Dogfish Head 2020 Beer Release Calendar

Greetings fellow beer lovers! It’s 2020, so it’s time to wind up the new year and get ready for all the new beers that are sure to be coming. To get the ball rolling (and your anticipation growing) let’s look at the beer release calendar for Dogfish Head and see what is staying, what’s been added and (sadly) what you will possibly be doing without in 2020.

As usual, the calendar (which was released back in December, but I’m behind as always) is split into three categories: Year round, art series, and occasional. And, as has been the case in past years – the list is prone to some shuffling.

First, let’s look at the year round. SeaQuench, 60 minute, 90 minute, Liquid Truth Serum, Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron remain on the list which should be no surprise to anyone. This year they’re joined by relative new comer Slighty Might and the rebranded (and reformulated?) American Beauty Hazy Ripple IPA; as well as SuperEIGHT which graduates from last year’s occasional ranks.

Sadly, that means if you were fans of the beers Flesh and Blood IPA, Lupa-Luau IPA, Burton Baton, and Wood-Aged Bitches Brew you’re out of luck as these beers did not make this year’s list. Don’t give up hope though, DFH often drops beers throughout the year that aren’t on their release calendar (the calendar tends to be more for national distribution) so there’s still hope that if one of these beers is a favorite of yours, you still have a chance to come across it on a store shelf or beer bar in 2020.

So now let’s jump over the Art Series temporarily and go to the Occasional list which not not only sees some changes, but also some loses. Try just about everything. The only beer to survive this grand culling (other than SuperEIGHT mentioned above) is 120 Minute which will be released from Sept to Nov. Everything else that appeared on this list last year: Regular American Beauty, Raison D’Extra and World Wide Stout are gone. Not even the summer and winter variety packs are listed. So what’s taking up all that space?

Well, shockingly not a lot. Two beers make the list, Vibrant P’Ocean which I wrote about here, being release from Feb through May. The second is Costumes and Karaoke which the brewery describes as ” A complex oat cream ale brewed with turmeric, ginger, yellow cardamom, cinnamon and smoked star anise, and aged on Madagascar vanilla beans.” which will be released Nov through Dec.

OK, so now we back track to the Art Series which, as normal, includes four beers and this year includes two changes. Perfect Disguise keeps the “spring” slot again (remember, I use these seasonal descriptions loosely) and perennial favorite Punkin Ale stays firmly planted in the fall. Dragons and Yum-Yums gets replaced by Sun-Day-Feels in the summer slot and (sadly for me because I love this beer) 75 Minute loses its winter slot to Campfire Amplifier. So who are these new additions to the Art Series that will feature Dan Stile’s art work on their labels?

Well Sun-Day-Feels is described by the brewery as “a brunch-inspired, beermosa sour brewed with puréed peaches, wine grapes and a medley of citrus fruit.”, and Campfire Amplifier is given the description, “a s’mores-centric milk stout brewed with marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate and a touch of smoked malt. ” I will definitely be looking forward to trying this one.

And that’s the list as it stands for now. But as I’ve said, you never know with DFH what might pop up on the shelves at any given time. Either way, there is plenty to look forward to from DFH in the coming year.

You can read all about the 2020 planned beers from DFH here.

You can see DFH’s version of their 2020 beer release calendar here.

Peace.

New Labels from Dogfish Head – The Perfect Disguise and Vibrate P’Ocean

A few months ago I posted that the new artist for Dogfish Head’s off-centered art series was Portland, Oregon’s Dan Stiles.

Dan had lent his artistic talents to DFH’s 75 Minute IPA, which will be available this coming November through January, the usual first beer label for the incoming art series artist.

This time we get to view Dan’s take on DFH’s double IPA, The Perfect Disguise. The beer was also part of the series last go around, being released February through April of this year. The brewery has yet to release their 2020 beer release calendar, but I would take the fact that the label is coming through the system now as a possible sign that you can expect to see it in the same slot next year.

The label continues Dan’s more industrial style that was prevalent on his 75 minute label, and plays off the name with a hop cone trying to pass itself off as the bird in a Cuckoo clock – complete with a tied on, fake beak.

The second beer label to recently come through is this nice little piece of art for an upcoming beer called Vibrant P’Ocean (get it? Potion? These guys!) which is a collaboration with the Belgian Rodenbach brewery.

The beer is billed as a meld between a 2-year foeder sour and an elderberry, elderflower, fleur de-sel kettle sour. Ok, that’s a lot to unpack, let’s have a stab at it.

A foeder is, basically speaking, a large wooden barrel and is used not only in wine making but also for aging beers like sours, lambics, and gueuzes at European breweries like Brouwerij Boon and Rodenbach; and American breweries like New Belgian and Crooked Stave. The main difference in the use of these barrels seems to be that unlike wine making where barrels are usually store on their sides, foeders are normally used standing on end like the ones you’ve seen being used as tables at breweries and Cracker Barrel.

The elderberries and flowers are pretty straight forward but what about fleur de-sel? The name translates as “flower of salt” and is a salt that forms as a crust on seawater as it evaporates. The traditional use for it is as a “finishing salt”, in other words it is not normally used during the cooking process but sprinkled on the food just before serving.

