Beer Review: Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

I tried three beers I had never tried before when I was in Panama City Beach recently, thanks to Chan’s Wine World, and Dogfish Head’s Indian Brown Ale was probably my favorite of the three. Dogfish Head is a brewery out of Milton, Delaware. So here we go…

According to the bottle, this is

…a clean well-hopped brown ale with aromatic barley, caramelized brown sugar and whole leaf Liberty and Goldings hops

The Pour
This pours to a 2-3 finger thick, brown sugar colored head that leaves good lacing on the glass. The beer itself is a dark coffee color. It looks nice and full bodied.

The Nose
This beer smells amazing. There are nice hops in the nose, mingling and converging with coffee, roasted malt and chocolate notes and touches of nuttiness. Smells like it would be full-bodied, and the various aromas are all very well balanced. I am very excited about trying this beer!

The Taste
Excellent brew! The chocolate and coffee notes I found in the nose are also present on the palate, and there is also a nice dryness to it, almost an oakiness really. At the front of the sip the hops are mild but not hiding, and they peek through again on the finish. This beer is full-bodied and has a well rounded mouthfeel. It really just rolls smoothly around the mouth. There is a slight hint of the higher ABV…this combined with the hops and the oaky notes give it hints of whiskey in the finish.

Overall
Excellent! Very tasty brew! Aside from this one, I have only had one other IBA, but I can tell this is the one the others will have to live up to. It has a lot of character and depth, much more than you would expect. The higher ABV hit me fairly quickly, so be forewarned.

Recommended: Absolutely! Based on this one beer alone I may drink nothing but Dogfish Head for a while, if I can get it here, to try more of their products.

Price: I’ll have to find out…I lost the receipt

ABV: 7.2%

Back from Panama City Beach!

I have returned from Panama City Beach and have some reviews ready to post soon. I tried two different Dogfish Head brews while there and a beer Brooklyn Brewery and a German brewery collaborated on, and I am very happy with all three. I’l get those posted soon.

In the meantime, let me tell you about the place where I purchased my beer. I was staying at Calypso Towers and asked two fellas at Waterstone Resorts (across the street from our condo) where to get good microbrews and imports. They recommended Chan’s Wine World. For that they have my eternal gratitude.

I walked into Chan’s and started checking out their selection. After about a minute and a half I wanted to move in! I would say a third of what they had is not available here and 50% of that I had never seen before. They had some excellent excellent selections! I saw a beer there I am pretty sure I had in Italy and have not seen stateside since.

Best of all, the store manager, S. Chris Christiansen. I could tell he was a definite conosseiur of beer and he was an interesting character to meet. Just seemed like a very knowledgeable guy with a genuine love of beer. Definitely someone you would want to hang out with and get to know. A real great guy.

So please, if you ever get to Panama City Beach and want good beer, run to Chan’s……you will not be sorry. And don’t forget to visit their Web site.

P.S. One of the beers I bought at Chan’s is Dogfish Head’s India Brown Ale. Don’t wait for my review…..buy it now!!! You will not be sorry!

Going to Panama City Beach Friday

The Beer Snob is traveling again, this time just a long weekend trip to Panama City Beach. I hope to try some beer down there that I can’t find here. I have a large backlog of tasting notes STILL to post. School has me so busy I’ve been unable to update the blog.

If you know of any local beers down there, drop me a line…..I’ll try to check it out.

In the meantime, check out some of the blogs in my Beer Bloggers Unite widget there in the right column. I’ve recently added a couple of blogs you may be interested in

Cheers!

The Beer Snob