We first heard about Dogfish Head Craft Brewery while watching the documentary film, “Beer Wars.” When we ran across a six-pack of their 60 Minute IPA, we thought we should give it a try.
Overall, it’s a good rendition of the style — hoppy aroma, bitterness, upper-level alcohol content. It achieves this without being too bitter, too heavy in body, or too high in alcohol content; which immediately places it above most other IPAs. Most commercial IPAs are unbalanced, using high alcohol content or excessive bitterness to claim their style-name. Dogfish Head does not fall into this trap.
A side note on alcohol content… I would sacrifice alcohol content for drinkability, any day. I like drinking beer; and beer is meant to be drunk, not sipped. If I just wanted to get drunk, I would do shots of hard liquor until I passed out on the floor. But I don’t want to get drunk — I want to drink beer. So, which is better? A quality-tasting beer with 7% alcohol content, or an equivalent-quality beer with 3.5% alcohol content. I say it’s the latter, because that’s the one you can drink for awhile. A beer that knocks you out with a single pint is a medicine, not a relaxing afternoon.
Back to 60 Minute IPA… Jen still thinks that we brew a better IPA of our own, and I agree, as no one can brew better beer than your own. But 60 Minute IPA is a solid stand-in when your home brewing operation has been interrupted. When the beer pantry is dry, give Dogfish Head a try (yeah, it unintentionally rhymes…unless the brewery wants to buy it for advertisement, in which case it is wholly intentional, and wholly copyrighted).
We give 60 Minute IPA a ranking of, “Buy It, Drink It.”