And, as you might guess a kettle sour is a sour beer that is soured and fermented in a stainless steel tank.

Yeah, I think that covers it. I’ve linked some of the info that I pulled together from my research should you want some more in-depth information. Also, here is a recent article on an American company who is manufacturing Foeders.

No word on when we can expect to see Vibrant P’Ocean on the shelves.

And Next Year’s Artist for Dogfish Head’s Off-Centered Art Series is…..

Recently the label for this winter’s release of Dogfish Head’s 75 Minute IPA came through the system, and as I stated in an earlier post, it would probably be the first label for next year’s selected artist for the brewery’s popular Off-Centered Art Series.

Well, once I saw the label I had no doubt this was the case as gone was Michael Hacker‘s whimsical mad scientist art work, replaced by a more industrial style of art featuring what appears to be a stylistic man’s face wearing a hat and a monocle who is holding a hop and a maple leaf (a nod that 75 Minute is brewed with maple syrup). The label keeps its overall blue on gray color palette, with the label artwork continuing to echoing it as in previous years.

So who is responsible for this new and interesting label? Say hello to Dan Stiles, an artist currently working out of Portland, Oregon where he has lent his artistic style and talents to everything from indy bands to major corporations. From his Website:

Over the past twenty years, Dan has collaborated with everyone from indie bands to major corporations in creating posters, identities, advertising, custom packaging, and limited edition collectable art and merchandise. His clients range from Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, and Wilco to the X Games, IBM, and Nickelodeon. He draws from a broad swath of influences including skateboard graphics, album covers, modern art, children’s books, comics, psychedelia, and vintage advertising. Dan has published several children’s books as well as a monograph of his work entitled One Thing Leads to Another. He lives with his wife and daughters in Portland, Oregon.

DanStiles.Com

Dan’s art has a rock poster silk screen feel to it, and while that is echoed in the label for 75 Minute, the label has a very industrial, textured styling to it that’s different from some of his other works. It will be interesting to see what Dan comes up for the other beers in next year’s Off-Centered series. What are those beers? Well, we’ll just have to wait for the release calendar to find out.

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale

Dogfish Head Brewery continues its association with Vienna, Austria’s Michael Hacker for the next addition to this year’s Off Centered Art Series, the brewery’s fall favorite Punkin Ale.

Michael has been cranking out some great labels for the Delaware brewery having contributed to previous Art Series beers Perfect Disguise and 75 Minute IPA and as always, the Punkin Ale label captures his unique style.

Sadly, I believe this will be the last label for the brewery from Michael as I believe they’ll be announcing a new artist sometime in the fall who will take over the honor in 2020. I’m looking forward to seeing who Dogfish Head decides to work with next, but there’s plenty of beer drinking time between now and then.

Below is Michael’s new label plus below that, the excellent label by 2018’s Off Centered Artist, Marq Spusta, simply because I love it.

Dogfish Head 2019 Release Calendar – What’s New, What’s Gone.

Tuesday I was surfing the interwebs looking for something to distract me from doing what I should have been doing when something from Dogfish Head popped up and reminded me that I should (once again) check to see if they had posted up their 2019 beer release calendar yet. Sadly, they had not, which caused me to wonder why considering we’re starting to chip away at the month of December.

But, about a hour later I was on Facebook (still not doing what I was supposed to be doing) when I saw that Sam was live going through next year’s releases with the calendar being posted on the website soon after. This could have been one of those great cosmic coincidences that occasionally happens (like when you think of a song you haven’t heard of for a long time and then it happens to be the next song to play on the radio) or it could be (as I like to think of it) a case of great minds thinking a like. Anyway, let’s see how it shapes up this year.

As with last year, the releases are broken up into three categories: Year Round, Art Series, and Occasionals. And, don’t be surprised if a few beers that aren’t listed pop up throughout the year, DFH can be sneaky that way.

Year round is pretty much the same as last year with only one notable change, Liquid Truth Serum graduates from last year’s Art Series. The beer is currently available out there in 16oz cans, but you can also expect to see it in 12oz cans soon.

Sadly, something had to apparently go, so Indian Brown has been dropped this year, so if you’re a fan get it while you can.

The Art Series still sees Dragons & Yums Yums and Punkin Ale anchor down the middle of the year while last year’s Romantic Chemistry has been replaced with The Perfect Disguise (Feb-Apr). Liquid Truth Serum, due to its promotion to year round will be replaced by 75 Minute IPA (Nov-2020J) which you can pick up in stores now even though it wasn’t on last year’s calendar (see, sneaky).

Occasionals? Well let’s just say if you’re a huge fan of any of the beers on last year’s list, you might be disappointed this year. Festina Peche, Mixed Media, Fruit-Full Fort, Pennsylvania Tuxedo, and Siracusa Nera all disappear. The only beer that survives the culling is 120 Minute IPA (Aug-Dec).

