Dogfish Head World Wide Stout Review

Name: Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 18-20%
IBUs: 70

While in Wisconsin this past weekend, I decided to stop at Casanova like always after I finish up at either Pitchfork or Oliphant when I noticed an offering from Dogfish Head that I had heard stories about but had yet to try out. I'm of course talking about their World Wide Stout, which clocks in at around 18-20% ABV; Kind of reminds me of their 120 Minute IPA, because they aren't exactly 100% sure what the ABV on this is. It also makes this the strongest Stout I've had to date.

Hey speaking of which, pretty soon I'll no longer have to travel to Wisconsin to acquire Dogfish Head as it was announced a couple weeks ago that they would start distributing to Minnesota this year. This comes after a nearly 17 year absence from Minnesota after the brewery got screwed over by a distributor and, according to what a store owner once told me, said that they would never set foot in the Minnesota market again. You know me though, I'm always down for a bigger selection of craft beer to choose from.

Appearance - Pitch black with a small amount of carbonation along the sides of the glass. The head takes on a brown color and is pretty thin & there's no lacing to speak of left behind

Aroma - Strong chocolate malts mixed in with some fairly strong bitter hops and light cherry notes, along with a hefty amount of roastiness from this on. I'm also getting some pretty strong boozy notes in here as well.

Taste - Strong chocolate malts and roasted barley notes that linger throughout the palate, with those bitter hops and cherry notes showing up in the middle and back. Speaking of which, on the back end of the palate is where I'm getting some very strong boozy notes and boy howdy, those first couple of sips you feel like your esophagus is burning. However, the more it warms up and airs out, the boozy sensation starts to calm down but is still very much there throughout the palate. As for the aftertaste, it consists of more roastiness and moderate hop bitterness, both of which linger for a few moments

I recall my review of Dogfish's 120 Minute IPA as it shares many similarities with World Wide Stout (High ABV, strong boozy aspect, etc.) and I gave it a reasonably high score back then of 9.25. After having World Wide Stout, I'm starting to wonder if I was having 120 Minute IPA while wearing rose-tinted glasses. In other words, I like the flavor but the boozy aspect is just so upfront & strong that it gets in the way of what makes this beer good. In short, it's worth trying out if you're curious but World Wide Stout makes a very compelling argument that bigger doesn't always equal better.

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout - 7/10