With regards to the most recent batch of 120 Minute IPA, I am sorry to say that dozens of passionate people at Dogfish got out voted by millions of yeast cells and this batch will not be released. This batch came in a bit under attenuated and got dinged on our sensory panel for dislocated flavors.
Each and every batch of beer we brew at Dogfish Head goes through over 40 Quality Control check points and while this batch passed many of these check points we decided with the results of the final sensory panel, days before packaging, that we dont feel this batch of 120 Minute IPA is up to par.
We know that 120 Minute sells at a premium price and we know expectations for this beer are, and should be, high. It is brewed with over 30 times the volume of hops and over 7 times the volume of malt per barrel than your average light lager. It is aged for over 5 times as long as the average ale. So this is a really expensive beer to make. And a really expensive beer to lose.
That said,we are more interested in preserving our long-term reputation for quality than we are pacifying short term frustrations with not getting this batch out on a certain timeline. We are sorry and we hope you understand and support our decision.
We are confident we will have a great batch of 120 Minute IPA out before the end of the year.
Cheers - sam
(our fearless leader) writes about his latest travels and off-centered plans for all of us.
that does stink but it will be even better.. anything good is worth the wait
I also appreciate your honesty and transparency. I think there are probably some opportunities that will work as others have suggested. Simply dumping the beer is likely the most costly option at this point.
I suggest you follow Charbay's lead and use it to make a Whiskey. Their whisky costs over $300/bottle and is honestly worth the money. A hop flavored whiskey = Heaven. I tried it at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Vegas and have been trying to find a way to get a bottle shipped to AR ever since.
Here is their website: http://www.charbay.com/category.aspx?categoryID=645
Don't dump the batch..........do this instead!
You should freeze distill the "subpar" batch multiple times until it's 60% Alcohol.
This would make it stronger than Brewdogs "The End Of History" and put Dogfish at the top of the high ABV beer race.
Of course then you would have no choice to taxidermy the bottles inside of real Dogfish and Market it as "120 proof IPA".
Pouring Dogfish Head 120 Proof IPA from a Dogfish Head would be awesome!
hear-hear; I second that; what they said; ditto; and re-ditto ... ya can't possibly just scrap that stuff?!?! I particularly like the 119 IPA suggestion -- very clever. So long as it's clearly marked (and marketed) as a one-off batch, there's GOT to be an alternate audience for the stuff.
Perhaps you could even develop a special two-bottle pack with a bottle from this batch and a bottle from a prior batch. Then have a competition to see who could pick the "bad" from the "good" Sort of Willie Wonka style. Those who picked correctly would qualify for gold wrapper which might win them a swag give-away of some sort. A few "free" t-shirts have got to be WAY less expensive than an entire batch of brew.
I would pay premium to taste the rogue 120. Really, it's like a miss stamped coin to us loyal Dogfish fans. Please let me buy a case or six pack of The Rogue 120!
+1 for finding a creative use for the un-sellable batch.
What will you do with all the sub-par 120 sam?
Anything worth doing is worth doing right...no worries Sam! Thank you for the update.
I'll buy a 1/2 barrel of the "not so perfect" batch of 120 minute! Just market is as something like...
- not so perfect 120-minute IPA
- 119th minute IPA
- near 120-minute IPA
- 120 minutes behind schedule IPA
- 120 minutes away from perfect IPA
- I just lost 120 minutes IPA
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