Replacing that troop is American Beauty (which in a total contradiction is “ocssionally” available from Jan to Dec next year), Raison D’Extra (Jan-Apr), World Wide Stout (May-Aug), and SuperEIGHT (Apr-Dec).

Also on the calendar are the Summer Variety pack (May-August), and the IPA for the Holidays pack (Nov-Dec).

Below is my annual, no thrills version of the calendar. You can find DFH’s snazzy version here.

Now go drink some beer!

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Super Eight Super Gose

Dogfish Head is gearing up to release another new beer, Super Eight which is listed by the brewery as a super-fruit gose style beer. Ok.

The 5.3%ABV beer boasts an impressive list of ingredients including Hawaiian Red sea salt, prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, and kiwi juices, and toasted quinoa. I’m not going to lie, it sounds like someone went wild at a Jamba Juice. Still, DFH has a habit of making this kind of thing work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a hit.

But in doing a little reading on the web, the ingredient list wasn’t the most interesting thing I found out about this beer. Buried in a Brewbound article about DFH’s overall market plans for the future I found the following paragraph:

To help bring the brand to life, Dogfish is partnering with Kodak to produce a documentary film chronicling an East Coast boat journey (from Key West to Maine) that Calagione and his son will take next year. And the beer itself – which is acidic and has a high vitamin C count — is capable of developing Super 8 film, which Calagione said will give the company an opportunity to market the brand with an “off-centered approach to storytelling.”

Chris Furnari , Brewbound

Using beer to develop film? That struck me as odd but as it turns out it is not unheard of as i was able to dig up a couple of examples on the web. Here is an article from someone who tried several different homemade developers, one of which was beer, that he states he got good results with, and here is a Youtube video from 2013 of a guy from Australia using beer. The things you learn.

Dogfish Head’s American Beauty to be released in Collector Cans.

Dogfish Head brewing will be releasing their Grateful Dead collaboration American Beauty in special collector cans. The pale ale, brewed with granola and honey will be released in 1 pint, 3.25 oz cans, which are the taller, thin cans or what I like to call the energy drink cans. I would expect these to possible show up in 4-packs and individually. No word on the release date yet, but I suspect you will have to wait until 2019 for this one.

 

Dogfish Head’s IPAs for the Holidays Pack Gets A New Beer/Wine

According to their social media, Dogfish Head will be adding a new bottling to their IPAs for the Holidays pack. Viniferous IPA is a 6%ABV beer/wine hybrid brewed with El Dorado, Hallertau Blanc and Huell Melon hops and then fermented on Riesling and Viognier grape must. Viniferous IPA was offered as only a brewery exclusive earlier this year and was brewed with a different hop profile then the upcoming bottling.

The holiday pack will also include 60 and 90 minute IPA as well as another beer/wine hybrid Sixty-One, which if you don’t recall is their 60 minute IPA with syrah grape must added – all three of which were offered in last year’s holiday pack, with Viniferous replacing last year’s Indian Brown Dark IPA.

Dogfish Head’s IPAs for the Holidays 12-pack will start hitting the shelves sometime in November.

Read More:
My review of Sixty-One

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Eastern Seaboard.

As I wrote back in the beginning of the month, Dogfish head is beginning to release a new series of beers captioned “Wooden…It Be Nice”, a salute to wood-aged, wild ales. Below is the label art for the third beer in the series Eastern Seaboard, an ale aged in both red and white wine barrels and infused with blackberries and beach plums.

Eastern Seaboard gets its wild side from inoculations of both Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus, and will clock in at 8.2% alcohol.

As with all beers in the “Wooden…it be Nice” series, Eastern Seaboard will only be available at the Milford brewery for $10 a 375mL bottle, and only 2000 bottles will be made available. Look for Eastern Seaboard sometime around mid-December.

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Wet Hop American Summer

Wow, Dogfish Head has been busy lately. Back around September, the brewery announced a new series of beers coming out as special Milton brewery only releases.

The new series “Wooden…It Be Nice” is a salute to wood aged, wild ales, something that not only was of interest to the brewery, but that they also had some experience with:

 “About fifteen years ago, we first started experimenting with sours, beginning with Festina Lente – a peach wild ale that won us a bronze medal at the World Beer Cup the first year it was produced – then went on to produce SeaQuench Ale which is currently the top selling sour in America,” says Dogfish founder & CEO Sam Calagione. “Now, we’re amplifying our wild beer program with ‘Wooden … it be nice!,’ as it’s another step forward in our journey and evolution of goodness incorporating everything from herbs and spices, to local fruits, and of course, bringing it all together in wood.” (From Dogfish Head’s blog)

The program started releasing back in September with KnottyBits, a wild ale (8.2%ABV) aged for a year with Brettanomyces and then racked onto several hundred pounds of sweet and sour cherries and locally sourced rhubarb from Fifer Orchards.

Now it’s time for the next in the series as November brings Wet Hop American Summer, a farmhouse ale (7.75%ABV) aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces before being introduced to wet (freshly harvested) whole leaf Citra hops.

Look for the third release Eastern Seaboard, a wild ale (8%ABV) some time in December. The beer sat on blackberries and beach plums after ageing over a year in wine barrels.