Fort-ified

I was at a wine/beer store over the weekend and found another Dogfish Head seasonal, Fort, that I had not yet tried.  I was intrigued since the bottle says "Flavored ale fermented with over a ton of fresh, pureed raspberries.  This flavored ale was made to age with the best of 'em."  My first thought...this must be a strong one.  The price of $16.99 helped confirm this thought although I must point out that it is a larger format (1 pint 9.6 fl oz). 

And while it might have been brewed to age, I had no intention of waiting.  Here are my thoughts:

• Aroma - very natural, sweet raspberry; no hint of that artificial chemical like smell found in some fruit beers
• Flavor - a very nice balance of sweetness and the tartness of the raspberries; not really any hop bitterness; a very clean finish that leaves you ready to take the next sip

Overall, this might be one of my favorite fruit beers of all time.  I am not a huge fan of overly sweet fruit flavored lambics.  They are often similar to drinking Kool Aid with an extra cup of sugar.  Fort, however, was just sweet enough to over come the tartness from the berries.  I had no problem finishing the bottle...or did the bottle finish me?  I have not been able to find the alcohol content but I think it has to be on the higher end.  Maybe 7% or so? [Update...it's 18% according to grove over at http://blog.geirove.org/ See his comment] And while the price tag was a bit high, I think that it was worth trying.  I may even go buy another bottle to age to see how the beer matures.

Off to San Francisco this weekend so I hope to have some new West Coast beers to review next week.   

Comments

[grove]

It is indeed a wonderful beer, but you've seriously underestimated the alcohol content:

http://ratebeer.com/Beer/dogfish-head-fort/42723/

It's not 7% abv, but a whopping 18%. :)