DFH 120 Advice

Ah, cool. I'll be extra careful!

 

Had a 2007 vs. 2011 a couple weeks ago... You'll be shocked at how much the color changes. IMO the 2007 was much better because the boozy aftertaste had settled more.

 

We were pouring these at work the other week. 120 on bottom, WWS on top. The stout ends up mixing in with the 120 and it takes some of the booziness away. It was incredibly drinkable!

 

I want to work where you work!

 

I've had this beer aged and fresh, and I honestly liked the fresh one better. It had a lot of the hoppy flavor and aroma left which was a nice contrast to the syrupy sweet booziness of it.

That being said, I would drink the 2012 and keep aging the 2011 for a longgg time.

 

I hadn't had 120 in a lot of years. I remembered thinking there wasn't much hop presence at all, and that it was basically just a huge barleywine when I tried it fresh like 7 years ago. I just tried it again a couple months ago and found it to be way less boozy and way more hoppy. And while it fits the IPA name more now, I enjoyed it considerably less. I thought the hops and massive maltiness were way less balanced than, say, a fresh Double Crooked Tree. Granted, it's a bigger beer, but they're both pretty huge for IPAs.
I know the ABV varies from year to year, and I've heard that in the last year or three it's been a few points lower than in the past. I wonder how much this variation in the ABV affects how the beer tastes from year to year. I would have to assume up to 5% difference in ABV would make a pretty sizable difference in taste, and if the ABV is varying that much, it would have to be incredibly difficult to keep the hop balance consistent.