Dogfish Head celebrates 120 Day
Jan. 20 (1/20), is a particularly special day on the calendar for Dogfish Head brewery, as the company celebrated 120 Day to honor Dogfish’s strongest brew: 120 Minute IPA.
Patrons at Dogfish’s Rehoboth Beach brewpub and Milton brewery on 120 Day were able to take advantage of special remix batches of 120 Minute IPA, and at 1:20 p.m., the entire bar raised a glass to celebrate.
Coming in at a robust 12 percent alcohol by volume, 120 Minute IPA was first brewed in 2003, said brewmaster Mark Safarik.
“At the time, Dogfish had already been producing what was one of the strongest beers in the world, World Wide Stout, and our continually hopped beers, 60 Minute IPA and 90 Minute IPA, were growing in popularity,” he said.
Safarik said Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione wanted to go further and see if the company could brew the world’s strongest IPA. He said there was no research and development process or experimentation with a small-scale pilot brew.
“They just went for it. The results were pretty amazing. Over time, we have tweaked the process here and there to try to get more consistent results. The formula really hasn’t changed much in all that time,” Safarik said.
That formula is extreme, as the beer includes an overload of malt and hops with a fermentation process that Safarik says pushes the yeast past its breaking point.
While beer is generally served fresh, 120 Minute IPA is unique in that it can be aged over time, which Safarik says tends to soften the alcohol and bring out notes similar to sherry.
At the Rehoboth brewpub on 120 Day, Dogfish served up an Oloroso barrel-aged version of the original. Oloroso is a type of sherry with a mahogany color, and aging the beer in Oloroso barrels gives the beer a darker look with a taste reminiscent of bourbon.
“We had previously used bourbon and rye whiskey barrels, but last year we found some Oloroso sherry barrels from Spain that really made something special,” Safarik said. “We aged the 120 in them for a year. It was so good right out of the barrel that we opted to bottle it without any carbonation. The drinking experience is more like a spirit than a beer.”
Ryan Mavity covers Milton and the court system. He is married to Rachel Swick Mavity and has two kids, Alex and Jane. Ryan started with the Cape Gazette all the way back in February 2007, previously covering the City of Rehoboth Beach. A native of Easton, Md. and graduate of Towson University, Ryan enjoys watching the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Capitals and Baltimore Orioles in his spare time.
