Plenty O' Fish Head On This Beer
The Brewski Report on Dogfish Head’s Aprihop India Pale Ale.
File Date: 6.20.10
File Name: Dogfish Brings Their B Game
The Beer: India Pale Ale
Type: American IPA
Serving: Bottle
Stats: 7.0% ABV
Brewer: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Web Site: http://www.dogfish.com
Country of Origin: DE, USA
Brewer Info: The story of Dogfish Head began in June of 1995 when we opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, the first state’s first brewpub opened in the resort beach community of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The plan was to bring original beer, original food, and original music to the area. With the popularity of the pub growing, it was quickly apparent that the 12–gallon brewery would not keep up with demand. We built a new brewery and underwent a thirty-fold expansion of the brew house! We outgrew our distributing brewery in a couple years and in the summer of 2002; we moved our entire production brewery up the road to Milton, Delaware into a 100,000 square foot converted cannery. Around the same time (just to keep thing interesting), we built a distillery on the second floor of our Rehoboth Beach brewpub, so we could make vodka, rum and gin.
Brewer Brand Hype: Aprihop is our fruit beer for hopheads! It is an
American IPA brewed with Pilsner and Cystal malts massively hopped in in the continuous fashion. The flavor is complimented by the addition of Apricots. After fermentation the beer is dry hopped with irresponsible amounts of Amarillo hops. The beer is hoppy in the aroma with the apricots playing a supporting complimentary role. The flavor is rich with late hop flavors and it’s bitterness is tempered by just the right amount of malt sweetness and fruity undertones from the apricots. This is one of our most popular seasonal beers and we’ve been brewing it each spring for quite a while now. We release the beer each March and you should find it on the shelves through May.
Label: A Serious India Pale Ale Brewed With Real Apricots.
The Brewski Review: I thought this would be a winner when I pulled it off the shelf. I like apricot jam so why not beer? Would the flavor blow me away? As the beer rolled across my tongue I sensed a little sweetness and a faint apricot taste but nothing that rang my bells. Overall this was a decent IPA but when it billed itself as a ’serious India Pale Ale brewed with real apricots’ it elevated the game. On this one I don’t think Dogfish Head Brewery bought their skillsets to the court. As noted, it’s a decent beverage but I don’t see the ‘Apricot’ adding much. It reminds me of Abita’s Strawberry beer - It’s probably in the beer, but the taste isn’t coming across like you would expect - you know, since it’s advertised. That is, at least not for my buds. Maybe you’ll have different feedback. So, I most certainly won’t discourage you from at least trying it if you like apricots.
Drinkability: Will try some other IPA before drinking Aprihop again.
Appearance: Medium amber in color.
The Buds: Slight presence of apricot flavor.
TBR Cap Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Brewer Brand Hype: “Old Speckled Hen” was first brewed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Named after an old MG car which was used as the factory run around, they would park the old MG Featherweight Fabric Saloon outside the paint shop where it would normally get spattered in paint and so it became known as the ‘Owld Speckl’d Un’. This turned into “Old Speckled Hen” when the beer was unveiled. Since then the finely balanced beer with a distinctive rich malty taste and fruity aroma has attracted many fans, including the fox, who is always on the hunt for his Hen.
