Call me crazy, but Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA is just not as good as the 60 Minute version. Don’t get me wrong…it’s good. But I think it’s kind of like comparing pretty good pizza and really good pizza. The difference is marginal at best. It’s still good pizza, and you’re not gonna complain about it either way. 

As I sampled this one, it was encouraging for me as a homebrewer that the 90 Minute really reminded me of a Double IPA I brewed last year. It smells and tastes like they’re still using the same hop profile as their 60 (Warrior, Amarillo, and probably Centennial or Columbus), and on the bottle they describe their process as a “continuous” hop infusion during the boil. Does that mean they add a bunch of hops up front, and let it boil out? Or do they slowly add hops throughout the entire process? I’m not exactly sure.

But after reading my good friend Wikipedia, they apparently don’t stop there. Instead of simply dry hopping, they pass the beer through a large plastic tube filled with raw Cascade hops. The alcohol in the beer lifts oils off the raw hops and imparts even more hop flavor, making one hell of a deliciously bitter ale. Grapefruit and citrus dominate the aroma, the hallmark of a good DIPA (or Imperial IPA, as this one is billed…is there a difference?).

The taste is also pretty intense, with sweet, honey-like malt that barely masks the 9% ABV on this one. After you take a nice pull and set the glass down, for a split second you get a hint of the 60 Minute’s woody qualities, but it dissipates quickly. This is certainly one of the better DIPA’s I’ve enjoyed, but in my book doesn’t quite edge out others I’ve had like Bell’s Hop Slam.   

Rating: B+

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