I found Dogfish’s staple Midas Touch in Portland at John’s Marketplace and you know, I’m always on the lookout for Dogfish Head beers these days… it was a no-brainer.

Midas Touch is the first of their "historic recreation" beers, based on the archaeological remains of vessels found in a tomb from circa 700 BC. Their capsule description:

This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! Our recipe showcases the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey & saffron found in the drinking vessels in King Midas’ tomb! Somewhere between a beer, wine and mead, this smooth, dry ale will please with Chardonnay or I.P.A. drinker alike.

It’s also a hefty 9% alcohol by volume, so watch out—you don’t notice this when you’re drinking it.

Appearance: Golden honey color, slight haze. Head is "rough" and yellowish. ("Rough" means rocky, choppy; has a broken, rough look to it.)

Smell: Sweet honey—very like a mead—with floral and grape juice notes.

Taste: Sweet, almost sickly sweet, lots of mead flavors here. It masks the strength well. Nice fruit notes and a delicate hint of tiny flowers—from the saffron, I’d guess. Very much more like a fruity wine than a beer.

Mouthfeel: Very bubbly and carbonated—sparkling. A tad dry like a white wine. Body is almost like a thin syrup.

Overall: Dangerously drinkable, very sweet and very good. Even my wife liked it—liked it as in, she would drink this regularly, and that’s only happened with Lindemans Framboise.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 84 out of 100, with 94% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.52 out of 5, and is in their 85th percentile.