Brew Review: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

This puppy is a classic. Not that I've sampled many, but this is easily the best east coast IPA I've consumed. Today's sampling was a 12oz bottle served in a standard pint.

It was caramel-amber in color, with a fluffy head and a wonderful hop aroma. With something like wine the nose does a lot of the tasting, but you can get away with a more mouth-driven flavor experience with beers. That said, this beer just smells good.

There's not much to detail about the flavor: it's a delicious, consistent IPA that is one of the standard-bearers for what a well crafted IPA should look like, smell like and taste. To me it's got sort of a slightly creamy consistency, just a little more thick than your standard IPA.

DFH's "minute" series of IPA's are well-respected, with the 120 Minute IPA a fairly expensive and sometimes hard to find option. I've yet to try it so your word is as good as mine when it comes to the 120. However, and mind you this is just my opinion and it might change: I like the 60 minute more than its well-respected kin the 90 Minute IPA. Both are worthy of repeat purchases.

Regardless, DFH's IPA's are hard to dislike. As a bonus, the original brewhouse is in Delaware (Milton/Rehoboth Beach), only a modest drive from most areas of Maryland. Dogfish Head actually has a handful of brewery/restaurants, one of which is located in Gaithersburg (closer to D.C. than Baltimore, although I'm not finding anything online about the G-Burg location, did it close?). They seem to have decent national distribution, although Summer of Beer Steve has had some difficulty locating bottles in California. It's a cinch finding them in Maryland, and they even distributed down in the craft beer averse Florida panhandle where I used to live.

Although I poured a bottle today, the Mangia nearby has the 60 Minute IPA on tap, so be sure to hit that up if you're looking for a fresher pour.

This IPA is well-respected at BeerAdvocate, with a 4.07/A- average rating. Summer of Beer Steve didn't enjoy his first go-round with DFH, but later came around after a second tasting.