I figured I was in for a mouthful when cracking this one open and boy was I ever right. I'm not sure I've ever had a 12oz bottle that took me longer to drink than this one.
Even after taking it out of the fridge a half hour or so before opening it, the beer was still way too cold to be enjoyable. When over-chilled, you get a touch of roast and a touch of dark fruit, but what you primarily get is the 18% ABV of this beast. Based on my impressions of World Wide Stout cold, I really thought I was going to hate this.
Only when it begins to warm and the surprisingly high carbonation begins to fade does WWS come into its own. That is not to say that the 18% goes away; it's 18% for Pete's sake. When it warms to a proper drinking temperature, it really opens up and becomes much more complex in terms of flavor. The booziness of it is always there with you in the passenger seat, but it's no longer what drives the beer. The dark fruits (raisins, plums) really come out as the temperature rises, along with a hint of smoke, coffee, and caramel. It is a pretty sweet beer, yet is never cloying.
The carbonation at first really detracts from the thickness and weight of the beer, but once it calms down a bit, you get a sense of how thick and mouth-coating this beer really is. It's not milkshake thick (ala: Dark Lord), but it is heavy and filling.
All in all, by the time I was finished with this, I was sad my glass was empty. It took me almost two hours to drink it, but the hours were well worth it. This is the perfect beer to exemplify what serving temperature does to a beer's taste and smell. I'll probably have a hard time justifying the upwards of $10 a 12oz WWS commands, but I would love to try to get my hands on an aged bottle or two to see how it has mellowed with time. Overall, a great effort from DFH which is far, far better than their other big beer I've tried (120 minute). I'd recommend it if you haven't tried it before and also recommend perhaps splitting it with a friend. This was definitely the only thing I drank that night.
I am just curious what is the missing work in your slogan a beer a day keeps the ___ away. :)
ReplyDeleteYou should submit some of these pictures to BeerCraving.com so we can drive some traffic to your site. We like to think of our site as a virtual pub crawl. It's got tons of beer photography.
ReplyDelete-Mike Burns
Founder, BeerCraving.com
Hi I was written a small article/list about all (I hope) beer brands in Iceland today on my blog. How many Icelandic beer brands do you think you can buy in iceland Today ?
ReplyDeleteLove and Peace Julius. – Good luck to you.
2 hours?! you need a kick in the pants. Just kidding, good work.
ReplyDeletehi watch! this a dream for the beerlovers!!
ReplyDeletehttp://beertoasts.com/2012/08/15/budweiser-cleverly-extends-happy-hour/
Thanks for the heads up post, Josh! I'll be on the lookout for this one. DFH is one my top 3 all-time favorite breweries so not too much I don't appreciate from them. But like most all of their specialty or rare beers more of my wallet will have to make it with me to the beer store than usual and for far less quantity.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the 120 minute! Not a fan! it's like a baby whiskey in a beer glass, and I don't think the taste is really worth it. It's more of a novelty beer in my eyes. I just had the Immort Ale by DFH and found it to be really quite good! Kind of heavy with a complex smokiness to it. Have you had this yet?