REVIEW: Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu

It's been a few months since I've taken a look at a beer from Dogfish Head, but this weekend I found myself down at The Party Source in Bellvue and a couple of the big bottles of their more experimental beers caught my eye. Namely, today's beer, Chateau Jiahu. This beer is named for a neolithic settlement discovered in the Yellow River Valley of China. Pottery at Jiahu was discovered with the residue of what is the oldest known fermented beverage. Made with rice, honey, and fruit nearly 9000 years ago. Dogfish Head has made a practice of combing through the annals of history for inspiration for their beers and through molecular archaeology it can be determined what our far flung ancestors were drinking. All of that history and research leads to this. Chateau Jiahu, a 10% ABV, 10 IBU ale brewed with brown rice syrup, orange blossom honey, muscat grape, barley malt, and hawthorn berry and fermented with sake yeast. Sounds good to me. To the beer!

Chateau Jiahu pours a rather beautiful hazed over golden honey in color. Quite vibrant and very unique looking. A fairly vigorous pour yields only a thin finger of bright white, loosely bubbled head. The head recedes very quickly and sounds like the fizzing foam on a coke when it does. Kind of strange, but it certainly is a pretty looking beer.

Citrusy lemony aromas lead the way. There's a sweetness there that almost evokes a lemonade-like quality. There's also an herbal, floral, tea character. Adding to the complexity are hints of honey and fruity bits of apple juice, peach, and, grape.

Chateau Jiahu is medium to light bodied . The carbonation is fairly mild bit it does impart a nice spritziness. The spritzy quality leads directly into tart fruity flavors of lemon, berry, and white grape. The sake yeast definitely comes through. I've only had sake once or twice, but the flavors here definitely seem to recall what I remember of sake. A spicy herbal tea like character comes through to help balance the fruitiness. A great crisp bite finishes things off.

I really enjoyed this beer. Refreshing, unique, and quite delicious. Very fruity, very complex, this might be a beer to give to folks who drink wine and say that they don't like beer.

HD