The January 2018 selection for DIPA of the Month (DOM), chosen from the 4PAX “Must Try Before You Die” category of superior tasting double IPA beers, is –
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA by Dogfish Head Brewery which is situated in Milton, Delaware and founded by Sam Calagione. This brewery opened in 1995 and produces 262,000 barrels of beer annually.
The 4PAX commonly refer to Dogfish Head 120 (DFH120) as the “holy grail for hopheads”. Drinking a DFH120, or more appropriately sipping a DFH120, is like drinking a fine cognac. From our point of view, DFH120 should be consumed using a snifter glass vice the normal IPA glass. Thus, you can more thoroughly enjoy the experience.
In addition to sampling a DFH120, it is also important to learn about the Dogfish Head brewery, the history of the company and Sam Calagione – because it takes a combination of many things to make a superb Imperial or DIPA such as DFH120.
TASTE QUALITY ANALYSIS
To illustrate the difference in taste quality between the selected DIPA of the Month and that of the rest of the 4PAX data base, we generated the following figure. It shows the average grades (solid dots) for each of the taste parameters for the selected DIPA of the Month plotted versus the spread in the 4PAX data values.
The solid colored dots in each of the subplots represent the average measured grade (across sampler) for each of the taste parameters for the DOM – Appearance (red), top plot; Aroma (green), second plot from the top; Mouthfeel(blue), third plot from the top; and Flavor(black), bottom plot.
The ‘X—X’ symbol in each of the subplots represents the measured spread (average +/- 1 sigma) in the grades of the four taste parameters comprising our data set.
TAKEAWAY
In terms of which taste criteria influenced our selection of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA as the DIPA of the Month for January, 2018, measurements (ref. personal calculations) show that the Mouthfeel / Flavor, followed by Appearance, and Aroma, in that order, produced the taste quality that resulted in the DOM’s outstanding rating.
All four measured taste characteristics clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack by a significant margin, as is evident in the figure.
Please visit the following links to view the Best of the Best double IPA beers rated by 4PAX: