Last weekend Joni, our Canadian friends, and I headed to the beach for our annual Horseshoe Crab census trip. We go out onto the beach at the evening high tide and count crabs for a long term research study. We have been doing it for 11 or 12 years. As part of our pilgrimage to the ocean we also have been visiting the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, DE and usually grabbing a meal at their brewpub in Rehoboth.
This year was a little different. We drove to the beach on Friday and decided to stop at the five year old Evolution Craft Brewing Company. I have had a few of their beers over the past couple of years and enjoyed them. We knew they had a tap room for tasting, but realized that they also have a restaurant right at the brewery. That made our dinner plans easy. We arrived on a lovely late spring afternoon and chose to sit outside. Inside it was bustling and quite noisy with a small band playing right in the bar area. They had some preconfigured flights available from the dozen beers that were on tap that day. I tried the ‘Evolved’ flight:
- Special 608 Belgian Amber, 7.5% ABV, 35 IBU
- Prelude Black, 9.5% ABV, 50 IBU
- Lot 6 Double IPA, 8.5% ABV, 75 IBU
- Rise Up Stout, 6.7% ABV, 40 IBU
Then Scooter shared a couple of his samples and one very special, interesting selection:
- Lot 3 IPA, 6.8% ABV, 65 IBU
- Summer Session Ale, 4.3% ABV, 25 IBU
- Lot 6 DIPA w/ Sauvingnon Blanc grapes, 11% ABV, ?? IBU
Of all these fine beers, a couple stood out to me. I really liked the Prelude Black, which is Evo’s Winter Migration prior to being barrel aged. Despite the lack of oak, I could almost taste the barrel. It was dark and malty and toasty and woody and mellow. The Lot 6 with SB grapes was also very intriguing. The 11% ABV was hidden behind the sweet grapes. It really didn’t come across like the big beer Lot 6 is alone. It is a sipping beer, but one could easily chug one of these fruity concoctions down unknowingly.
Dogfish Head Brewpub
On Saturday after a walk around Henlopen State Park, we went to lunch at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth. We have done this for the past 10 years or so. This was the first year that we did not make it to the brewery in Milton, so a visit to the brewpub was mandatory. I got a flight of five small samples:
- Firefly 5%, ABV, ?? IBU
- Sez One, 6% ABV, 53 IBU
- Session is the New Black, 4.5% ABV, ?? IBU
- Burton Baton, 10% ABV, 70 IBU
- Mr. Bean, 5.5% ABV, ?? IBU
Both Evolution and DFH were featuring a coffee stout. I guess it is the trend these days. Heck, even we made one a year ago. I think they are delicious, so we’ll probably make another one soon. The rest were all nice session beers except, of course, the Burton Baton. BB is one of my all-time favorite beers, so I had to have a few sips of that. The other four were all new to me, so it was a fun trip. The food, as always, was yummy.