Monday, June 09, 2008

TRUST THE MIDAS TOUCH

A few weeks back, DOGFISH HEAD BREWING’s beers made their long-desired debut in Northern California. They didn’t give us their entire lineup straight off the bat; no, a few beers were carefully hand-picked for the market here, including the 90-MINUTE IPA (lord knows we can use another firebreathing hoppy IPA on the west coast). One wild card beer out of the four they chose to give us is Dogfish Heads’ MIDAS TOUCH, an “ancient ale” made pretty much for beer dorks like us only. I really enjoyed this one, and I can say with some assurance that I’ve never had a beer similar to it. It poured with absolutely no head at all – just completely still with a few lingering bubbles. I’m not sure when the last time I saw that was. It’s an opaque honey-colored yellow/orange, and was almost lager-ish in how thin-bodied it “drank”. Good thing is, it tasted nothing like a lager. The prominent taste was, in fact, honey – along with green grapes (and grape skin) – a very interesting combination for sure, and combined with how easy drinking the beer was, actually came up as a beer that went down very easy while making you want to savor it. My wife, who drinks beer not at all, loved it. I did too. A great one to bring to beer country**, guys! 8/10.

** = Northern California

6 comments:

Barleyvine said...

Jay,
Agree with you comment, this is one of my favorite DFH beers. Also one of the most unique ones out there by anyone. Not a session beer that you'd have a bunch of in one sitting, but a fine beer to savor for a while.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I drank a few of these last year. I figured they'd be kinda gross, but I actually really enjoyed them. That Dogfish gang knows how to do it, that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

I also appreciate a Midas Touch. I love the story behind it, though it's a little sweet for me to drink more than one of at a time.

Anonymous said...

It's good you guys are finally getting some DFH brews. Most of them are just fantastic. Hopefully you get to try others soon like Burton Baton, World Class Stout and Fort.

Dale Merrill said...

Midas Touch is one of the strangest things I've ever tasted. Reminded me of a grape infused Mead. Way different tastes through all it's stages. The first taste is completely different from it's finish. Hard to describe. The better half really likes it.

Burton Baton is great. Watch out though cuz it's a sneaky one. 60 Minute is one of my regular go to beers. It takes a lot to get any better than it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.dogfish.com/brewings/Seasonal_Beers/Festina_Peche/56/index.htm

Had a BBQ over the weekend, and someone brought a 4 pack of Festina Peche. The fruit flavors were very subtle, mainly in the aftertaste and even then it was more of a what is that? taste as opposed to being syrupy and sweet.

What I like about Dogfish Head is that they are not afraid to fail and they trust that the universe of serious beer drinkers will enjoy what they do.