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White Mike wrote:

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and im thinking its time for a dogfish head discussion thread

Starting in the summer of 2004 this brew has been released once a year to a super limited 300 cases. Each year I'm lucky enough to score a few bottles. It's sold with a hand-stamped, "Dogfish Head" brown paper bag.

2004: I first held this 40 up to the light & saw lots of big chunks floating around, fresh ingredients purposely left behind. Then I let this 40 chill in my fridge & freezer for a period of time to make sure it was nice & chill for when I was ready to drink it. The red plastic cap was hard to twist off, and instead of the sharp crack you got a tight crick... and the cap itself actually does not come off due to the way it's designed; rather, it hangs off the ring by a little tab. I immediately took a sniff & it had a sort-of "dark microbrew" smell to it... and as "MyLiverHurts" already documented it IS a dark beer. So I took my first swig... and what a unique malt liquor taste - unlike any other malt liquor I ever consumed, which is saying something when you consider my collection!

This is indeed the freshest & best brewed malt liquor to ever be produced in a 40oz bottle. Note this quote taken from an article written about this new brand: "Much of the pop in industrial malt liquor comes from cheap corn syrup. The extra sugar converts easily into alcohol. ... Instead of syrup, Liquor de Malt contains actual milled corn - three types, called Azetec Red, Taos Blue and Hickory. As you'd expect, the flavor is fuller. It's the difference between fresh corn on the cob and a can of boiled Green Giant niblets."

I almost feel like I'm drinking a gourmet malt liquor 40oz... and I don't think that is far from the truth! Normally I'd be a little sickened at the thought of drinking chunky malt liquor (usually a sign of a very old 40), but that's not the case with this one. Peep this quote taken from the same article: "Because Dogfish Head doesn't have a 40-ounce bottling line, workers filled and labeled the bottles by hand. Then, instead of artificially carbonating the beer with CO2, as with most mainstream beers, Liquor de Malt was naturally bottle-conditioned: Unspent yeast awakens inside the bottle and ferments the remaining sugars." So for the 1st time I am looking forward to consuming the chunks!

One last quote from the article will prove to you how special it is to drink one of these, because it looks that as though something like this may never be done again due to cost-benefit reasons: "As you'd expect, the better ingredients and time-consuming bottling process push this beer into a decidedly non-40 price range. It retails at $7.50 - a good four bucks per bottle more than, say, Colt 45. 'This beer would make zero sense to make from a cost-benefit analysis,' Calagione said. 'But it's worth it, if only to shine a light on a much-maligned style.'" So they want to prove a point. That's great in my book as a 40oz & malt liquor aficionado, but upsetting to hear since this will likely not just be the 1st, but also the last of its kind.

Now that I am halfway through with this 40 & it is starting to lose it's chill, the taste has not been affected! At first it took me by surprised & needed a little getting used to... but now I want to say that I almost consider this to be "delicious"! Where most 40s retail on average for $1.89-$2.25, this is a whopping $6.99-$7.99... and worth every penny! You do not get taste like this from a "buck n' change" 40oz. In fact, this is the most excited I've been over a 40 in the past several years... probably since about 3-4 years ago when I had the opportunity to swill 64oz OEs & 40oz Phat Boys a couple years after they were discontinued (when I found an old dusty stash)! I'm just about done with this 40 and I must say at 7.0% alcohol it yielded a very warm & pleasant buzz. I also still have little need to piss, so maybe that means that this beer is far from piss! I finished the last inch of this 40 while talking to satan165 on the phone, and the swill was as good as the unchilled beer! With great flavor, created from prime ingredients, and a solid buzz that didn't make me feel the need to piss until several minutes after finishing it, this 40 deserves a solid 10/10 swills. Granted, it's not a "ghetto malt 40", but that's not what it's supposed to be. It's an in-your-face 40, shutting up all the cheap malts, showing them what a primo malt 40oz would be like, if they could afford to be worth more than $1.99 each. I want to drink another one right now!

2005: Two physical differences between the 2005 & 2004 release of this expensive yet limited 40... this year it has a white cap vs last year's red cap... and this cap is meant to twist completely off whereas last year's stays on by 1 tab (unless you forcefully broke it). Drinking this you should be careful cuz when you crack it, it leaves sharp little plastic pieces on the ring where the cap was connected. The 2nd physically noticable difference is it seems like the factory workers at Dogfish Head were drunk when hand pasting on the labels (since they don't yet have a 40oz bottling line)... last years were hand pasted as well, but at least some what straight. All these besides the one I picked out of the litter were extremely crooked. Anyway, it still tastes like a finely produced malt liquor, which it is, complete with high quality ingredients visibly floating around inside! I poured some in a glass and it is a beautiful golden color. I jerked off once to online porn & pissed twice while drinking this... I also feel like I gotta shit for the 3rd time today & perhaps piss a 3rd time! Ok, it's official, 3 pisses. Decent buzz at 7% too... Overall, great quality 40 unlike any other on the market! Still 10/10 swills for being in a class all its own!