Fort - Dogfish Head Brewery

chOAKbarrell

Maryland

4.1/5  rDev +12.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

$9 per snifter, on tap now at the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Maryland.

Vibrant reddish hue with no head.

This is the best way I can describe this beer: It starts off tasting/feeling like a raspberry lambic, then halfway through (as you start to swallow) the taste/feel changes to more of a raspberry-flavored wheat beer, and then on the finish, it takes on the syrupy sweet strong-alcohol characteristics of Dogfish's World wide stout, or 120 min IPA. Nice and complex, this beer definitely works in stages.

At 18% alcohol, this beer goes down suprisingly smooth. I suppose most people couldnt have more than 1 glass, but this is a great dessert beer for sipping after your meal, which is what I did.

Serving type: on-tap

12-24-2005 03:54:10 | More by chOAKbarrell

BeerAdvocate

Massachusetts

3.65/5  rDev 0%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Bottle from the first batch of Fort brewed just before the Extreme Beer Fest in Jan 2005. Hand-bottled by the brewer, unlabeled and sealed with cap, red wax and string with a black wax tip. This one is back when the beer was "Forte" : French for "strong," and the World's Strongest Fruit Beer, brewed with Oregon and Delaware raspberries. 20% ABV

Pours a hazed amber orange, topped with a ringed white lace. Little head retention.

Aroma was a bit off-putting initially, but once warmed ... smells like fruity antacid or zinc lozenges. A bit musty. Deep raspberry cordial and solvent in the nose.

G'damn! This is one hot and fruity beer! The heat creates one harsh mouthfeel. Super solvent-like alcohol burn that taunts with heartburn, and seeps into the palate. Loads of alcohol spice. Peppery palate smack. Sticky cough-syrup and cheap schnapps cling and deliver the palate a major beat-down. Raspberry character is strong and distinct. Lime-like stab across the palate, just beneath the berries. Big fusel alcohol rips your esophagus to pieces. Surprisingly, the finish is pretty damn clean and bone dry.

It burns! It burns! We swear this is Devil's blood. The juice of Satan! But we can't stop drinking it! And each sip makes the pain more ... pleasant. All hail Fort!

Serving type: bottle

12-13-2005 00:22:09 | More by BeerAdvocate

Chadbrew

Delaware

4.18/5  rDev +14.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

This pours a nice amber-red and brilliantly clear, it has a slight head and good carbonation. The aroma is simply sensational. I inhale a great big hit of bitter raspberries, My mouth is starting to water, really.
The taste is clean and dry. No doubt you are drinking a fruit beer here as the raspberries are definitely present, but don't get the wrong impression... this is no sissy fruit beer. The berries are crisp and bitter and there is very little sweetness here at all, some beautiful tartness. There is alcohol present, but it's so well complimented that you really don't know how much until you go looking for a listing (18% whoa!).
A nice light body, something I think suits this beer as opposed to a syrupy fruit beer.
What a treat. I can't wait to lay some of this down for a while and see what it's like around next Thanksgiving.

Serving type: bottle

11-29-2005 00:57:08 | More by Chadbrew

blitheringidiot

Pennsylvania

4.08/5  rDev +11.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

Quite psyched to try this forte at the brewpub last week with a couple BA buds.

Pours a clear mellow twinge cherry red with absolutely no head cap to speak of.

Aroma is light dry vinous in effect, with a suggestion of the cherry aspects.

First swigs: Impressive dry delicate (again) vinous dry chardonay like that amazingly hides the awl-kee-hawl aspect. 18%???!!! Knock me over with a feather! This "ah-hem!" BEER (so to speak) is a beguling mixture of hooch, beer and wine.

Forte has a thin escaping light body that seemingly escapes from the glass to my gullet. Oh, wait... I poured it out like that.

Last swigs: Is FORTE sooo good because it's only available at the brewpub? No. I'm not going to give the old "I had some and you didn't so it's great" act, but it is impressive enough to say WOW! and Sam Calgione is amazing at his craft. Seriously!!!

