Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA

Living in New Orleans has its perks, like a million festivals and amazing food, but when it comes to craft beer from outside of our Gulf South region, we get the short end of the stick. That's changing, of course, with a handful of high profile distribution agreements recently, but there are still some gaps on the shelves at our bottle stores, namely, Dogfish Head. So, I took to LetsPour and made an order of a few bottles of stuff we just can't get here. The first that we tried was Dogfish Head's 90-Minute IPA.

I had had their 60-minute IPA in Austin last year when we drove out there for the The Impossibles reunion, which was amazing. The show and the beer.

The 90-minute IPA is continuously hopped, that is, while the wort is boiling, hops are added continuously, as opposed to on a schedule two, three, or four times. This makes for a very hoppy brew. But it didn't destroy my mouth like some Imperial IPAs, though the enamel on my teeth felt like it was falling off. That's a good thing, by the way.

It's a golden color and it's a very clear beer. It didn't have much of a head on it, but that could've been my crappy pouring skills or a dusty glass. It's obviously got a very hoppy aroma, with a little bit of citrus and sweetness from the English Two-Row malt. For a short second I thought I smelled rye, but there isn't any in this, so I'm probably just crazy.

It's intensely hoppy at first, and there's a little bite in the middle, like not quite spice, but kind of spicy. It finishes with a sweet, malty, hoppy flavor. The malt really really balances this beer really well so it's not just cramming hops down your throat.

It's really a great beer and made me sad that we can't get Dogfish here. Maybe some day.