Bottle sent by Dogfish Head for comment. Once again, I prove that I need to hit more of these when fresh. Pours a heavily varnish brown wood color, a foamy but short-lived tan head. The nose brings up mild roasted malts, and then a hit of alcohol, perhaps tending toward a sherry impression. Taste really hits me with notes or cherry limeade, fruit leather, and pouch tobacco. The alcohol threads its way through the palate, and hit me with some chocolate at the back of my throat. Alcohol just continues to burn in at the back of the throat, but in a happy way.

8-4-8-4-16 Bottle, #2225, 4,5 years after bottling. Pours opaque black, with a a small, short lived head. Aroma is dark roasted malts with coffee, raw liquorice and muscovado, as well as dark chocolate, tannins and wooden barrels. Creamy body, with very soft carbonation. Flavour is dark roasted malts with coffee, tobacco, herbal notes and raw liquorice, as well as dark chocolate, dusty minerals, tannins and wooden barrels. Dry finish.

Bottle from cgarvieuk dregs run. Appearance - deep brown to black and opaque. Nose - rich dark chocolate, hazelnut and toffee. Taste - dark chocolate, hazelnut and general praline. Palate - full bodied, rich and sweet with a touch of booziness. Overall - very nice.

At last: Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout, one of those rare immortal classics of the American craft beer movement, an answer to Sam Adams Triple Bock in the late nineties in the race for the most extreme beer in the world in terms of ABV (but long surpassed since then) and still a living legend today among US style imperial stouts. One I had on my ‘most wanted’ list for more than two decades now: I cannot thank Didier enough for fixing me this bottle – a vintage one of five years old, at 18% ABV (so prolonged cellaring potential is guaranteed). Pale greyish beige, moussy and stable, small-bubbled, only slowly opening head, pitch black robe with a copper-red glow around the edges – but only under bright light. Rich aroma but surprisingly a tad more restrained than expected at this strength and force: chocolate liqueur, warm espresso, melting ‘fondant’ chocolate, walnut oil, whisky, old ruby port, chocolate crisps, hints of peanut, cognac and very vague teriyaki and, warming up, a lovely scent of sherry-like maderisation that has apparently begun to set in at this stage. Dense onset, dark-fruity with notes of fig compote and candied dates as well as a waferthin sourish edge (blackberry), softly carbonated with evidently very full, thickly oily mouthfeel – but still maintaining a slickness and slenderness, much less syrupy than I was expecting, due to, I guess, an alcohol-thinning effect. Multi-layered slabs of dark chocolate-, toffee- and walnut paste-like maltiness fill the mouth, densely sweet at first but shifting quickly to a black coffee- and roasted chicory-like bitterness, while that touch of sherry-like maderisation makes a brief retronasal appearance. The finish is warmed by whisky-like alcohol, pushing the flavours upwards and eventually heating the throat a bit, but those thick layers of black, bittersweet malts (importantly aided by well-placed peppery hop bitterness) manage to absorb even the 18% ABV in such a way that the whole remains as drinkable as a stout half that strength. This is justly a long-time classic: I love its old school roastedness and I love the fact that my sample was aged gracefully with a most charming dash of maderisation to it, but what seems most admirable here, is that Sam Calagione managed to construct a stout of 18% which in 1999 had no precedent at all, and keep it remarkably drinkable. Nothing is annoying here, nothing too thick to enjoy, nothing too sweet or too ashy, nothing even too boozy: this masterpiece shows off Dogfish Head’s craftmanship, experience and technical perfection like few other beers. My respect for this brewery, large and ‘macro’ as it may have become, has only grown. One to tick off the bucket list.

Dark black body no head. Roast ash caramel fruit molasses aroma. Roast ash molasses caramel fruit flavor. Full body nearly no carbonation. 9/5/9/4/19 4.6

Still vividly remember drinking this back in 2006 and it was just so harsh, maybe beer was more bitter back then, maybe my palate was too young, both? Whatever this is delish. Slight coffee and molasses, malt on the nose, caramel lingering finish. Delish

355 ml bottle, vintage 2019. Black body, with a small, creamy, beige head. Aroma of coffee, soy sauce, liquorice, tobacco, dark chocolate, some cocoa powder. Tastes similar, with some booze. Full, oily mouthfeel, with a moderate carbonation. Finishes boozy, roasty, dry, with cocoa powder, coffee, tobacco, soy sauce, liquorice. Tasty. A greatly balanced, robust, old-school Imperial Stout. Pretty complex, with diverse roasty notes. The alcohol is noticeable, but not as much as the ABV suggests. Great, classic stuff. Score: 8 / 4 / 8 /4 / 16