Beer is good, except at DH...GREAT!!!

Serving type: on-tap

07-03-2005 13:33:47 | More by blitheringidiot

PopeDX

Pennsylvania

4.08/5  rDev +11.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 5

This really shocked the hell out of me. Considering that there's not much of anything to balance the 18% alcohol, it's really quite drinkable. Any other beer near that percentage that I have had is balanced by a large malt presence or has a really thick body. This is really more like mead than beer, and any meads with that much alcohol that I've had all drink really hot.

Pours a nice color, like a more translucent cherry juice. No head. Smells exactly like cherry Twizzlers. Slight alcohol taste up front, shifts into a fruit mead taste on the tongue, finishes a bit hot, but not in an offputting sort of way. No fusel alcohols detectable, which is really a testament to the great yeast handling done by the brewer. I could sip this all night. The amazing drinkability of this and of all the microdistilled products made at the brewpub are a true testament to the skills of the brewer/distiller there (and I'm such an ass for forgetting his name...I believe his first name is Mike).

Can't even imagine how awesome this would be with a couple of years under it's belt.

Pleasepleaseplease bottle it soon!

Serving type: on-tap

06-27-2005 14:41:55 | More by PopeDX

luvND

Pennsylvania

3.5/5  rDev -4.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

On tap at Rehoboth in a tulip. Color seemed light pink to me, though the bar was dark. Little to no head to speak of.

Nose was very nice. Definite alcohol. I guessed cherry as the fruit, but my wife said raspberry, after reading more here, looks like she was right. Still, seemed like marachinos in alcohol to me.

Taste up front was sweet, no hops to speak of and brother, let me tell you, big alcohol in the end. I think I could have done the flamethrower act after this one. After the alcohol dissipates, it does remain somewhat sweet however.

Overall, another great experiment from DFH. I would never drink more than one of these and I don't know what this would be like in a bottle, but an interesting concoction and one I'm glad I tried none the less.

Serving type: on-tap

06-26-2005 02:05:49 | More by luvND

DocBrown

Florida

3.38/5  rDev -7.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 2.5

i had this on tap as well, then opted to fill a growler to bring back up north to share...

this is a monster. there are smells and tastes of alcohol throughout. i read here some treated it as a brandy, which is accurate (as served on tap is in a tulip). in growler, it appears amber in color, but pours a slightly cloudy light reddish color with small head and little to no lacing (though this could be fault of the growler). smell is of strong alcohol, but with nice touches of berries and other sweets. taste is also of strong alcohol, but also has taste similar to the smell following. the body was medium, the tastes linger, and succesive drinks draw a minor acidity.

i completely applaud the creativity in the brewing--this is a recipe i could see be refined into a much more smooth (and slightly smaller) fruit beer, and even this batch will probably even mellow a little bit with age. however, as is, it's a bit much...

Serving type: growler

06-05-2005 06:06:22 | More by DocBrown

francisweizen

Australia

3.43/5  rDev -6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5

This is the new 18%abv brewpub/fest-only brew from the fine folks at DFH. This is an interesting brew to say the least, but i'm not sure if it was worth the trip down to Rehoboth for. This is a dark ruby red/pink champagne colour with a small head of off-white foam that quickly fades to just a small rim of lace. The aroma is pretty good. I pciekd up some HOT booze, fresh raspberries, and some funky, spicy undertones. The taste was good, fruity, but a bit too hot for my tastes. It also seemed one-dimensional with just the booze stealing the show. The mouthfeel was medium bodied, and not too thick for an 18%abv brew, but the drinkability was below average for me because of the overwhlmingly hot liquor flavor this brew has. Still it's an interesting experiment in brewing, and with a little twaking or two years of age this could be a fruit/strong ale contender (ala kuhnhenns rasperry eisbock)

Serving type: on-tap

02-14-2005 21:24:05 | More by francisweizen