Raison D'Extra - Dogfish Head Brewery

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BA SCORE
89
good
-
741 Ratings

rAvg: 3.97
pDev: 16.12%
Reviews: 569
Hads: 172

Ratings Help

Brewed by:
Dogfish Head Brewery

Delaware, United States

Style | ABV
Belgian Strong Dark Ale | 18.00% ABV

Availability: Rotating. bottle (554), on-tap (14), nitro-tap (1).

Notes:
This beer is retired; no longer brewed.

A bigger, bolder version of our Raison Raison D'Être.

This is a bulbous, brown ale brewed with a bunch of malt, brown sugar and raisins.

40 IBU

Reviews

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Reviews by aasher:

aasher

Indiana

3.65/5 rDev -8.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 2.5

I tried this two years after its bottle date.

Appearance: Very cloudy and full of sediment and grape seeds. Poured an amber on the verge of a subtle purple. Medium creme colored head. Great looking beer, appearing similar to a Dark Belgian.

Smell: Smelled very alcoholic and sweet. Smelled very much like raisins and sugars, almost like a molasses. Was very aromatic and appealingly so.

Taste: Extremely boozy. The raisin was subtle. It was very sweet and very alcoholic. Being 18% it was a little much. Definitely left the taste of strong alcohol in your mouth.

Mouthfeel: As stated, this bottle had been aged for two years. It was very smooth and creamy. It did feature a decent amount of grape seeds and sediment, giving the beer a multifaceted mouthfeel.

Drinkability: The 18% is a turn off for this beer. It tastes stronger than other high alcohol content beers. It is overly sweet. It may take awhile to get through this beer.

Overall I'd say I was disappointed with this one. Like Dogfish's other specialty beers it is strong on the alcohol and is aimed at aging. I don't know if I'd recommend this one but for anyone willing to wait five years or so on a bottle, this could turn into a bottle to open on a special occasion.

Serving type: bottle

05-21-2010 18:22:30 | More by aasher

More User Reviews:

Slatetank

Pennsylvania

4/5 rDev +0.8%

05-20-2013 22:27:54 | More by Slatetank

smithj4

New York

4.5/5 rDev +13.4%

05-19-2013 02:45:33 | More by smithj4

dbrauneis

New Jersey

4.01/5 rDev +1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

A: Pours a hazy dark reddish brown in color with minimal amounts of visible carbonation and some garnet red highlights. The beer has a minimal amount of light beige head that quickly reduces to a very thin ring at the edges of the glass. Minimal amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate to strong aromas of dark fruits (raisins, prunes, and plums) and candi sugar.

T: Overall this beer is pretty sweet, with moderate to strong flavors of dark fruit malt sweetness with raisin, prune, and plum all making a strong presence. There is a strong presence of candi sugar as well which contributes to the overall sweetness.

M: Full bodied with light amounts of carbonation. Syrupy with light amounts of alcohol warming.

O: It is a shame that DFH stopped making this beer and continues to make the Raison D'Etre (the watered down version of this beer) - I would love to see DFH pull this one out once every 3-5 years as it is so much better. Nice amounts of complexity but it is not the easiest beer to drink as the alcohol is not as well hidden as would appeal to the masses.

Serving type: bottle

05-19-2013 02:44:56 | More by dbrauneis