Show 25: Speaking of Dogfish Head
Prebeer Preamble: Every now and then a brewery comes along that simply grabs the spotlight. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Delaware brewery Dogfish Head is definitely a phenomenon, and today’s show examines the experience of their envelope-pushing brews. My lovely wife Carolyn joins me as we take a little walk on the Dogfish side.
Beer #1: To call it a “beer” is a stretch, but our first beverage, Midas Touch, is definitely bursting with stories. Find out about history and science as we spend some time in the shared wedge of the beer-wine-mead venn diagram.
Interbeer Interlude: Beer As Folk. “Sam Calagione” SoB’s Eastern Seaboard corespondent, Mr. Tee Morris (a.k.a. “The Contributor That Won’t Go Away”), had the opportunity to chat with the founder, owner, and head brewer of Dogfish Head Brewery at last year’s BookExpo America. Thrill as Tee quizzes Sam on the role of hops in brewing, and be prepared to be surprised about which of his beers Sam keeps perpetually on tap in his home. Good stuff, this….
Beer #2: Carolyn and I now veer more firmly into beer territiory with style-buster Raison D’Etre. Is it a spicy brown ale? A hopped-up belgian? We grapple with this half-pony, half-monkey monster until it all makes sense. Could it be that Carolyn might actually–gulp–like beer?
Beer Geek Moment: “Beer Styles” To break the rules one must first know the rules. Playfully experimental breweries like DFH are infamous for flouting the guidelines. But just who makes these rules and how did they come about in the first place? Tune in and find out!
Postbeer Postscript: There is no scoring category for “originality”, so these beers didn’t break the curve. Still, some surprises await in the tallies. Oh, and I apologize, deeply and profusely, for the way this episode wraps up. Really…really, I do.
March 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Hey Charlie,
Interesting stuff, keep up the good work.
-Bryce
March 18th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Thanks, Bryce, glad you like it. This was a fun one to record!
March 19th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Hi Charlie,
You might want to be careful, Carolyn is starting to sound way too comfortable behind the microphone. Carolyn the beer goddess? I do enjoy the “non-hophead” perspective she brings to the show. Keep drinking all those fine brews for your loyal listening audience, and keep having fun while you’re doing it.
-Greg
March 19th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Gotta love the singing! I tried the Raison D’Etre this past weekend and found it quite tasty. Will have to track down the Midas Touch at some point as well.
Eric
March 20th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I tried the Raison D’Etre not too long ago and I enjoyed it. I decided to compare it to Raison D’Extra – The Uber Big Brother.
I REALLY REALLY liked the Extra. It is similar but had differences and most notable was that the Extra is very sweet and very alcoholic. I’ll be dragging some up to the studio so you best show up!
Midas Touch – I’ll have to give it another go. The first time we drank it was during WI and with me playing Evo 3.0 so I don’t remember much of the specifics but I did enjoy it. A strong mead/wine/barleywine type flavour.
Another great show Charlie!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
[...] me as the turkey is still settling in our tummies, and this year I’m honored to be joined by my lovely wife Carolyn, Brewing Compadre Shawn, Sheila Dee, Evo Terra, and Jack Mangan. So much fun was had that [...]
December 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
[...] “Delerium” in their names. Amongst the post-Thanksgiving crowd (to review, that’s my lovely wife Carolyn, Brewing Compadre Shawn, Sheila Dee, Evo Terra, and Jack Mangan) the gloves come off, as the [...]