120 is like being slapped around the head with a massive malt bill followed by the dryness of a dextrose adjunct beer, before having a beautifully aromatic blend of hops jammed into your mouth like fluffy bunnies.

Its a great experience, and its a beautiful drop. But its super intense.


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## Autopilot80 (10/2/15)

Not all American IPAs are truly the same style. Most of the IPAs we have been weened on are West Coast IPAs that are very much hop forward, bitter and dry. So when you describe a west coast ipa as being balanced... well they really aren't . East Coast IPAs, such as DFH's offering are more of a hybrid between English IPAs that include a lot of specialty malts and the familiar west coast IPAs, that obviously like a liberal dose of new world hops. It's the perfect marriage of malt sweetness and bitter hops that make for a more rounded and complex (some might say balanced) beer.


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## Liam_snorkel (10/2/15)

You've got the east / west coast styles backwards there but you're totally right about the 90min being the maltier (west coast) style, unlike the 60min which is drier and less malty.


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## Autopilot (10/2/15)

Au contraire my friend I think you might have East/West mixed up. Google it bro. West is dry, East is malty.


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## Liam_snorkel (11/2/15)

****, late night dyslexia again. I'd edit my post but can't.


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## Autopilot80 (11/2/15)

Liam_snorkel said:


> late night dyslexia


Lol, you just named my next strong ale.


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## Captain Kimbo (11/2/15)

Phoney said:


> I've had it a few times both in bottle and on tap at various places in the US. As mentioned above, it's a DIPA so expect it to be higher in ABV and in the "sweetness".
> 
> I don't remember it being particularly cloyey though. When is the next time you can taste the real deal?


Hopefully sooner than later, as far as I'm aware there's only really 1 bottleshop in Perth that has it and even then it's rare I think it was $10 per 330ml bottle. I'd like to try it in the US. I can see I'll need to plan a trip to the States with visits to the Alchemist, Russian River, Dogfishhead & probably Anchor.....


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## yum beer (12/2/15)

Cracked my bottle today. Must say it was not what I was expecting.
The aroma whilst being pronounced and very nice was not as in your face as I was expecting given the amount of late and dry hops.
I don't think the bottle was real fresh, Bottle date I think was July 13 2014, not sure it was hard to read but looked like 7132014.
Tasting wasn't what I was ready for, I expected to get a slap up the side of the head with a ridiculous amount of hop oils as is par for American Ales, but no, a big sweet malt greeting,
followed by a long hop experience that started fairly gentle and didn't get nasty as it went, plenty of flavour, nothing to mind standing out, could not pick a distinct citrus, grapefruit, pine or stone fruit,
it all just mixes into one clean tongue coating that finally gives way to a touch of booziness to finish. Big mouth, big body, big flavour. I could feel the 9% by the end of the glass.
Definitely a beer worth trying. 
Would I make one, probably not, I don't need 30 bottles of that in the fridge, my liver hurt's just thinking about it.
Maybe I can get a few mates together and split a batch....mmmmm


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## skb (12/2/15)

Sounds right to me I love the 90 and the fact it is so well balanced ! I do agree it is not a drink all night beer, that would be the 60, they also have a 75 ( only had on tap) which is amazing.


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## pat_00 (20/4/15)

I'm fermenting a batch of this now, based on the BYO recipe.

Unfortunately I miscalculated the efficiency and got an OG of 1.082 instead of 1.088 and didn't have any DME around. Hoping the bitterness turns out balanced.

8 days of fermenting and down 1.035, still a while to go.


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