Sunday, June 14, 2009

Dogfish Head vs. Flying Fish







Tonight I had a friend help me officiate a friendly competition between Delaware's Dogfish Head (60 min IPA) and New Jersey's Flying Fish (HopFish IPA). My friend doesn't mind IPAs. He'll drink anything and the only comment you'll get out of him is "wow". No one knows how to measure the "wow".
Is it "wow":
-this is really shit*y?
-this is perfect?
-this is totally average?

no tellin.


We drank Flying Fish first. My friend made no comment. I REALLY enjoyed the Flying Fish. It was one of my favorites that I tried in Baltimore a few weeks ago. I was really looking forward to drinking this one again. Loved it. So well balanced.



We ate a few more chips and dip, finished a brat, had a little macaroni salad, told the kids to shut it, then had Dogfish Head. "Wow", said my friend. He began talking about how he liked trying different craft brews and how superior they were to Bud, etc. (I let him ramble, sometimes it's best to, don't want to start an argument). I'm guessing this was a good "wow".

The Dogfish Head, though it is a good beer, is way off balance on MY palate. It needs to be polished up a bit; it's quite raw. When I drink Dogfish Head, I want to take a buffer to the beer for about 15min to smooth it out.

In it's current raw state, it's like one of those bad tasting delicacies that everyone eats because everyone else is and it's a "delicacy" and they don't want everyone to know they don't like it even though everyone else hates it too so they eat it and tell everyone how much they love it because everyone else is.


So I say Flying Fish wins...I don't have a friggin-glue what my friend's opinion is. He went home already so I can't ask him.



Comps:

Flying Fish HopFish IPA: 6.2% ABV; IBU not given

DogFish Head 60 min: 6% ABV; IBU not given

3 comments:

  1. i agree about the 60 minute. it is very unbalanced, but he 90 minute is a different story methinks.

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  2. I also agree with The Baker. The 90 min is perfection. I had it on tap and in the bottle and both rocked my palate (yet is was balanced). The 60 min is unbalanced and if you get around to it the 120 min is extremely unbalanced. Hailing from Chicago I would recommend trying to get you hands on some Goose Island. They make a great IPA and Imperial IPA which is well balanced. Or you could just by any beer brewed in California..since every style is aggressively hopped.

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  3. Thanks Nomadic Brewmaster from BeerAdvocate!

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