The "Discount Liquor" Trap

We've all done it. Driven by naivete, idealism, or just sheer laziness, at some point we have all fallen into the "Discount Liquor" trap.

Today, it happened to me.

I was driving home from a school after a long day of studying (yes, when you are in law school you actually have to study for final exams), and decided to pick up some beer. I was on my way to my favorite liquor store near school and hit a fair amount of traffic. This was the last thing I needed. A line of cars was standing between me and a much needed beer. 

Then I saw it. The neon lights and promises of low prices drew me in. Even the name, "Liquor Warehouse," screamed "great selection!" I was sold. I diverted from my original path and stepped into the warehouse. Much to my dismay, this "warehouse" was little more than a closet filled with Natural Light and Traveler's Club vodka. I found myself eye to eye once again with the very products which once lay hidden under my bed from my parents in high school. Overcome with disappointment, frustration, and anger, a mere 20 seconds later I stormed out the front door and back to my car.

Thus, I continued on my journey. Inching through traffic, closer and closer by the second, I thought to myself, maybe I should have just sucked it up at the other store. This moment of weakness quickly subsided, however, when I finally arrived. Like a kid in a candy store, no, like I just walked through the gates of heaven - I could have sworn I saw a bright light surrounding the sign that read, "Micro-Brews."

Finally.

Thirty dollars later, I was was walking out the door with a pack of Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA, and two of Dogfish's larger bottles that I had never tried before - Theobroma and Namaste. Well, this night just got interesting.

Dogfish Head beers never disappoint. Everyone that I've tried so far has been flavorful, complex, and most importantly - strong. Each of these brews has an ABV of around 9% (except for Namaste, which was a mere 5%). I'll post a full review of each of these beers at some point in the future, but that is not my goal here.

No, here I attempt to impart one simple message. The passion, quality ingredients, and dedication that go into a quality craft beer all go to waste if you don't know where to look.

Like most of you, in college I reveled in the ability to walk to the corner liquor store and grab a 30 of [insert generic cheap beer here]. And now, living in a city on a graduate student's budget, I won't deny that the allure of this convenience has not completely escaped me. But for those nights when you just feel like sitting on the couch and enjoying, actually enjoying, the beer you're drinking, do me and yourself a favor: put your big boy (or girl) pants on and drive to a real liquor store.

It's That New Bitches Brew

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery always has and most likely always will be my favorite craft brewery.  The things that Sam Calagione and his staff do down in Milton, DE are nothing short of awesome and amazing.  I have yet to try a bad beer from them, ranging from their quintessential 60 Minute IPA all the way to their Midas Touch and oh so famous Punkin Ale.

I have finally gotten my hands on one of their beers that I have not been able to find since its creation in 2010, Bitches Brew.  It was a beer created for the 40th anniversary of the original release of Miles Davis' album with the same name.  The beer was created as a fusion of imperial stouts and tej, which after doing some research is a traditional ethiopian drink considered a mead or honey wine made with honey and roots from the gesho plant.  It is made up of much more imperial stout than tej as the tej is just added for some sweeting and contrast in flavor if you ask me.  Sam stated that the reason he created the beer this way is because it goes along with the album, which was a fusion of jazz, funk and rock, the first of its kind.  The label is absolutely beautiful and contains the artwork from the album created by Mati Klarwein.

Image courtesy of www.dogfish.com

So enough boring stuff and onto the good stuff, the beer itself.  It comes in an a larger 1 pint 9.4 oz bottle, which is obviously much larger than the typical 12 oz bottle or can.  As such I had to share this drink with someone else and that lucky person was my old man.  Good thing we split it too because it would have been difficult to finish the whole thing with dinner otherwise.

So we poured it into our glasses and that was the beginning of a very lovely journey.  It comes out extremely dark and almost creamy with a very nice coffee colored head.  It is opaque or damn close to it when held up to the light.  Next came a nice waft to see how delicious it smelled.  While it had a very typical imperial stout scent at first with a delicious roasted barley and malt smell, there was a hint of something I could not initially put my nose on.  It then came to me when reading the label, it's the sweet smell of raw honey!  Not something you deal with on a daily basis, but certainly has a distinct and delicious smell.  There was nothing overwhelming about the scent, it seemed to hit all the right notes at all the right places.

It tasted like something I had never had before, yet felt very comfortable to drink and not to crazy of flavors.  It certainly tastes very strong of an imperial stout and has a certain creaminess to it.  However, it doesn't have lingering bitter notes like other imperial stouts I've had.  Instead it has a delicious sweet and creamy finish to it that leaves you wanting more, almost similar to a chocolate milk or chocolate truffles.  It weighs in at 9%ABV which is on the higher end of beers, but falls directly in the average range for Dogfish Head and may actually be on the light side, especially when compared to the likes of their 120 Minute IPA, which weighs in at 15%-20%ABV.  However, this is certainly not a beer you will drink more than one of as it is rather filling and would undoubtedly sit on you if you had too much of it.

According to ratebeer and beeradvocate it got an average score of 99 and 92 out of 100 from each site respectively.  If you can get your hands on this beer, I highly suggest you grab as many as you can as this is a limited release beer.  I myself bought 4 of them total as I have fallen in love with them.  While it may not seem like a wise decision on a college budget when you consider that they ring in at around $12 a pop.  It isn't the worst idea when you think that a single bottle may last you a lot longer than you'd expect throughout the night.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Thanks for taking the time to read this!