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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> General Forum --> Commercial Beer Reviews --> Dogfish Head Sixty-One

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Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts



I am not a BJCP judge, but i was encouraged by multiple other charter members to post review of beer.  


I will start this review by saying that I am not much of a wine person.  I cant drink dry wine due to acid reflux, and i have issues finding a good sweet wine.

For those that dont know, DFH 61 is a beer made with grape must, so there is a certain amount of wine character to it.

When poured into a standard pint glass, there isnt a ton of head, and the beer lacks lacing.  Frankly, thats fine by me, i mostly care about flavor and aroma.  


The aroma is fairly unique.  I certainly pick up some hopiness in it, but theres definitely a deeper note that comes from the grape must.  

The aroma seems to have a bit of fruityness to it, though some of that might be because i know theres grape must in it.  When i try to imagine myself drinking this beer without knowing whats in it, I cant help but think i'd be lost.  To me, thats the 'wildcard' of the must thats in it.  


The flavor is somewhat unique, simply becuase ive never before had a beer that was partially infused with must.  This is essentially a half beer, half wine.

Im quite picky on wine because of my heartburn/acid reflux issues, but this is quite pleasant, and in my experience unique.  

Its not dry to me, but its also not cloyingly sweet like say... MD 20/20 (which i will drink).  The combination of must and wort is actually very pleasant.  The beer adds body that isnt normally there, while the must adds a bit of dryness, and a surprising amount of flavor.  


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So.  What it comes down to (to me) is that this is a beer with a certain grape fruityness that you wont find in other beers.  The aroma is quite unique to me in a beer.

If there is any hop character, its a fruity hop that i cannot distinguish from grape.  Thats not a bad thing however.  This beer is not an IPA.  It is not a Bitter.  Its a beer made from a significant portion of grape must.


If you enjoy trying new things, and beers that blur lines, i would definitely recommend it if you can find it.  Its not your standard beer, but its quite enjoyable to drink!




Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by Necropaw

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


This is cool.  I don't think that I'd ever heard of this one before you mentioned it.  I'm not a wine guy at all, but I think that I'd like to try a hybrid beverage like this.



Posted 34 days ago.

jeffrife
Riverside, NJ
25 Posts


Thankfully DFH is not too far of a drive from where I live (within two hours) so I get a lot of their beers in my local stores. They work closely with a professor at my old job at UPenn to develop some very unique historic recipes. I highly recommend checking out a variety of their beers as they try to explain the history behind them as well. I remember the owner chewing grain and spitting it into a tun to make a pilot batch of a south american brew. Clearly they changed the process for the commercial production.



Posted 34 days ago.

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