Dogfish Head Burton Baton - original review 1/23/11 4.88 rating Bottle dated 11/22/10 (probably from the same batch) A- Pours a rusty, ruddy, copper orange into my DFH glass. A decently thick head floats away rather quickly but leaves a nice ring of sticky lacing and really oily legs. Very cloudy and little hints of carbonation left. 4.75 S- Licorice, caramel, brown sugar, bitter orange peel, pineapple, vanilla, subtle hints of grapefruit and a decent alcohol presence. Notes of freshly torn basil, fennel, caramel covered tangerine. THIS IIPA, has gone Barleywine! 4.75 T- WOW! Follows the nose note for incredible note! Licorice, caramel covered citrus rind, vanilla bean scraped onto pineapple, mango and fennel. Crazy as it sounds, but it really reminds me of aged Bigfoot. The vanilla and pineapple really bloom and blend with the basil/licorice as it warms up. The alcohol has remained really strong and warming. Perfect for this chilly NY night. 4.75 M- Sticky, citrusy, warm alcohol, vanilla brown sugar, caramel covered citrus pop! Sticks to your tongue nicely without being oily or slick. Nice citrus punch still present . Very low carbonation probably makes this brew feel heavier than it is. 4.5 O- This is THE perfect IIPA to prove my IIPA to Barleywine experiment. It did exactly what I was hoping a few more of them would do, but none did. I would imagine this one could even go a few years longer and get even better! 4.5
I had a year old bottle last summer and thought it held up great. Have two more bottles from 2011 in the cellar, not sure how long I'm gonna let them go. It's still just an IIPA though, a well aged IIPA, but still an IIPA nonetheless.
Been aging Burton for years now. pretty well known that it ages well. I think it even says so on the bottle.
