Dogfish Head is known for their IPAs. Well their IPAs and a million other boundary obliterating beers that fit into every other style and even make up some new ones of their own. But go into any bar and you may not see bottles of Raison D'Etre or Sahtea on tap, but any bar worth it's salt will have at least a couple bottles of 60 or 90 minute sitting around. And for good reason, they're terrifically good beers. But as popular as those beers are I think today's IPA might just be better. Burton Baton is a 10% ABV Imperial IPA that's a blend of an imperial IPA and and English old ale that's then aged in oak. sounds pretty awesome, right? To the beer!
Burton Baton pours a very pretty deep dark reddish orange. It's slightly hazed with a good amount of carbonated bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass to feed into a densely packed tall tan head. That head is sturdy and hangs around for quite a while and leaves a nice bit of lacing.
The aromas on this beer are pretty lovely. Robust notes of sweet fruitiness mingle with lots of big oily resinous hop notes. Hints at vanilla and dark rich fruits give almost an impression of a Belgian dark ale. I could take whiffs of this beer all day long.
Burton Baton is rich and creamy. Big sweet flavors of caramel and toffee mix with dark fruit notes of plum, fig, and raisin, reinforcing some of those Belgian dark ale comparisons. The finish though, is all IPA. Dry and tart with big grapefruit flavors. Lingering bitterness and a nice boozy warming sensation finish things off.
The bitterness is certainly there and absolutely makes itself known but it's interesting. It seems to have been mellowed quite a bit by the oak aging. The oak also imparts a great vanilla and caramel character to the rest of the proceedings.
This is a lovely complex beer. And a delicious take on an Imperial IPA. Check it out.
HD
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