The Brew Site90 Minute IPA
It’s rare to find Dogfish Head beers around here, so when I came across their 90 Minute IPA recently, you’d better believe I was all over it.
90 Minute IPA is an Imperial IPA that weighs in at 9% alcohol by volume, and the name reflects a Dogfish innovation: the wort boil last for 90 minutes and the hops are added continuously during that time, rather than all at once at the beginning. A continuous hopping like this goes a long way toward giving the beer its essential hop character without the enormous bitterness that dumping them all in at the beginning would give.
Appearance: Nice clear copper orange, with two fingers of creamy white head.
Smell: Hops, but not as sharply as I’d expected. Very nice floral scent. Sweet caramel-toffee malt. A hint of its alcohol strength.
Taste: Hops are the first blast on the tongue—syrupy and herbal, a slight woodiness but not harsh. Nicely bitter. Malt is molasses-sweet (not cloying) with none of the dark flavors (of molasses)… it balances well with the higher alcohol strength. Very well-balanced and tasty and strong.
Mouthfeel: Nice and firm, not chewy but thick like a syrup. Alcohol is prickly-strong.
On BeerAdvocate, it scores 91 out of 100, with 98% approval from reviewers. On RateBeer, it scores 4.07 out of 5 and is in their 99th percentile.
I have to say that I think Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA is one of the 5 best microbrews I’ve ever had the pleasure of partaking in. This is simply one of the best examples of what an Imperial IPA should be. The biggest downside is that it’s 9% abv which doesn’t make it easy to have more than two at a sitting.