Dogfish Head Fort

This was not fun to drink. I picked this up at Whole Foods Chelsea in NYC thinking I would be adventurous. What a nightmare, thank the Lord I had my boyfriend to kinda help me finish this one off. 

The appearance is actually beautiful. A nice lightly red tinted golden color is present, and boy is it clear. Nice clarity, and on top of that is a crisp half finger white head that leaves pretty quick. The alcoholic legs on this were not extreme, but fun to watch slide down the sides of my glass.

The smell is not very strong, but what is there is very straight forward. Sweet red raspberry sweetness paired with 120 Minute ABV sweetness. Thats it. 

The taste is very simple. The taste is of faint raspberries with vodka. I have some advice for you, if you are first drinking this beer, do NOT inhale. This beer actually harms you. The back of my throat and my mouth burned with alcohol. There are not many flavors in this. It reminded me of the worst parts of 120 Minute, burning ethanol and sugar from the malts and raspberries. 

The mouthfeel was terrible, like taking shots of 151. Terrible. 

I could not of finished the whole bottle, I would of died if I did not have my boyfriend helping me out. I do not understand why this HAD to be 18% ABV. Why!?! Just make it a sessionable 5% and take away all of the burn and make it at least a bit enjoyable. Sugar sweetness and burning sensations made this a very big disappointment. But because we couldn't finish our glasses we poured it into the fire we were sitting around because we were gonna head in for the night....Boy that was entertaining. 

The Fire Before Fort

The Fire While Pouring Fort into it

Blithering Idiot by Weyerbacher

As for the taste well, there is definitely a lot of sweet, thick and syrupy caramel malts with a bit of a wheaty and wet graininess that adds a touch of earthiness to it; the onslaught of the overripe and dark fruits in the nose are actually fairly subdued and play more of a supporting role, but also manage to come out a bit in the aftertaste along with a firm presence of alcohol; a slight tinge of astringent and woody bitterness — I would almost think that this beer spent some time in an oak barrel (is this the case?); an acidic and apple-like presence starts to come out as it continues to warm. Gave me the chills.

Body is heavy, thick, syrupy and the carbonation is really a non-factor (I wish it had a bit more to it to liven up this thick and slick body); a thick and sticky coating is left all over the mouth; gums and belly are left warm and tingly from the 11% ABV.

It’s not bad, and I certainly wouldn’t turn one down, but it’s not likely something I’ll seek out again in the near future. And I’m not sure if I can finish the entire bottle. The smell and flavors are solid enough, but the body hurts it, and the high ABV prevents more than one being put down in a night. Worth trying, not sure if I would actually pick this up to age as the body isn’t likely to improve.

Sadly this ended up a drain pour, just to thick and syrupy